Wish me luck!

Instead of waiting the day it was due (tomorrow) and getting closer to my lucky number 13, I submitted my application to the big job today.  I have snakes in my stomach!  It feels good to have achieved a goal.  There's a small chance I'll get this job, and a larger one I won't.  But what matters is that in making my resume and cover letter, I proved to myself that I have great qualifications for someone of my age and experience, and enough references to drown a cat (not that I'd do that).

Whew!  I feel like my biggest stressor is gone, and I can concentrate on the family gathering this weekend.  I was going to spend tonight freaking out on my resume, but now I'll go have a beer on the porch and tidy the house a bit for visitors.  Viva la Thursday!!

Today is the first day of HELL YES

So, Dr. J got through his dissertation defense, and we are now spending a dreary Saturday NOT THINKING ABOUT DISSERTATIONS AT ALL.  Tonight he is making dinner.  We watched some TV.  We may go out to see some music, and then go to a party.  Maybe some of you out there understand how colossal this all is, and how completely normal it has been for these to be impossible scenarios.

(I promise to stop calling him Dr. J eventually, but I'm running with it for at least a week.)

I've been trying to pick his brain about how it feels to be post-defense, but he is as usual a cool cucumber.  I am visibly excited, and have to hold myself back from making lists of things I want to start doing again.  Oddly, going to bed at the same time was something I forgot used to be normal.  So that was awesome.  Though long hours away from home, staying up hours after me, never doing anything more than going out for dinner has been our normal for years, I'm glad to go back to the old normal.

I'm also glad I can stop trying to find meaning through PhD Comics.

Ask a question, it's not illegal

It's a PC.

I wandered through the past two days in a whine-and-cheese malaise, but I seem to be finally coming out of it.  Crazy thing happened yesterday.  I came home from work to find J looking very crumpled.  He got a form email from a Google person he hadn't heard from before, saying they appreciated his application, but blah blah blah.  WTF, mate?  My first instinct was, "This is a mistake."  Since I make them all the time, I figure a huge company with thousands of applicants probably does too.

Seriously, a totally crumpled spouse.  He'd been looking at the email for an hour and a half like a nerdy little Hamlet.  Further confirming my theory, the last email he'd received was all about how to prepare for his technical interview, including websites to digest and books to buy.  Even though an employer is under no obligation to treat people nicely, I knew Google wasn't going to say they'd give an interview then give you the ax just because they can.  J didn't have an interview time scheduled yet (late in the week was the tentative plan) but it didn't seem right to me.  Since it was 5pm here, that meant it was 3pm there, giving his recruiter maybe enough time to get back to him on a yay or nay.

I was chasing the dog around the yard just 10 MINUTES LATER when J came out shouting, "It was a mistake! I have an interview on Monday!"  As much as I've been trying not to put all our hopes on this, we did get rather fixated.  This is a pretty big interview, but it's only the first one, so if it doesn't happen, that is not weird at all.  He should be so proud of himself for landing an interview so quickly.

Sit tight and relax

Is it ok that I am just trying to go with the flow and see what awaits us? There is nothing I can do to get J a job, other than not make him go insane. All he seems to need is affection and the occasional errand.. so can I stop being neurotic now?  I promise to take it back up once he has an offer.

This feels good.

Oh yes, that phone interview

I made myself scarce yesterday afternoon so J could have his phone interview with the Googles.  A friend took me out for a beer since I was acting so emo, and I couldn't help but check my  phone over and over to see what time it was.  It was only about 40 minutes, and he said it went well.  We'd brainstormed lots of good questions, and he got to ask most of them.  The technical interview will be next week.  I'm amazed at how smoothly this process has gone.

In a display of what might either be sanity or forced failure, I decided yesterday not to apply for the library job.  After all these years waiting and supporting J through his studies, a little open space always twinkled before my eyes.  I imagined there would be some time between resigning from my current job and starting a new one somewhere else, where I'd be able to walk the streets of my new town and learn about it.  Have a little time to get my bearings before jumping back in full time and getting my bearings on the weekends.  Friend from last night said that wasn't weird at all, and owed to me as a PhD widow.  I haven't been saving for nothing.

Still, I should work on a cover letter for it, just as an exercise.

Me and the DMV: A taste of what's to come

Today is a university holiday, so I have it off.  I've spent today buying replacement lightbulbs and paying bills, sitting at the DMV trying to smile in order to make myself feel happier.  But it is just not working.  I keep looking at this dreary day and hoping that's not what's making me feel so low.  If it is, Seattle may not be so great for me.  I never noticed how often the sky was just pure, cloudless blue until I started reading about the weather in the Pacific Northwest.  I understand why they have vampires.

J has a short phone interview today with a Google representative.  It is not the big scary one, but it's his first phone interview for a job.  I have promised to be out of the house.  I am feeling his nervousness.  Afterwards I am taking him out for a meal.  I have yet to eat more than a small bowl of oatmeal today.

When I am sad or confused, I can't eat.  I forget how to make food or just get really bogged down in making decisions. I am currently staring at some frozen samosas that I do not want to unfreeze or eat.  A friend tells me I am disassociating from my current situation because it is too much.  I don't want to believe that, because this is just a taste of all the change and stress we'll go through.  All this time hoping and  complaining about moving on, and I freak out the second we start to go forward.  I've  cancelled plans with friends twice and backed out of a creative project just in the past day.  I'll admit I felt a lot better afterwards, but I really hate to disappoint people.

The highlight of my day will be starting a project for a commissioned Halloween hat.  My patron (who purchased my cherry hat previously and wants to collect more of my work ;)) pretty much let me decide what it would be, and I chose a barrel cactus.  I took a stack of newspapers from the DMV and will start making the form today.

Now, I really should eat before I decide to take a nap and waste the day.

PHONE INTERVIEW

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Meetup.com: Picking a city based on search results

The internal referral J got for his Google application did the trick-- he received an email from a REAL PERSON on Friday.  He's gotten past the computers and has been asked to give his top three choices of location.  Google has offices in lots of awesome cities, but we narrowed it down to six, then to three:

1. Seattle, WA
2. Mountain View, CA (main headquarters)
3. Boulder, CO

We picked based on how likely J was to get a job at that particular location, whether we liked the area and all sorts of numbers (crime, cost of living, housing prices, weather).  Mountain View was a shoe-in since it's the main headquarters.  Some stats say it's more expensive than NYC, though, and that's scary.  We went ahead and stuck it there in the middle.  J left it up to me to pick the top location, and Seattle is big, similar to Portland, and I think I'd have the best chance at meeting people and finding things to do, also: jobs.

To chose between Seattle and Boulder (I've never been to either) I used Meetup.com to search for my interests.  I searched crafts, sewing, bicycles, feminism, ASL, libraries and made a judgment based on how much came up for each.  Starting out, though, I knew Seattle would have more.  Boulder is only a little bigger than where we live now.  J is familiar with Boulder, though, and says I'd really like it. Let's just say, though, I have never been skiing, and I've never had the urge.  I feel I'd be a waste of space in Boulder.  I like a bike-able city, though.

When we move, I will definitely use meetup to find some starter groups.  I'll admit, I'm already tired just thinking of how hard it will be to find new friends.

It's been a good Spring Break, though tomorrow's my last day of it.  J made a goal of finishing two applications per day, and so far he's doing it.  This is an extremely exciting time.

Progress! April!

Image from Ji Lee at Pleasenjoy.com

J has set his thesis defense date for late April and he has made a contact who could maybe get him an internal referral at Google.  The company is supposed to hire 6,000 people this year, so maybe J will be one of them.  An internal referral will really help him out, so this is a big deal.  It's exciting to see progress, and kind of fun/scary to see J get all nervous thinking about Google's hiring process: it's rigorous.  If anyone has any insight into what it's like to work there (at any of the locations) tell me about it.

Other than that, he's got four applications he's supposed to send this week: St. Paul, Austin, San Francisco and Seattle.  I could handle all of these, though I must say I'm partial to sunlight and not partial to frozen snot.

To India, with love

So, scratch that. I realized I was getting ahead of myself, like when I imagined I'd be a seamstress after two lessons and started a twitter after I thought I'd started a wildly successful blog.  Tiny Park, Arkansas will be a blog or something someday, but really, I don't need two blogs.  

Here's some pics of the clay/pin "robots" I made for a friend to take back to India for her little sister.  I started making these years ago just for fun, but after I invented a position for myself on a non-profit called Art Amiss, I suddenly had to make over 200 of them for a show.  I'm no longer with that group, but people sure do remember those little robots.  That group has asked me to take care of their Etsy site, and I hope I'll get to do some craftin' too.  I don't want to be on the board again, because board members can't submit artwork to shows.  This is the first time I think I'll actually have something to offer.

If anyone knows how to do two columns of pictures, let me know. This was a long one.

The husband sent out his third letter today, which was really a full-on application to a program in Boulder, CO (formerly referred to as NewTownX).  I like the idea of that.  Ohio is still on the line, but France hasn't been launched yet.  He's stressed, but I want to hope that he's feeling good and accomplished.  I'm incredibly proud of him and I'm very happy.  I apologized today for my impatience, which would have been hard to do a few months ago.  I really didn't understand the obstacles in his way.  He seems to be getting over them.

We're going to spend a quiet weekend, but when he goes out to do research tomorrow, I'm going to A-Z in Alma, Arkansas.  It looks like a scary religious compound from above, and is the largest deal/dollar store mall ever.  It is insane.  The things housed inside it must not be, and are very cheap.  I'm taking some friends, and I think our aim is plastic dinosaurs, wrapping paper and op art.  Yes, necessary things.  Sports, furniture, clothing, bridal, floral, rugs, gifts and sports equipment, all in their own giant iron sheds.  And a diner filled with fried everything.  The last time we went, we spent about seven hours and came out dehydrated and thrilled, only spending about $30.  I'll be on the lookout for another factory-second Justin Bieber shirt.  My husband and I have a strange liking for pop star t-shirts and pop stars we don't really know anything about.  He's got a Backstreet Boys shirt he's been wearing for a decade, and has been mentioned in his teaching evaluations.  Good or bad? Who cares, I'm getting some tiny dinosaurs.