Tales from the Cubicle

I talked to my boss at Hyclone today about staying there through the summer or longer. He says that once this new program is up and running (April-ish) they may not even have a place for me. The new system is supposed to reduce the need for temps. It may take a few extra months to get everything functional, so they may be able to keep me through some of the summer, or longer, but he just doesn't know. I asked about being hired on and getting benefits. He says he'd love to be able to, but the only way he could was if someone else left. They all seem pretty comfortable.

I've got an appoinment on Monday to go talk to Paul about what he's going to do with me at the farm this summer, if I go that route.

Home Sweet Home

It's Official.

At the last minute, Minnesota pulled out. They blamed 2 low grades for the decision. I don't think Dr. Watkins was responsible. I think a higher up told him no and he didn't have a good enough argument to save my chances. Now we're trying to re-evaluate and adjust our plans for the next 3 years. We are going to stay in Logan until the baby is born, in the apartment we're in. We're planning to buy some furniture of our own and make this place home. Next spring, we're going to follow work. If it leads us closer to Salt Lake, Kelly's going to try to go back to school and I'm going to start applying for other Master's programs. If it keeps us in Logan, we're going to do the same, just at USU rather than U of U.

Paul is willing to keep me at the farm until the baby comes, and Hyclone wants me to stay with them, I don't know for how long. I'm almost positive I'm going to have to go back to work after my 6 weeks of maternity leave is up, as we can't really afford to live on one paycheck. If I stayed at Hyclone, that would be possible. Not so much at the farm, I'd have to find something else. Kelly and I will need to work opposite shifts to take care of the baby, so I may need to find a job that allows me to work evenings anyway.

That's what we're sitting on at the moment. It was a tough break, but at least we'll be close to home and the baby will have all of our extended family close by. I'm sure something will come up, and everything will work out.

University of Minnesota Graduate Student Recruitment Weekend

Kelly and I just got back from our weekend at the U of M. The high for the weekend was -1 degrees. I thought I was going to freeze to death.

The campus was beautiful and the buildings were rather new with state of the art equipment. The greenhouses were just amazing. The faculty was very happy to have us there and I got along with all the professor's I'll likely have anything to do with, and with some that I'll probably never see more than once or twice. Minneapolis was a little too crowded and dirty for my taste, but St. Paul was gorgeous. The part of campus where I'll be the majority of the time is in St. Paul and that's where we'll be living most likely.

There were about a dozen prospective grad students applying for the Applied Plant Sciences program with me and another dozen or so there for Plant Pathology and Plant Biology respectively. There was only one other applying for the same position as me. There were 2 places open, and he's getting his PhD and I'm getting my Master's, so Dr. Eric Watkins was happy to have us both. The other guy's name was Eric, but he looked just like Chuck from the series that was playing this past fall, so I'll probably just refer to him as Chuck to avoid confusing him with my professor. Chuck was a nice guy, but thought it was pretty funny when smells would make me sick. I like Dr. Watkins and look forward to working with him. He seems very laid back. Kelly and I met his wife and baby at lunch on Saturday. She's such a sweetheart and his baby is a cutie.

Kelly walked around on Friday while I was in interviews and just fell in love with the city. I'm nervous to be going somewhere so busy, but excited to have so much available to us. The school systems are excellent, the university offers a fantastic daycare, the insurance is quite good, and there's plenty of jobs available for Kelly.

We toured the cities with Dr. Watkins and took down numbers for apartment complexs on Saturday. We stopped at the Pond Hockey Championships with Chuck for about 10 minutes before I couldn't feel my face and went inside. I also discovered my new personal Hell: outdoor porta-potties in -10 degree weather with a -15 degree wind chill. Frozen urine, no sinks or sanitizer, and a tiny pregnant bladder. At least they didn't stink.

Anyway, the weekend has left us with some new knowledge and news to share. First: never buy a sleep number bed. It was like sleeping on an overinflated or half deflated air mattress. Second: we are moving to Minnesota. Third: they want us there on April 1st. It's a bit sooner than we had anticipated, but I'll have a chance to get a lot more done before the baby comes. Fourth: Kelly and I are magnets for crappy waiter/waitresses. Fifth: Minnesota is incredibly flat. There are no hills, let alone anything resembling a mountain. Sixth: if you take a camera with you, remember to take it out of the suitcase. And last, but not least: the smell of chicken marsala makes me violently ill.

"If you talk again, I'm going to eat you!"

The morning sickness seems to have finally passed, and has been replaced with an insatiable appetite. One drawer in my desk at work is filled with nothing but food: popcorn, rice cakes, tomato soup, fruit cups, crackers, granola bars, and so on. I graze all day, but am always starving again 20 minutes later. I'm so used to getting sick if my stomach gets empty, that I panic every time my belly growls. Also, no doubt due to my eating habits moreso than my little cinnamon bear, I only have one pair of pants that fit comfortably. I have to wear skirts to work everyday because my dress pants won't zip. Today I used a rubber band around the button to keep them up, which worked well enough, but just made me feel fat more than anything else. Anyway, I'm going to post an update of how the first official OB visit went on the baby page tomorrow or Saturday, and will post the ultrasound then.

Big Changes

We bought the plane tickets to go out to Minnesota for the recruiting weekend. I had changed my mind about going and had left of message with Dr. Watkins (the guy I'd be working directly with) asking him to call me when he got back from winter break because I had some questions about the program. He called on Thursday morning while i was at work. I didn't say anything about not going, but instead asked him how much of the program would be genetics and how much would be plant breeding.

He told me the program would be whatever I wanted it to be. They are going to tailor my next 2 years to whatever I want to focus on, so turfgrass production, breeding, and management.

He's planning on picking us up from the airport and taking his Saturday to personally show us around town and take us to dinner. I sat there in my cubicle with a dumb look on my face.

From what I interpreted, I'm the only student they had on the line for this program. That, or I'm the favorite. He said he already had a student or two focusing on the genetics side of it, so he wanted me there because I have a strong background in Horticulture and turf. I guess all the technology in the world will only get you so far if no one except the professor can actually make the turf grow and take care of it. I told him I had just completed a genetics course at USU and had hated it. He laughed and told me not to worry about that at all.

I told Dr. Watkins about the baby and asked if he thought I could do the program with a newborn (his wife had a baby in November) and he said it wouldn't be a problem. I told him that Kelly was planning to stay home with the baby so I could focus on school and my research and he said that would make it even easier. He seemed pretty happy that Kelly was being so supportive and letting me focus on my education. He was a little concerned about me missing those few weeks in August after the baby comes, but he said we could definitely make it work.

I maybe shouldn't have said anything about it, but didn't want to waste his time if there was just no way it would work.

Seems my crazy pregnancy hormones got the best of me and almost made me miss out on an amazing opportunity. I'm still terrified to be that far away from both our families with an infant, but it's only a 2 hour and 45 minute flight to Minneapolis from Salt Lake or a 20 hour drive. It's only for 2 years, which isn't that long, and we'll come home as much as we can.

I'm hoping that as the baby gets older and a little easier to take care of Kelly will get the chance to go back to school too or to at least get his contractor's license.