Many Things, Many Thoughts
We haven't updated in a very, very long time. Many, many things have happened in the last month.
I just have to say how proud I am of Kris. He is the most amazing husband in the world. Every day I'm amazed by who he is. He is kind, patient, extraordinarily loving, thoughtful, and so funny! Even more amazing...his behavior is consistent, no matter what's going on in his life. I feel so lucky to be with him and so privileged to be having his baby. His dissertation defense is 11 days away and yet he still finds time to cuddle, make us coffee/lunch/dinner, hang out with my family, and have long chats with me. When I was at this stage, I was a complete emotional wreck with daily bouts of crying. I hope our baby inherits his stress management skills!
Right now I'm going through this phase where I'm totally obsessed with Kris...in a good way. I think he's the most amazing, handsome guy in the universe. Not that I didn't think this before - but lately it's been out of control. I'll randomly start tearing up throughout the day, thinking of how lucky I am to be with him. Kris recently had a nightmare where I was with someone else, and when he told me about it, I felt completely nauseous. I was sick to my stomach at even thinking about being with someone else!
OK. Enough about my emotional states :) On to what we've been doing...
Earlier in the month, we spent five days in L.A. My parents threw us a "dinner and cocktails" party for the baby (instead of a traditional baby shower, since we think all the traditional baby shower stuff is boring and terrible). It was a great co-ed event and we saw tons of friends and family whom we rarely get to see. My mom's cooking was amazing, and my sister's baking was out of this world! We felt so lucky to be surrounded by so many wonderful people all weekend.
It was really nice that Kris's dad Jay flew in from Geneva to hang out for a week. We also got to spend some time hanging out with Kris's grandma (Popo), who is the cutest thing ever. Kris's younger brother Richard wore a shirt that said "Feelings are boring. Kissing is awesome." Hilarious.
We were home for only a week when we left for Indiana. The Computer Science department at IU-Bloomington brought Kris out for a job talk! It was very, very exciting. He gave a job talk last month at IUPUI (the IU Indianapolis campus) and Kris really impressed them, so they brought him to Bloomington to interview. After lots of stress (and thinking), we told the folks at IU that we didn't think it would be feasible to have one of us at IUPUI and the other at the Bloomington campus. It's more than an hour's drive between the two campuses, and literally nowhere to live in-between...meaning a 2-2.5 hour daily commute for one of us. The tricky part is that the folks at IUPUI told us that if Kris started working there, there would be almost no chance of him ever transferring to the Bloomington campus. We were prepared to walk away from my job offer when...voila! Bloomington called and asked Kris to come out for a job talk.
On Wednesday we arrived in Bloomington. Amazingly, Kris's friend Nathan (who is moving to Bloomington to start a math post-doc this summer) and his girlfriend Pam (who is starting a Master's degree in the nonprofit management program) happened to arrive at Indy Airport when we did, so we had a quick bite with them.
Kris and I ended up having a great time in Bloomington. It really is a very charming, adorable college town. It's convenient (everything's close to campus, including the downtown area), affordable, and is considered one of the top five most beautiful college campuses in the U.S. There is a surprising variety of ethnic food. I mean, it ain't Berkeley (as in...it's 89% white), but it completely changed my impression of the Midwest! Kris and I really liked it, and spent some time looking around the neighborhoods. Kris gave his job talk on Friday and we took a late-night flight back that night. Cross your fingers for us - we will hopefully hear next week whether he gets the job!
If Kris gets the job, we'll both commit to start working at IU Bloomington next summer. In the meantime, I'll continue my post-doc. This summer, Kris will work for Honda Research for a few months and then transition to a cool post-doc position at UC Berkeley. He'll be working on motion planning for robotic needle placement in conjunction with doctors at UCSF. What a rock star!
After we flew back on Friday night, we met my parents, sister, and sister's boyfriend Brian for the long Memorial Day weekend. We had an amazing time with them, which I'll post about in a little bit. I owe you all pictures of our adventures, and updated belly shots!
I just have to say how proud I am of Kris. He is the most amazing husband in the world. Every day I'm amazed by who he is. He is kind, patient, extraordinarily loving, thoughtful, and so funny! Even more amazing...his behavior is consistent, no matter what's going on in his life. I feel so lucky to be with him and so privileged to be having his baby. His dissertation defense is 11 days away and yet he still finds time to cuddle, make us coffee/lunch/dinner, hang out with my family, and have long chats with me. When I was at this stage, I was a complete emotional wreck with daily bouts of crying. I hope our baby inherits his stress management skills!
Right now I'm going through this phase where I'm totally obsessed with Kris...in a good way. I think he's the most amazing, handsome guy in the universe. Not that I didn't think this before - but lately it's been out of control. I'll randomly start tearing up throughout the day, thinking of how lucky I am to be with him. Kris recently had a nightmare where I was with someone else, and when he told me about it, I felt completely nauseous. I was sick to my stomach at even thinking about being with someone else!
OK. Enough about my emotional states :) On to what we've been doing...
Earlier in the month, we spent five days in L.A. My parents threw us a "dinner and cocktails" party for the baby (instead of a traditional baby shower, since we think all the traditional baby shower stuff is boring and terrible). It was a great co-ed event and we saw tons of friends and family whom we rarely get to see. My mom's cooking was amazing, and my sister's baking was out of this world! We felt so lucky to be surrounded by so many wonderful people all weekend.
It was really nice that Kris's dad Jay flew in from Geneva to hang out for a week. We also got to spend some time hanging out with Kris's grandma (Popo), who is the cutest thing ever. Kris's younger brother Richard wore a shirt that said "Feelings are boring. Kissing is awesome." Hilarious.
We were home for only a week when we left for Indiana. The Computer Science department at IU-Bloomington brought Kris out for a job talk! It was very, very exciting. He gave a job talk last month at IUPUI (the IU Indianapolis campus) and Kris really impressed them, so they brought him to Bloomington to interview. After lots of stress (and thinking), we told the folks at IU that we didn't think it would be feasible to have one of us at IUPUI and the other at the Bloomington campus. It's more than an hour's drive between the two campuses, and literally nowhere to live in-between...meaning a 2-2.5 hour daily commute for one of us. The tricky part is that the folks at IUPUI told us that if Kris started working there, there would be almost no chance of him ever transferring to the Bloomington campus. We were prepared to walk away from my job offer when...voila! Bloomington called and asked Kris to come out for a job talk.
On Wednesday we arrived in Bloomington. Amazingly, Kris's friend Nathan (who is moving to Bloomington to start a math post-doc this summer) and his girlfriend Pam (who is starting a Master's degree in the nonprofit management program) happened to arrive at Indy Airport when we did, so we had a quick bite with them.
Kris and I ended up having a great time in Bloomington. It really is a very charming, adorable college town. It's convenient (everything's close to campus, including the downtown area), affordable, and is considered one of the top five most beautiful college campuses in the U.S. There is a surprising variety of ethnic food. I mean, it ain't Berkeley (as in...it's 89% white), but it completely changed my impression of the Midwest! Kris and I really liked it, and spent some time looking around the neighborhoods. Kris gave his job talk on Friday and we took a late-night flight back that night. Cross your fingers for us - we will hopefully hear next week whether he gets the job!
If Kris gets the job, we'll both commit to start working at IU Bloomington next summer. In the meantime, I'll continue my post-doc. This summer, Kris will work for Honda Research for a few months and then transition to a cool post-doc position at UC Berkeley. He'll be working on motion planning for robotic needle placement in conjunction with doctors at UCSF. What a rock star!
After we flew back on Friday night, we met my parents, sister, and sister's boyfriend Brian for the long Memorial Day weekend. We had an amazing time with them, which I'll post about in a little bit. I owe you all pictures of our adventures, and updated belly shots!
