Fantastic news all around - we had an excellent and productive trip to the Amazon, I got the promotion to tenure track (still in the negotiation phase, but the offer is official - YAAAAAAY!), and my masters student successfully defended. It took a couple weeks, but Maya has completely forgiven us for our long absence (she was pretty mad about it), and I've headstarted two whole flats of seeds for my garden this year, including a bunch of aji amarillo peppers so that I can make the Peruvian delicacy huancaina upon harvest :) Life in our household is happy and vibrant! However, there are two things that weigh on my mind: 1) the insane increase in productivity/efficiency that I'll need to shoot for if I'm to get tenure here, and 2) the decision about whether or not to have another child. Make no mistake, the first child didn't seem like a choice (in a good way). If I couldn't both be a professor and have one child, then I didn't want to be a professor. ...
In response to my good friend Lesley’s very valid comment question about how on earth I get any work done with the baby in tow, I’ve decided to do the post that I’ve wanted to write for a while. I am, in fact, attempting the impossible for the next four months: working as close to full-time as possible while not putting the baby in day care. (Edit: I wrote this really long, flowery, idealistic post below, but the short answer is that I work - poorly - while the baby sleeps. So I also do everything in my power to help her sleep in long chunks, which is perhaps instilling bad sleep habits, which I will also probably pay for later. And that's about it :)) Over the course of my world travels, I have always been inspired by the women in less industrialized societies than ours. They truly bring their babies everywhere with them as they go about their daily business. They simply strap the babies to their bodies in some kind of carrier and go, nursing whenever...
It's official, husband and I are off to adventure in Australia beginning March 25th. I could not be more excited!! Oh, all of you adorable little Egernia depressa s, you won't even know what hit you. I may spend some time looking for some strangely Sonorini-esque snakes as well - here is an Australian Simoselaps on the top and a Chilomeniscus from Baja California on the bottom. Amazingly similar, aren't they? I love convergence. We will be in the field for at least 5 weeks doing a very large loop through the Kimberley and Pilbara regions of Western Australia, and I will be in heaven the whole time. It will be so warm (yay, southern hemisphere!)! I'm probably never happier than I am when in the field. In other news, we are basically riding out the end of my first North Country winter, which is fine except for the aforementioned "ice on sidewalks that people refuse to shovel/salt responsibly" that threatens my life da...
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