What a difference a location makes...

It's so refreshing to return to my liberal arts roots. LargeU served its purpose: I got my degree from a top institution. But what a difference the change in location is.

My position at TempCollege is a temporary, one year position. In the coming months, I will be applying (again) for jobs. I want a tenure-track position at a small, liberal arts school. Preferably near N.A. (The two-body problem is so stressful, that I'll have to post about it at a later time.) We'll see what happens.

At LargeU, professors were stopping me in the hall to tell me what a tragic mistake I was making. They recognized (as I did) that by choosing to go the SLAC route, I would be removing myself from my current research field. "You're too good! Why would you not do a post-doc and apply for better jobs?" I heard this several times a week. However, I knew what I was doing. The product of academic parents, I grew up in the shadow of a huge R1 institution. I do not want that lifestyle. Although there is a lot of discussion in the blogosphere on how things should change, etc. etc., I know that they won't in my lifetime...or at least tenuretime.

Even though classes haven't started, I already feel at home at TempCollege. My colleagues are amazing, and I've met numerous faculty from other disciplines. Everyone is exceptionally warm, helpful, and supportive. Here I am actually encouraged to go the SLAC route (of course), and phone calls have already been made on my behalf.

By this time next year, I'll either be starting my dream job or be scrambling for work. Let's hope it's the former!

How to save $$$ in grad school

After being very poor in high school (off at a public boarding school), living literally cent to cent in college, and fighting the red my first year of grad school, I finally have managed to put together a nice little bit of savings. This has come about from a number of reasons. You should keep in mind that LargeUtown has an insanely low cost of living, so I'm not suggesting this would work for everyone. Also, much of this is written with tongue firmly in cheek.

BUT...out-of-state travel aside, here are my tips for Saving Money in Grad School:

1. Help your drinking buddies graduate. My first two years in graduate school, I went out nearly every weekend. This always involved drinks and usually involved food. That shit adds up after awhile. As my friends started graduating and leaving LargeUtown, I started going out less. Sure, there are always new students coming in each year, but the older I get, the busier I get....and very often on the weekends doing laundry, cleaning my apartment, or watching reality TV is more appealing than going out.

2. Work insanely hard. If you work all the time, you won't have the time (or the energy) to do stuff. Stuff often costs money. Nuff said.

3. Have a roommate. Sure, you can't walk around naked all the time (or at least common decency dictates that you shouldn't, assuming you followed #2's instructions), but when it comes to splitting the rent and utilities, you can really free up a lot of that tiny little paycheck you're getting.

4. Ditch the significant other. After Ex dumped me during his therapy (true story. now very funny.), Friday night date night was no longer a weekly (or monthly....or bimonthly) occurrence. I could eat PB&J for dinner without judgement, and I no longer had to pick up the bill for his lazy ass. Monetary translation? Savings of at least 35 bucks a week, sometimes three times that.



What are your secrets for saving money in grad school? Plasma donation? Jelly on the PB&J only every other day?

Single Grad Female seeks new year's play

It's no secret that I usually date sucky men. (Case in point: Ex broke up with me in front of his therapist. Seriously.) So I spent 2007 single but occasionally having fun with a boy or two (erm...not at the same time).

It's been great not having to concern myself with a two-body problem while I look for faculty positions. I get to eat whatever I want (woohoo, shrimp raman! Yay breakfast of swiss miss rolls!) without any chiding (well, not in person anyways). And I always get the remote.

Recently I've been reconsidering the benefits of a boyfriend. LargeUtown gets very cold at night, so it sure would be nice to have someone to warm me up. There's something to be said for having someone to tuck you in when you're sick (which "fun boys" are no good for).

But the real kicker is the impending "holiday" of New Year's Eve.

Let's get real. New Year's Eve is good for two things: making out with your significant other or making out with a random hottie. Not having an SO or any readily available single hotties (pickings are slim in LargeUtown as I require a potential make out partner to be older than me and most boys fitting that high standard are already coupled) means that NYE is NSF. (NSF = not so fun....although I'm sure many of you saw that acronym and thought "crap! upcoming grant deadline!)


What do you think? Is NYE truly just for couples?


Ultimately it probably won't matter: there are bowl games playing until 11 that will likely result in me being too drunk to care about NYE anyways! ;)

It's the most! wonderful time! of the year!

Not because of the holidays. Not because I get to get out of LargeUtown for a week.

Nope. Folks, this is the most wonderful time of the year because today the undergrads have left LargeUtown, and they won't be back for 4 weeks!

Say it with me now: "woohooooo!!!"

No more dodging jaywalking pedestrians as I try to locate a parking spot.

No more playing avoid-touching-the-undergrad on the bus. (Duh, 'cause they're a little smelly and sticky. Seriously. There's this one freshman that always smells like bacon. Ugh)

No more averting my eyes from the PDA at the gym.



I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season (and for those of you at schools that are more similar to LargeU than TinyCollege, I hope you are enjoying your undergradless season, as well!!)

Stranger in a strange land

My mom came to LargeUtown to stay with me during Thankgiving. This gave her an opportunity to tackle one of my biggest flaws (in her eyes): that I'm not a cook.

Sure, I may be a whiz in the lab, but when it comes to the kitchen, I literally don't know how to properly chop an onion.

As we prepped the turkey (ew! ew! Are you all aware that you have to pull the NECK out? SICK!), we talked about a recent techie conference she attended. One of the speakers discussed the differences between younger and older generations in terms of their digital technological savviness and how one must take different approaches to educating the younger generation. This latest generation of students are so-called "digital natives," while others are known as "digital immigrants." For example, current college students grew up with cell phones and the internet. I'm just on the bridge between the two, so while I might say "I'll call your cell phone," a digital native (like my youngest brother) would say "I'll call your phone"--he was too young to remember when we had a landline in my house!

In the midst of our discussions, my mom kept asking if I had various cooking items, such as a meat thermometer (um, no), timer (doesn't the microwave count?), or a knife sharpener (I thought only hunters used those!). She patiently made do without until she asked me to hand her some flour.

"Um, yeah, Mom? I don't have flour."

"You don't have flour?! Who doesn't have flour??!"

Embarrassed, all I could stammer out as an excuse was "Mom! I'm a kitchen immigrant!"


She found this amusing, and I was off the hook (okay, I still had to get my coat to go out for flour, but at least I didn't get any more grief from her!).


Are you a digital native or immigrant? And do you think scientists should be naturally good cooks? Many, many people tell me "oh, you just have to follow protocols, you should be good at it"..... but maybe cooking just feels too much like work, so I avoid it at home? c