As usual, the last thing I am thinking about in preparation for this job talk is what I should wear while giving it.  I am not a stylish person, a fact that I know and am OK with.  I loathe clothes shopping even though I look good in most things I try on.  I can just never seem to justify the time and money it takes to build up a respectable wardrobe.  Most of my clothing must be versatile enough to wear in the lab and must take the abuse that goes along with getting all manner of things smeared all over it, a purpose that has adapted itself quite well to motherhood.  I own lots of jeans, tank tops, basic knit tops, hiking boots or mocs and the ubiquitous purple hoodie that has appeared in almost every picture of me since 2006.  I own no heels.  The only makeup I own is 2 tubes of lipstick.  I look horrific in eye makeup and will never wear it again—it’s a pain and it’s not for me.  The only thing I absolutely must use 0n a daily basis is a quality facial moisturizer.  Without it, I feel dessicated and old.  That said, this minimalist approach is pretty common in the Northeast where people are more concerned with staying warm than looking good.  During my infrequent trips to the south, the midwest, or the west coast, the first thing I notice is the massive amount of makeup that women wear.  And the heels.  And the perfume.

After some deliberation, I made some decisions about what to wear for my interview.  My hair is another story; I will brush it, but there’s no guarantee that it will behave.  Since losing massive amounts of hair from breastfeeding, my hair is starting to grow back in patches, where I literally have oddly-placed strips of hair that are about 2 inches long framing my face.  It’s really annoying but there’s nothing I can do about it until it grows out a little longer.

As for the clothing, I opted for a dress that I bought a year and a half ago about a week before I found out I was pregnant.  I  bought it expressly for the purpose of wearing to a job talk one day, and haven’t worn it since it was purchased.  The hitch is that (up until this weekend), I didn’t have the right shoes for it.  Because of the style and cut of the dress, I was initially thinking about getting some tall boots, but ultimately I opted for something more subdued.  I found these beauties for a relatively decent price:

Yes, they have little heels.  Very little.  And there is plenty of room in the toe.  They are super comfy—I won’t wear them every day, but they are perfect for giving presentations and going to funerals.

And I tried on the dress finally—a full year and a half since I first purchased it.  And it fits!

I decided that I need a jacket to cover up my bare arms (and to cover up any potential breastmilk catastrophes that might happen while I’m up in front of a crowd of strangers).  I rummaged through my closet and found a jacket that I bought 10 years ago for like $20.

I’m happy enough with how it covers things, so I’m going with it.  In these pictures I am wearing brown tights, but I might try a pair of black nylons to see if they look any better.  I hate agonizing over stuff that is so trivial.

So back to the important stuff—the actual interview preparation!  Things are going well.  My slides are clean and organized; I’ve practiced the talk a few times but I’m still dissatisfied with some of the transitions.  Holden is going to the nanny again this Wednesday so I can iron out some last-minute issues.  I’m still working up a budget for setting up the lab.  I’m also crafting an outline for a Special Topics course over which I have free reign regarding course content—I’ve opted to propose a “Multiple Memory Systems” course that allows me to 1) teach something interesting that I know a few things about, 2) fill in the many holes in my knowledge so that I can plan some fun experiments for the lab.   I am also coming up to speed on the research of others within the department.  I am thoroughly exhausted from all of this.  I can’t wait until it is over.

I’m in job talk land, and I have 10 minutes before I have to go pick Holden up from the nanny.  Just thought I’d share some neurons I counted last year.  They are pretty:

Is Brain Awareness Week!  To commemorate the occasion, I plan on actually using my brain for once.  My job interview is next Friday, and I am going to need all of the brain power, good vibes, and jazz hands that people can muster!

Holden has been doing a great job with his various babysitters.  Today he was away from me all day and he did GREAT.  I missed him so much and thought about him often throughout the day, but I was fine.  I was so excited to be able to go pick him up at the end of the day.  He had a great time playing with his new friend Mallory and getting to explore all of her toys.  Their nanny is very sweet and is super awesome with the babies.  If we end up staying in Burlington, I will want to keep him in this nanny share .  Their house is literally a 1-minute walk from our house.  I just cut through our neighbors’ backyard and voila—I am at their front door.  

I guess I got a lot done today, but the time flew by faster than I would have liked.  I worked on transitions with my talk, re-arranged and re-organized certain parts of the talk, and double-checked a lot of my facts.  My living room is a mess of uncategorized journal articles and notebooks half-filled with half-baked ideas.  This blog post is an exercise in procrastination, as I really should be cleaning up the stacks so I can get a fresh start tomorrow morning.  It was a pretty productive day, although I felt so sick for part of it.  I really haven’t felt better even after my bout of antibiotics last month.  I was on the mend for about a week and now I have the same illness that comes and goes intermittently.  My sinuses are so congested that I have intense headaches in the middle of the day, every day.  I am also bruising everywhere on my body, large black marks that seem to emerge for no apparent reason.  I do need to go back to the doctor, as I am pretty sure that the breastfeeding is wiping me out.  I probably just need to make some adjustments to my diet, maybe take some supplemental vitamins.  Nevertheless, I can’t go back to the doctor until this job stuff is out of the way and I have time again to run little errands of that sort.  For my talk, I plan on taking a bunch of medicine in the morning so that I won’t have to contend with debilitating headaches while talking about this:

As this is enough to give you a headache on its own.

One of the great things about my current situation is that no matter what happens, I will have a job to go to at the end of it all.  Even if the academic job in Maine does not work out, I will still have a postdoc here in Vermont.  And regardless of what happens, there are many things to look forward to in the coming months.  I will enumerate them here, as a way to psych myself up and get through these last weeks of snow and bitter cold.

1.  Holden will be turning one in June.  I haven’t written our plans in stone yet because I am not sure where we will be in June, but the current plan is to rent out a picnic shelter at Oakledge Park in Burlington and have a potluck cookout for the little guy.  This park is lovely; it’s right on Lake Champlain, it borders the bike path, and sports the world’s first handicapped accessible treehouse.  What could be more fun than playing in a treehouse?  As soon as I know more about where we’re going to be in the next few months, I will be able to make the reservations and send out invites.

2.  First family vacation.  Rob and I have made it a priority to get away every year, even if it’s only for a long weekend.  We want to be able to take our first family vacation, just the three of us.  We are still undecided on the details.  We have contemplated going to North Carolina (we had a wonderful time there 2 years ago), or staying at a beachside cottage in Maine (although that option is less appealing if we actually end up living there).  Or we may opt for something completely new and different.  There are a billion places I would like to go without Holden (including many destinations in Europe), but we’re not ready to leave him for a week yet.  Maybe in a few more years.  For now, we’re just trying to find a simple, relaxing spot where the three of us can chill for a week.  Any suggestions?

3.  Dishwasher!  Whether we move or not, I am getting a dishwasher.  If we end up staying in our condo another couple years, I have decided that I can’t live without one.  I do way too much cooking and end up spending an hour of my day doing dishes (no lie).  Our kitchen is small and it will require some creative maneuvering to fit another appliance in here, but I am confident I can find someone handy enough (e.g. not one of us) to do the dirty work for us.

4.  Television!  The fact that Rob and I do not own a television makes us feel smug and superior on a daily basis.  We pride ourselves on being bookworms and reading the local newspaper instead.  We are avid fans of Netflix and watch many a movie on our desktop computer in the living room.  Alas, I am now 30 years old, and I can’t quite see the screen like I used to.  I am finding myself squinting as we watch movies most of the time.  We toyed around with the idea of getting a projector to save space, but now that flat screen TVs have really come down in price, it seems a good time to take the leap and snatch up a screen that we can actually see.  Our most recent obsession has been watching Cosmos (the famous PBS series hosted by Carl Sagan)—can you imagine how some of those shots of the Milky Way would look on a huge screen?  We’ve decided the TV will be reserved for watching movies and that we will forego cable.  After all, who wants to pay for being advertised to?

5.  Kayaking & Hiking!  In 2 more months, the mud will be gone and we will be able to hike.  Hauling Holden up a mountain might present a bit of a challenge, but we’ll figure it out.  We are excited for kayaking too—we just need to find a baby life preserver and we’ll be set!

What are you excited for as we spring forward into the warmer months?