Moving Back to North America

My committee members have agreed on a date for a dissertation defense! At least, it looks that way at the moment. It may well change, since it’s for the end of June, which is a long way away. But how exciting! A dissertation defense date! Scary. I’m guessing that I’m halfway through my last chapter, what with the amount of rewriting I usually have to do. Not bad, eh? And I found an online bookstore that gives educational pricing of software, so I was able to buy the bibliography software that I really really really need.

Yesterday I sent off the Introduction of my latest manuscript to my sister and to a couple friends for editing. It’s time to call in the troops to help me finish this insanity. Hooray! As for what to do when I’m done, I think I’ll talk to some profs at UBC about possible projects, postdoc or other something. Hopefully I’ll find something I can do part-time that’s fun. First priority, though, is getting the dissertation finalized, which will take some time after the defense, I imagine. And taking care of TM – we have to find a school and all that. Then there’s another paper from some of our ex-postdoc’s data that needs to be written. So I probably have enough work to last me for another year or so before I start getting really antsy. And then there’s a really old dataset from my BS that could be written up…

TM and I are ensconced in the Mojave desert, in my parents’ old trailer, where they lived while they were building their desert house. The heating works, thank goodness, and the water pump also works, hooray. It also has lights, and a stove and microwave if I wanted, which I don’t, since we eat in the house. It’s great to have a quiet place to work in the morning while waiting for TM to wake up, and to retire to in the evening when it’s TM’s bedtime. And spring in the desert is fun – the plants are starting to wake up. Of course the little tufty grass, whatever it is, has already come up, and I hate it, since I assume it’s not native and it looks like a fire hazard (I could be wrong). I look forward to seeing more natives peeping up soon.

Kit is doing well. It took him about a week to start eating regularly, and 2wks to start eating normally. Part of the trouble was finding a cat litter he liked. Now he happily guards the trailer during the day, when we’re at the house, and he alternately sleeps and jumps on our pillows during the night.

The movers are in India, packing up our apt. Q and his mom are managing that horrifying mess, and aren’t I simply thrilled that I’m not there! Yes indeed. I’m thrilled. Since TM’s twin cousin comes over every day (same age), they both play and keep each other occupied while I wrestle with data and writing. If I didn’t have TM’s cousin, I don’t know what I’d do. Actually, yes I do, I would be playing with and entertaining a 4-yr old all day instead of working half of that time. Thank heaven for many blessings.

Oh – I forgot – my little AT&T GoPhone won’t call India. Lucky me. I feel really bad for not keeping in touch with my friends over there! I’m going to make an extra effort to try to set up skype so I can at least call them (no video, long latency times with our internet connection here). If I weren’t so busy with work and TM and family, I’d really miss them a lot.

Prepping for move to India

The holidays have gone, and my husband just left to go back to India. His job is so time-consuming that we didn’t get much of his time while he was here. Still, it was wonderful to be able to say, “Keep an ear out for TM in case she wakes up while I run to the post office.” Single parenting is hard. And now it’s back to single parenting again. But at least I get to sleep in a bed! I’ve been sleeping half on TM’s twin bed, half on three filing boxes sandwiched between her bed and the full bed my husband used while he was here. Now it’s mine, all mine! Sleep, here we come!

My methods paper has been provisionally accepted, hooray! We just have to make various changes, and we’re in. And the former undergraduate’s data is coming along well – I’ve almost finished going through it with a fine tooth comb. After I re-run all the analyses, I’ll be able to re-write the results and discussion sections of her honor’s thesis, and send it off for publication! I simply have to get that done before going to India.

The grant agency for the grant that funded my research asked us to present at the next ESA meeting… so we will. Of course, I plan on being in India, but I’m optimistic. Heh heh heh. That’s a long shot… I mean, who will watch TM while I’m gone? Her grandma? Maybe. I really don’t know. That’ll take some faith and prayers to pull off. And now I have to get as much data analysis done before Feb 7th that I can, since I’m planning on dashing up to Oregon for a couple days to have a committee meeting with my dissertation committee. Yoikes, as my sister would say.

Meanwhile, there’s the stress of moving to India. My brain is having real trouble wrapping itself around everything we have to do. I need to sell both our cars, but I’m not on the title for one of them, so I have to try to put myself on the title. I got my husband to sign a form before he left this time, so hopefully it’ll be enough to change the title, and hopefully it’ll happen fast enough for me to sell it without too much loss before we go. And taxes? What happens when you sell cars? Frustrating that we have to pay taxes when we already paid taxes on the money we spent to buy them in the first place. Oh well.

So. Sell cars. Get visas. I just sent off TM’s visa application, and it’ll take about a month if all goes well, ‘cause I applied for a PIO card that will let her come and go without a visa since her dad’s Indian. My own visa should, hopefully, be coming back any day now.

Need to find a house in India. Looking for something in North Bangalore, near the new airport, since my husband travels a lot. That puts me in the LDS church 2nd branch in Bangalore. Maybe they can help us find a house in the area, who knows. We also need to ship all our stuff to India. Where? When? It’ll take about 2 months to ship, and I’d like to be able to move into a house of our own as soon as possible.

Cars. Visas. House. Shipping. Oh, immunizations! TM and I have to get typhoid immunizations and whatever else they recommend. Sigh. And I don’t have a doctor in this area yet, and it’d probably take a month to get in to see a new doctor, and do I have a month? I don’t know. This is what happens when you move every single year. Besides the fact that I tend to put off going to the doctor.

Cars. Visas. House. Shipping. Immunizations. I think that’s it. Of course, then there’s getting set up in India once we get there – how long will it take to get high speed internet? To find a good daycare (play school)? Oh, those muscles in my right shoulder blade are scrunching together, tying knots in each other… I must find a way to relax.

My aunt has been going to AA meetings for maybe 20 years now, and has a lot of good advice about giving problems to God. I’m trying to do that, by letting Him take care of all the things that I really don’t have control over. But as you can tell, it’s kinda hard sometimes. I guess that’s the point, isn’t it…?

So I’ll just keep trucking along. I’ll get that paper out and go to India and try to find enough help that I can come back in August for the meetings, and be a productive PhD student. It’ll work out, with any luck. Si Dios Quiere, as I heard so often in Spain while on my mission.

Ttfn (Ta Ta For Now)
Rhamnites