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Wow.
I did not sleep well last night. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep on the couch at like 9 (yes. I got to bed around 9pm…it’s because that’s what all the cool kids do…who needs to stay up for fun things like Letterman and The Daily Show?) for about 45 minutes, then went to bed and fell asleep with all the lights on. Then at 11:30 I think the baby was crying? Or maybe just squeaked. She squeaked again at 3:30. And my alarm went off at 5. The squeaking in the middle of the night is nothing new, but aren’t there like sleep cycles? I woke up in the cycle that is “YOU SHOULD STILL BE SLEEPING”.
So why was I so tired last night? In usual Leah fashion we were non-stop yesterday. Up at 6, read the New York Times. Lu-Dog up at 7, walked to the grocery store. Then homes. Then Lucy took a nap and we became a baby food making factory. We made beets, sweet potatoes, a berry cherry puree (frozen blueberries + cherries chopped in the blender then heated on the stove for 4 minutes or so), pear and peaches. We still have some zucchini, apples and carrots to make up.
Speaking of Lucy eating. She’s trying all kinds of new things. She can do some finger food eating and last night we cut up some avocado into pieces and let her have at it. We also crushed up some cheerios and put them on top to help her grab them. She got some in her mouth and some on her lap, but I think she really enjoyed feeding herself. We have only given her fruits, veggies and cereals but I think we might start with some little pieces of turkey this week. I’m really afraid to give her eggs because Jason was *very* allergic to eggs when he was a kid. I mean he was allergic to everything, but I think he was hospitalized for an egg incident. I know. I know. The allergen is in the egg white. But even if you just get the yolk out, there is still going to be some egg white on there, it’s not like you can rinse the egg off. So I’m going to wait on that until I talk to my peditrician at our 9 month appointment.
So yes. Exciting world of baby food. Seriously, Jason and I barely cook for ourselves. We have Homemade Pizza company on our speed dial as well as on our evening walk route..you know…we just happened to be walking by. But we love cooking the baby food, I don’t know why. It kinda makes a mess….but I don’t know. We got all this fancy stuff for our wedding many years back and we are finally using some of it.
Ok. Where was I. Right, so after her nap we took her to her swim class at the YMCA. Stopped in at Be By Baby to get some detergent as well as a few more fuzzibunz one sized diapers (those of you looking to do cloth diapers, these are great). Then we came home. Lucy napped, we napped. Then after the napping was all over, we got her up and walked over to the Lincoln Avenue Street Fair where we met up with my dad, saw some great music (Black Betty (Molly) was awesome…covers of awesome songs and just would do these crazy medleys. Fun.), ate a giant elephant ear…seriously powder sugar was everywhere. We walked back home and then went straight back out with the running stroller for a 5.5 mile run and 1 mile walk home cool down.
Whew.
I also read a ton yesterday. Which brings me to my final Random Things point.
I was reading the New York Times yesterday and there was an article about the heat (Did you know? It’s hot!) and there was mention of a guy in the article about how he and his wife haven’t turned on their air conditioner since 1977 or something. And in the article the guy said, “Maybe if we all did that we would go outside and meet people”. I love Free Range Kids and I wonder if part of the problem of people letting their kids go outside is that no one is outside. Why is no one outside? Are people just sitting inside in their air conditioning? Watching TV? It poured rain on Friday and Saturday morning here and so yesterday it was very comfortable. Jason and I were reading on our porch in long pants and I looked around and there wasn’t another person out, and all I could hear was the hum of air conditioning units. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve lived in many shitty apartments with no air and we had some miserable nights. But Jason and I tend to just go out in the heat. My mom’s air conditioning broke the other weekend and I know they had a rough weekend given that she lives in Florida so you are talking about a new dimension of heat. But I’m just wondering if the air conditioning went out on her entire block how many more people would she have talked to?
I don’t know. We opened our windows and maybe will just try putting the air on at night.
In short. GO OUTSIDE. MEET PEOPLE.
Alright, there is word that the baby is awake. Now I just have to decide if I’m awake enough to ride my bike to work….
(Note to Mom: We are teasing  )
“Can you hear me?”
“I can’t see you”
“I can’t hear you”
“The picture. It’s all weird. Like little boxes. It’s weird. Honey? Can you see us?”
Jason goes to get coffee, getting as far away from the situation as possible
“Mom. I know what the problem is. Something is wrong with the signal”
“It’s weird. It’s just like little boxes”
Jason searches for handgun
“I KNOW. I’m working on it”
“Honey? Can you see us. The picture, it’s weird. Like little boxes.”
BANG
We just ended our Saturday morning video chat with my Mom and her husband down in Florida (side note: isn’t it weird that I refer to my mom’s husband as my mom’s husband and not my stepdad? I think it’s because they got married when I was in my late 20s…..anyways. yes.). We try and video with them via “the skype” over “the internet” at least every week so that they can see the Lu-Dog do all of her new tricks.
There is something wrong with the volume, first of all, that has been happening for the past month or two. It’s like they have the sensitivity up to super high on their end, and my mom’s voice is in some other dimension in terms of tone and volume and so it comes all “EEEEEEEEEEE” with some words thrown in there. So then our conversation is something like:
“Hey mom. Don’t talk so loud because your voice is all distorted. Like maybe move back from the computer a little bit”
“Ok. Is this better?”
“Yep. Ok here is Lucy!”
“EEEEEE HI LUEEEEEECYEEEEEEEEEE”
“MOM! YOU HAVE TO TALK QUIETER”
Jason under his breath: Oh my god…
“OEEEKEEEE. LUCEEEEYEEEEEEEE”
Me: big sigh.
Today I happened to be uploading some pictures to the smugmug and so our bandwith was being used up by that and hence the “little boxes”. Once I switched that off everything was fine and it was totally my fault, but woof.
I love videoing with her because I don’t get to see her live very often and I love for Lucy to get to see her, but it’s always a very funny experience.
Ever since the vacation in Michigan, our very own LeahC has been involved in some rather unsavory activities. I don’t think there’s any question that my sister-in-law is to blame. My sister-in-law and her “shows”. Yes, I’m of course referring to Leah’s new obsession with So You Think You Can Dance (or, as it’s more commonly known, #sytycd).
But I suppose that’s not the worst part. The worst part is that I kind of pretty much like the show. It’s sort of a little bit rather a lot entertaining and now I’m all sucked in. I don’t know if it’ll follow American Idol and only hold my attention for a single season, but for now I right there with Leah, commenting of what a bitch little Billy is for faking an injury to get out of his Step routine.
That’s right, I said it. Someone had to. Fuck you, Billy.
Speaking of Step, it’s the introduction of these new and exciting dance styles that has lead me to consider auditioning for next year’s show. I mean, think about it. What’s the most underrepresented group of dancers on this show? Line dancers? Maybe. I’d argue the electric slide deserves more recognition as an art form than it is generally afforded. And actually that’s not too far from the real answer: White Guy Wedding Dancers.
Hands at your side, fingers snapping, head bobbing, rocking from left to right…all key steps in a dance more commonly known as a The White Man Overbite. And depending on the music and the number of cocktails involved, the hands might come up to chest level, rhythmically (well, “rhythmically”) pumping to the music.
Maybe a sly wink to your dance partner. Yeah, that’s right baby. Who’s got two thumbs and a whole bucket full of rhythm? *This guy*.
Give it some consideration, Nigel. I’ll be coming for you when the auditions roll into Chicago, teeth drawn over bottom lip and eye’s soulfully closed.
Left to right…left to right. Double fist pump.
Double fist pump.
Wow. What a whirlwind few days already this week. Both days so far this week I’ve been at Fermilab getting accounts and getting reacclimated to physics code. Read: not the prettiest thing in the world. However, it seems to be like riding a bike and so I’m back in ROOT, and fitting distributions and all that good jazz. You know the stuff that took me about a year to figure out as a grad student. Ok not that long…..but not too far off I suppose. Oh graphs. I love you so much. I’ve missed you terribly!
But in all seriousness, it’s funny how much faster it is for me to find my way around the computer systems, and get things up and running. Or at least I know who to ask when things aren’t working. Hello Alan!
On Monday I rode my bike-cycle as I’ve been calling it (40 year old Virgin reference right there for you smarties out there) to Union station for the 6:32 train getting me to Route 59 at 7:15. Then from there I rode all the way to the lab. And let me tell you something suburbs. When someone does a Google search for “Bike riding suburbs Rt. 59″. You could mention that the bike route goes right up to it which connects to the Prairie Path. Jeez. I looked on google maps at the area, and found a road that looked like it would work. IT WAS AMAZING! Fairway drive for anyone looking for that kind of thing. Nicely paved wide street. No traffic. It was perfect.
It took me awhile to get to the lab because I couldn’t quite figure out which side of the station I needed to be on, and then I couldn’t quite figure out how to cross Butterfield Rd. But I got there eventually.
Then I worked until 4 and left thinking that I might be able to catch the 4:32 (it’s about 6.5 miles away). But there was a 4:58 that I really didn’t want to miss and I just wanted to give myself time in case I got a flat. And so I’m going, and there is a headwind and I’m tired and there is a headwind and I’m thinking, “I’m a runner. What the fuck am I doing?”. But then I get on the Prairie path and my foot slipped (it was out of the straps because there is some loose gravel and I’m convinced I’m going to go head over heels and kill myself). ANYWAYS. I thought I kicked something off my bike, so I dismounted layed the bike down and started looking in the weeds. Seriously. THERE IS NOTHING ON MY BIKE hence nothing to fly off. I finally figured that it was my imagination that something fell off and I realized I had about 10 minutes to make the 4:32 so I hauled my ass there and I made it just as the train was pulling into the station. Of course then I got onto the wrong car as I was on the one that didn’t have a bike area. But I figured it out, got back to Chicago and biked home with the J-Man. So yeah. No biking ever to 23 miles in one day.
Tomorrow I’m going to bike to Northwestern and so we’ll see how that goes. I’m pretty happy with the biking but I want some things to make it easier (some Amadillo tires is a big one as I’m afraid of flats…I can change them…but I would rather not have to worry about it). Also in the future I suppose I should learn how to ride with clip pedals.
Today I drove to the lab. In the future my days at the lab are going to be Thursdays and Fridays and so I’m going to drive to Fermilab early on Thursday with my bike on the car, then commute by bike home Thursday, then Friday morning. Then drive home Friday.
Seriously. I’m the queen of different commuting options. I’ve found that if it’s ever all of one thing it gets annoying. All biking is tough, all driving is tough…so I like having a mix.
Ok. Don’t say bike. Bike.
That is all from here in the world of commuting and physics.
Oh and Lucy. She’s awesome. Crawling and pulling herself up on everything. Also. Room full of toys and all she wants is the remote for the TV. Of course.
Everyone says, “It’ll change when the baby comes. You’ll see.” I get a lot of “You’ll see”. I don’t like it. I’ll see what? Why won’t people let me figure it out for myself. I’m sure they are right, and I’ll see whatever it is they are talking about. But maybe I’ll have a different view. Plus since I bounce to the the beat of a different drum most times and places, I’m guessing that what you see and what I see are very different.
Of course things have changed since the baby came. For instance, do you babies go to bed really early? Visions of walks after dinner for ice cream cones have quickly gone out the window as we can’t even seem to figure out how to eat dinner together, let alone go for a walk afterwards.
I was talking to my Dad the other day and I was saying, it’s a lot harder to do things now with the baby. Getting in runs and especially if we take her becomes a race to get home in time to go before she gets too tired. On the other hand, I was also telling him that she makes everything way more fun.
Yesterday I literally didn’t stop moving from the moment I woke up at 6:30 to when I went to bed at 10:00. In the morning I finished up a big big knitting project (Seriously. I want to give myself a high five for this one) and went to get my bike post (stem?) changed out for a shorter one to make my ride a little more comfy. After I got home, I took a quick shower, woke Lu up from her nap. Then it was on the train to wiggleworms. We then went to lunch with our wiggleworms companions and Lucy’s best friend Ethan. Then we walked all the way home from there which was about 2 miles. Oh yeah. And it’s like a 100 degrees here. Lucy got cranked at the end of that walk because she was so hot. So we decided not to make her go for a run with us because it was so hot. We played with her, she went to bed at like 6:15 (I told you! Early!). Then after she went down I went out for a 6.5 mile run (Oh I’ve been playing with DailyMile for my running log…a little rough in places but getting there). My day went from 6:30-8:00. Then I did some more knitting things before I went to bed (after the crazy project I’m going to knit some dishcloths).
I mean from 6:30am – 10:00pm. I didn’t stop moving. So that part of me hasn’t changed…it’s just become more so. More Leah! If there was a TV realty show about me, I’d want the name of it to be The Leah Experience.
With my new job there is going to be a lot less down time because I’m going to be super super busy. People at Fermilab asked me how I could have possibly wanted to come back given that I had a 40 hour work week and I made a ton money. For the second point I actually didn’t make a ton of money, I got a 10% raise going back to academia. For the first point. Sure 40 hour work weeks are nice. But not when you aren’t passionate about it. Plus I love the physics nerds so much. I mean please, if you could work with Leonard and Sheldon wouldn’t you?
Today looks to be another long day. I’m up early although the other two are still snoozing. We have to clean this place up a bit, and then Lucy has her first swim lesson at the YMCA in the late morning. Don’t know why I signed up for a summer swimming class that’s indoors when we are already doing a music class on Saturdays. But whatever. It’s going to be fun. Or I’m going to call and see if I can get a refund and I’ll just take the next class. Also we are looking forward to Jason’s parents coming in this afternoon.
So yes. Changes. It’s inevitable that it’s going to happen. You’ll see. But I won’t tell you what you’ll see. Just enjoy them as they come.
Today I find myself back at Fermilab for my second day of work. I’m meeting my supervisor in a few minutes and thought I could get an update out there before then.
Right now I’m trying to figure out if I could bike on both ends of Metra when I’m out here. Chicago is no problem for me, but when it comes to the suburbs I get a little scared because the roads are faster and I think that drivers are probably not used to seeing cyclists out. However, it looks like I might have found a route to take me from the Rt 59 stop to the lab. One way would be to take the Prairie path all the way to Batavia road then to my lab. But that’s about 10 miles, but a nice ride. The other way would also be from that stop but jumping off the Prairie path sooner, then taking Ferry Road to Eola Rd. I got out here very early this morning and drove around the West Chicago area and it seems that there is no good way for me to go taking that train line. I’m sure there are some bikers who would have no problems with it, but I’m not aggressive enough and so I require side streets.
Any tips out there from people that have biked in the suburbs? Or any Fermilab people that have done what I’m looking to do?
Other than that, it just feels good to be back around physics nerds. Looking to get started quickly on an analysis and get rolling with that.
Happy Friday all.
Well I am signed up for both the rock and roll half marathon that’s on August 1st as well as the Chicago Marathon on October 10th. I signed up when it was still cold out and of course I could train for a marathon. Forget about the nursing and the working and the no time. I could make time, I would invent more hours! It was going to be magnificent! The day was going to be 26 hours long giving me that extra two hours I needed.
Oh…wait, what’s that you say? You can’t add time to the day? Even though I am, in fact, a physicist?
Damn.
So I’ve been running, but just not as much as I would need to to get through a marathon at this point. Vacations and some hot and humid weather here (I know I know…it’s not Florida..but it’s hot for us, you guys would be in jeans and sweatshirts…ok maybe not as it did hit 93 yesterday at 5pm) derailed the training a little bit.
Add in to the mix my new job which has a new commute and now I’m really going to be losing some more time. Although as a postdoc I don’t think I’ll have a problem running on my lunch hour and then I’ll just have to get longer runs in on the weekends. Also I plan to be biking a lot more so I’ll get some cross training in.
Could I get through a 1/2 marathon or full marathon? Of course. Would it be fun? I mean part of it would be…just taking my time and enjoying my city. On the other hand I’m a competitor at heart and I worry that I would just be pissed that I wasn’t able to run it better. On the other hand I had a baby 7 months ago and so I should keep that in mind. I’ll know more after I start the new job.
Also I would like to work with Dad on another 10K race perhaps in August. Any good 10Ks out there that people have run in the past or spectated at?
Today we are going to test ride the bikes we picked out. Isn’t this pretty?
I can’t wait. Jason is getting a similar one, just a bit cheaper. The middle of the road version. I would get that one too….but this one is blue. And pretty. And this way we won’t match.
Alright that is all. 2 more days of software. 1 week till physics. Yikes!
What the what? Where have I been. Well I’ve been on “The Twitter” and “The Facebook” that’s where.
So much has happened since we have chatted last, the biggest news being of course that I’m going back to Physics.
Wait…what did you say? You’re going back to physics?
Long story short, I started to get the itch last summer. I didn’t get the first postdoc that I applied for back in the spring but then my colleague at Fermilab heard of a postdoc at Northwestern that was only a year long. Since I’ve been out for quite awhile, the thinking is that I can get enough done in this one year stint and then apply for a full term postdoc and then I can see what happens from there. Since they have funding for only one year, I literally don’t have a job on July 14th next year. I start there on July 15th. My last day at Obtiva is this Friday.
My commute right now is so easy and that will change. The nice thing about this position is that I can work a few days at Northwestern which is a very easy commute for me. The other days I’ll be at Fermilab, and for the summer/fall anyways, I would like to not drive. SO I’m going to bike downtown, then take Metra out to Wheaton and drive from there.
So that means…I need a bike, since ours were stolen from our basement (which is lame and stupid). So we headed to Kozy’s Cyclery for the 3rd time and had a great salesperson. We are looking at some recreation road bikes (Schwinn Le Tours) and I love them. I wish they were free….but eh. Oh well. These will be our Christmas and Birthday presents to each other this year. I’m thinking if I have a good bike I could also bike to Northwestern one of the days I’m there perhaps. We’ll see about that though.
SO yes. I’m so excited. I’m excited to have a bike again. Next summer will be a lot of fun because we can put a baby seat on the back and we’ll be all set. We tried to put a helmet on little baby Lucy but it was really really big and so that won’t work this summer. And no. I didn’t ask Jason if she really needed a helmet. Ok I might have asked, but I didn’t really mean it.
Running is still going. Not great. Don’t know I’ll be making the marathon this year…but we’ll see. I’m going to try and run on my lunch hour every day. At Fermilab it’s fun to run around the ring (4 miles) and at Northwestern they have a really beautiful campus with lots of paths. So that’s the plan. We’ll see how it goes.
How’s Lucy you ask? She’s great! Crawling around and giggling and being awesome. I’m still nursing and hoping to keep that up at my new job but given the commute time and the more hours of work, we’ll see if it works out.
Alright. That is all the news that’s fit to write. I’m for real going to try and write more. No I mean it this time. For serious.
My mom and her husband came to visit this weekend and although as always the time was too short, we had a great time. My mom and Ken watched the baby while we worked on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday Ken went to Indiana to visit with his kids and my mom and Lucy spent the whole day together. We all three went shopping for some new clothes for me. Also Lucy got a bath towel that buttons in the front kinda and has a big ‘L’ on the back. So it looks like a super hero cape. Very cool. After shopping we dropped Lucy off with Jason and we went to get a lot of hair cut off.
I have pictures on my phone of the process which I brillantly left at home. But let’s just say that the amount of hair they cut off could cover probably the state of Illinois. I have *a lot* of hair, and it was really long. And now it’s super short. And super blonde. Which is fun.
On Saturday night Mom watched Lucy after we put her to bed and Jason and I went out to Sheffields. We had a seriously great time.
And now we are at Monday. Friday starts a really big family vacation and we are both so excited. Jason is working on Friday but I took the day off to get stuff together and run some errands. We are renting a big house up in Michigan with Jason’s two brothers, their wives, their kids and Jason’s parents. It should be awesome.
Ready. Set. GO MONDAY!
Before you read this post…go vote for Lucy for a parents magazine cover contest: http://photos.parents.com/category/vote/photo/307929 It will take you like one second. Go do it.
Last week saw Jason, Lucy and I on a road trip to Springfield, IL, Bloomington, IN and ending at my Aunt’s lake house near Indianapolis. Holy hell did we have a good time.
We never drive. Ever. I mean we forget where the car is parked at times. And then we get to it and realized there had been street cleaning 2 weeks prior and our car got ticketed…ok not that bad…sometimes that bad….my point is we don’t drive. Which means that Lucy is never in the car.
We were worried about how she would do in the car for so long. The first part of the trip she got a little crankified, I think trying to tell us, “Hey Mom and Dad. What the heck? Why are you keeping me in this stupid car. I WANT TO STAND!!!!” But by the end she was better. Or maybe we had just worn her out so bad that she was totally fine just sleeping and relaxing in her car seat, which in my opinion looks like a very comfortable recliner.
So we had a great time. Awesome seeing my family, old friends in Bloomington as well as dinner at our advisors house. Is it wrong that I still refer to him as my advisor even though I haven’t been his student for just about 2 years? I’m saying it’s not wrong and I’m sticking to it.
Here are some choice photos of Lucy from the vacation:
 First time in a swimming pool. At our hotel in Bloomington.  Playing in the sand by Aunt Donna's house.  Lake swimming. For. The. Win.  Our little Hoosier.  Hiking on a trail near my Aunt's house. Yes. This is Indiana. It can be pretty.  And. We're done. End of a wonderful and long vacation. Time for bed! We have a big family vacation planned in a couple weeks and Jason and I are counting down the days until that happens. Jason’s brothers and their families and his parents are us are renting a very large house up on Lake Macatawa in Holland, Michigan for a week. Lots of swimming and gaming and swimming and hiking and swimming. Should be awesome. I might try and completely unplug for that vacation…we’ll see, I would like to be able to develop pictures while I’m there so I don’t have to do them all when I get hoem…on the other hand if I don’t do that I can unplug (for the most part) for that week. Yep I think I’ll do that and just have a busy weekend when we get back. Which means I need another memory card.
In running news Dad, Jason and I are running a 10K this weekend in South Bend, IN. WHERE YOU FINISH ON THE NOTRE DAME 50 YARD LINE. My dad grew up in South Bend and we are all Notre Dame fans so it should be a pretty good time.
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