Evolution 2010

TM and I are at the Evolution meetings in Portland, OR. It's been a long time since I was with such a large group of evolutionary scientists! The talks are quite fun, and the posters are engaging. Since I love the topic of evolution in general, I can be pretty certain of liking something about almost any talk I could see here. Maybe someday if I get involved more in the education side of evolution, I'll make a poster or give a talk on "God and Evolution". Would you believe that there's a convention in the same building at the same time by the Oregon Christian Home Education group? Wonderful! If only we could get the two groups together to make sure we all understood that we don't have anything to argue about. Ah well.

TM went to the childcare facilities at the conference for a few hours this morning, and she loved it. It's wonderful when a conference of professionals helps out people with children. Thanks to my advisor for making sure childcare made it into the program :). TM and I will go to church tomorrow, then hit the meetings with a vengeance on Monday and Tuesday, and head back to Vancouver on Wednesday.

Oh, I forgot to talk about the train ride. It was beautiful, of course, and much easier than the airplane. At least on the train there aren't any seatbelts, and we could get up and walk around if we wanted. I did end up plugging in TM's DVD player, I'm sad to admit, but I was so dead tired. TM had stayed with Q during my last Portland trip, which meant her schedule changed from Mom's schedule (early to bed early to rise) to dad's schedule (late to bed…). She hadn't adjusted to mom's schedule before we had to get up at 5am to catch the train, so she was super tired on the trip, and so was I. Now I think we're back on the same schedule, yay, so it's much better. And we won't have to greet the sunrise to catch the train back, hooray.

I meant to visit some friends while I was here, but I'm just not on the ball, and I fear that none of that will happen. I'll just have to send apologies galore and hope people forgive me for staying downtown. If I had a car, I wouldn't have any excuse at all, would I?

Now I'd better get back to researching Life After My PhD. I'm looking for what to do next, and the meetings are a good place to get ideas. I already met a lady who's doing a long-distance postdoc from home, and she lives near me and has a kid TM's age! Of course we met at the childcare place. She had some great tips to help me get settled in Vancouver, hooray! Anyway, more next time...

Moving to Vancouver, BC

On Saturday, TM and I go up to Vancouver, BC! We’ve been staying with my parents in Newberry Springs, CA for the last 2.5 months. It’s been nice being at home, but it’ll also be nice to have our own space again. Not that we don’t have our own space here… Mom and Dad let TM and me stay in the trailer. It’s lovely having our own little space here. But there’s no shower or toilet, and only one bed. At night when I get up and simply have to use the toilet, I just use a bucket and clean it out in the garage bathroom in the morning. It’s okay, but less than ideal. And I miss my books! And TM misses her ocean bed, that Grandma painted for her. We won’t get our furniture for another week after TM and I move to Vancouver, but that’s okay. We’ll probably stay with Q for a couple days in the apartment his work is letting him use, but after that I think TM and I (and the cat) will vagabond in the furniture-less basement apartment for awhile.

The apartment is great – it’s a small, basement apartment, probably around 900sqft. How are we going to fit all our stuff from our 1700sqft Bangalore apartment? We won’t. We’re renting a storage unit. And the apartment is super-expensive, about 3x what the India apartment was. Welcome back to the West ha ha ha. But I’m looking forward to it. We’re near the north shore of Vancouver, only a couple of blocks from the ocean, and a quick bus ride from UBC or the aquarium or the science museum, with shopping just around the corner. Woo hoo!

So far as the dissertation is concerned – it’s coming along nicely. There are about 30 sentences in the first chapter that still need references, but they’re in books that I don’t have access to down here. As soon as I get to Vancouver, I’m heading to the UBC library to hunt those books down. Hopefully I can get a library card and check them out long enough to get those refs. Otherwise, I’ll beg Q to watch TM for a little while, and I’ll take my laptop to the library. The last chapter is the only one that hasn’t been published, so it’s still going through review with various people. Today my lab is reading it, and hopefully they’ll have some good comments. Thanks to my older sister, writing this chapter was easier in some ways than the previous chapters – she strongly suggested outlining it before writing it. I word-vomited for about 15 pages, then outlined it, then rewrote it, and it’s hanging together pretty well, I’m glad to say! I hope to have a draft for my committee by the first week of June. So exciting!

The Mojave Desert is wonderful. Mom and I go out to see the flowers now and then, and we’ve seen the most beautiful plants! We found indigo bush, one of my all-time favorites, and my eyes are finally learning to distinguish among burr-sage and saltbush. There’s been brown-eyed primroses, 5-spots, desert lily, some adorable little oh what’s the name… why can I think of the names when I’m not outside and not when I’m on the computer? Sigh. Out with the book. Let’s see. Cleomella obtusifolia, Amsinckia tessellata, Garaea canescens, Encelia farinosa & E. frutescens, Datura wrightii, Eriogonum’s galore, Plantago things, Oenothera’s, Dithyrea californica, Heliotropium curassavicum, Pectocarya’s, Cryptantha’s, Monoptilon bellidiforme or bellioides (this one was wonderful!!), chicory, desert marigold, a vine milkweed, a shrub that had green sticky bell-like flowers that I have no idea what it is… Oh my, it’s been SO much fun!!! Oh, the pincushions, and Mojave Aster and desert poppy, and OH a little parasitic Pholisma!!! Amazing!! Looked like a purple-flowered mushroom! Chia, Phacelia’s, lupins… Anyway, yes, it’s been awesome.

So. Two days left. Tomorrow Dad does the laundry, then I’ll pack up TM and my stuff, and Sat morn we’ll be off to the airport. Three suitcases and a cat and 2 carryons… I’m curious to see how we’ll manage all this, and how we’ll pack everything back into the suitcases… and we don’t have good winter clothes, so I hope we don’t absolutely freeze to death… heh heh.