Ovid's Birthday Party

We had a really fun weekend, even if it started kinda sketchy.  Nico and I went to Toys R Us on Friday night to get a birthday gift for his BFF Ovid.  I explained to Nico that the purpose of the trip was to get a gift for Ovid and Nico was all about finding gifts that Ovid would like (these also coincidentally ended up being gifts that Nico wanted :)  Including a police office dress-up set that he is going to ask Santa for.  I thought we might get out of there somewhat unscathed when Nico became convinced that he needed some ice cream.  Cue meltdown.

We got home and to bed, and Nico woke up fresh as daisies on Saturday morning.  We got to the birthday party (being held at Tallahassee Museum) and all was right with the world.  In fact, we even got Nico to sit for an impromptu potrait (for Christmas cards).

Between this pic and the one from the Greek Fest, I have two- count them TWO options for Christmas card photos.  Shimmy.

Tallahassee Museum has some awesome features, including a play ground, and ropes courses (which we didnt do).  We also got to walk around and see, a tiger, some bear, some dear, a tiger and a gator.  On the playground is a rock wall, which Nico did.


Saturday included long naps for all of us and a grocery run.

When we woke up on Sunday, Nico helped me make breakfast for us, and then make a pecan pie (for a work Thanksgiving Lunch thing).  Dave got a workout in and when he got home, I ran out for a quick workout, shoe shopping for Nico and hot yoga.  In all, it was a pretty great weekend.

Boom like a hotdog!

We had a super fun weekend.  We went out to Pensacola and Panama City to play soccer.  We played in Pensacola on Friday night and Panama City on Saturday.  Nico was a peach.  Dave and Nico stopped at the beach on the way back into town.  He collected a bunch of shells.  I believe there are Christmas ornaments in order.

Last night the girls were off, so we had a nice night at home.  Dave started a fire in the fire place and Nico and I layed on a pallet of blankets in front of the fireplace to read books.  He is starting to say some really funny things, like, "Boom like a ________________!"  The first time he said it, he said, "Boom, like a hotdog!"  He is also continuing to parrot the things I say to him, like, "I can't wait to get just a little nibble of that hair!!" or "I'm gonna get just a little nibble of those ears!"  

We think he might be going through a growth spurt.  He has been hungrier lately, more inclined to eat different things.  Still wont knowingly touch a vegetable mind you.  But he loves the crap out of some veggie burgers!

He's also starting to listen to the news with us.  During Hurricane Sandy, he was pretty aware that there was a big hurricane on its way to New York and was worried that Uncle JJ might have to leave.

Since Christmas is one of my three favorite holidays (in order of favor: Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving), I am starting some traditions with him this year.  Like, this year we are going to have an Advent calendar (for the first time), only its going to be in the form of Christmas books- I am going to wrap them up and he will have a new Christmas book to read every night.  Which is fantastic- since we haven't bought him books in a while.  We are also going to do a big push to get rid of a bunch of Nico's old toys.  He has a ton of toys he doesnt really play with anymore, and its time.  So that is going to be part of our Thanksgiving/Christmas festivities.  

Amazing weekend

This was one crazy, fun weekend.  It started on Friday night when we went to the fair.  We met up with Ovid and his parents to do fair stuff.  Turns out someone is a Cautious Charlie at the fair (Nico).  He just about had a heart attack on the fire truck ride.  And wanted basically no part of any rides.  He was all about the bounce houses, the giant slides, etc.  But no part of rides.  $15 on an unlimited ride bracelet well spent?  No.  Not at all.  Maybe this is a good thing.  Maybe he isn't a dare devil and I will therefore never have to worry about him doing the stupid shit that teenagers do when they think they will live forever.  YOLO!!

One of the funniest things from the fair was when we were walking through the Animal Barn... this is not the petting barn where animals are chilling out waiting for you to bring them noms.  This is where goats are being kept prior to their exhibition.  So there are people walking around feeding, watering, and moving goats.  We were in this one aisle where people were moving baby goats from one stall to another when Nico runs down the aisle underneath this older guy who is trying to move a baby goat, which are like squirming puppies.  He accidentally dropped a baby goat on Nico.  It was hilarious!!  

When we got home someone was a real beast... but I guess that is what we get for keeping the kid out till almost 11.  

Saturday we started off with a game at Godby, which we won (ugly).  Then, I went to get my massage (a birthday gift from Nico) and headed back to the house to scoop up Dave and Nico to go to the Greek Festival. we ran into several of Nico's friends, including Ovid and Avery (from his old school) and Ady (from his new school).  

Isn't he a good dancer? 

Going from the picture below, it looks like I might have another wiseguy on my hands.  The only thing that isnt happening in this picture is Nico pointing in the sky at an airplane, like Uncle JJ.  

Sunday morning we went out to The Egg restaurant (formerly Another Broken Egg).  It was delicious and Nico was a gem.  I hate to say anything about this, because I feel like I am jinxing myself, but he has been really good the last two times we have taken him out to dinner.  Maybe we are ready turn the corner and start going to restaurants as a family again?

After brunch, we took the dogs to Puppies in the pool.  It's pretty awesome- we've been going for 4 years now.  The dogs absolutely love it.  If you remember, the weekend before they shut down Trousdale to clean it, they open it up to dogs.  And the dogs love it.



It plum wears them out. Nico seems to really like it too.  Its fun seeing all the dogs that look like Drake and Gordon.  :)

Happy Halloween!

Halloween ended up being pretty fun.  I had an epic win yesterday, when I swung into Walmart on the way down to the county for practice.  I found firefighter boots to complete Nico's outfit.  Seriously.  How adorable!!  Can't you just eat him up?

He was pretty excited about putting the costume on.  He loves the suspender/bib part of the pants.  Thinks it's pretty funny.  We went to the Lafayette Park area of town, where they close off streets and people take Halloween WAY too seriously.  Lots of houses decorated and people having parties.  I am not sure, but I think the neighborhood must have some sort of contest on decorating the outside of one's house because there were lots of houses with elaborate decorations.  Which is awesome.

Next year, Dave and I must acquire a wagon for next year.  One, so that when nico gets tire of walking, we can stick him in there.  But also, so that we can have a cooler full of adult beverages.  Not that this is the point of Halloween.  We did one street and Nico was pretty much done.

And speaking of which, someone is not really good at Halloween.  He goes up to houses and is so shy- he wont say "trick or treat".  At the end, we got him to say "Thank you."  But someone is going to have to step up his game.  I guess that is okay.  The world is full of kids who have no problem going up to adults and saying, "Give me some candy!"  I guess its not the worst thing if Nico is a bit shy.  We tried to meet Nico's friend Ovid, but I was not really clear on where they were, and they were on the way out as we were getting there.  :(

They are setting the fair up this week, and we have a date with the fish game.  Following the debacle with the "Skill/Crane" game at the Golden Corral in Taylor County, I promised Nico that when the fair comes to town, we'd go try to win a goldfish.  Yeah, want an exercise in difficulty?  Try to explain why you don't always win in those skill games?  To a three year old who is in phase 2 of a five phase melt down.  Not nearly as easy as you think.

In any case, in our house, the fair is kinda a big deal.  Street food, games, petting barn? How much fun can one have in 2 hours?  Exactly!! Friday night is Family Fun night and we are going to meet Ovid.  Hopefully they will have some fun together!!

On the verge of a mom Fail...

I am not too big a fan of Halloween.  Never have been.  Even before Nico was born, it always seemed like such beatdown.  I guess its mostly because I have difficulty striking that perfect balance between creative/original/yet culturally relevant.  Add to that my difficulty in buying store bought costumes and that basically means I find its too much work for basically one night of the year.  My past halloween costumes (as a grown up) have included Sarah Pallin, Monica Lewinsky, Cleopatra, Kenny (from Southpark), a blind person and Captain Elizabeth Lindy (one of the armed services personnel wrapped up in that whole Abu Gharib scandal).  Except for the year Dave and I went as the Blind Leading the Blind, I always eschewed "general" costumes.  Like "sexy witch" or "ghost" or whatever because it always felt wrong to be something that 10 other people were going to be.  I guess I felt like if I couldnt come up with a great halloween costume that no one else had, I didnt want to go at all.  I have no idea where this attitude comes from.  But alas, there it is.  Maybe from the fact that in high school my mom made formal dresses for Nicole and me.  

In any case, its been hard doing Halloween right for Nico.  Mostly because I don't have the time in my life to do it right.  I would love to be able to make Halloween costumes... but it seems I am too tired to be creative with it... that combines to a perfect storm of Nico wearing store-bought costumes and me not being really excited about them.  In any case, I got out in front of it this year and ordered a fireman costume on amazon.  It came with a stupid floppy hat, bib/overall pants and a jacket.  Luckily we are tossing the hat and going with the standard one that he has.  

That said, we dont have any boots.  I know that it probably doesnt really matter- because you probably arent going to be able to see them anyways.  But I looked at Target and ToysRus to no avail.  I will run into the Walmart down in the county on the way to practice. But its not looking promising.  Add that to the fact that we never got around to actually carving the pumpkins.  And he painted them.  With the baby sitter.  I had her send me a pic.  It kind of makes me sad for Nico. His parents are so busy they couldnt even carve a pumpkin with the poor kid.  Hopefully running around midtown tonight trick or treating with his little friend Ovid will make up for it.   

5 little pumpkins

I took this video on Friday night.  Seriously, how cute?




We had a really fun weekend.  We spent Saturday in Taylor County playing in a preseason tournament.  We tied our first game and won our second.  We ended up winning the tournament on goal differential.  We were up 2-0 at half time and we got word that if we won by 6-0 we would win the tournament.  So, four goals later and we were the tournament champs.  That is kind of nice to be able to do that.

Sunday morning Dave took Nico to the Highland Games out in Marianna.  We kinda forgot about a birthday party we were supposed to go to.  I guess that makes us bad people.  I felt horrible when Dave told me about it this morning.  Yesterday we played soccer.  It was kinda chilly.  Nico ran around with some of his friends at the soccer field, but by the last period, he was pretty ready to go home.

I put the breadmaker on to have a loaf of bread ready when we got home.  Combined with corn chowder and beer?  You can't shake a stick at that kind of combination.  We tried to get a fire going, but someone whose name rhymes with Save didnt open the flue all the way so the entire house filled up with smoke.  Oh well, at least its good to go now.

Looking forward to Halloween on Wednesday.  We have Nico's firefighter costume all ready.  He just needs a pair of boots and maybe a new hat.  Should be lots of fun.

Squish

Things have been CRAY.

The soccer season officially starts on Saturday when we go to Taylor County for the Preseason Tournament.  Until Daylight Savings Time, we are practicing at the high school from 530-800.  Which means really long days for Dave and me.  I am trying not to fall off the wagon like I usually do when the season starts (meaning not working out and not eating well).  I have been getting to the gym 3-5 times a week, playing soccer and such, so I want to keep that going forward.  But the days are long.  Last night I came home, drank half a beer and went to sleep.  Nico and I were asleep at 945 last night.

Which explains why he was up at 645 this morning.  A bonus from being gone from him so much is that he is extra snuggly when he wakes up.  Seriously, holding Nico for about 5-10 minutes this morning when he woke up was really nice.  Even cuter was this morning when I was about to leave.  Dave and Nico heard the knuckleboom coming down the street (today is yard waste day).  And Dave ran Nico outside in only his underpants to see the knuckle boom come by.  Pretty much awesome.

This weekend was pretty low key.  We had considered going down to the the Stone Crab festival, but with the next couple of weekends being really busy, we decided to hang out in town.  I went into the office and worked on getting some job applications out (yay University of Evansville!).

Okay, so I know in my heart of hearts that the job market is so completely crazy and arbitrary and out of control.  These are things I know.  I know that I would be really, really, seriously, stupidensously, ridiculously lucky to get any job.  While I don't really think I am competitive for the top jobs in the field (UT Austin, Michigan, Yale, Wisconsin, Harvard), I'm trying to mix up the applications.  I am, frankly, in love with the University of Delaware, so it would pretty much be a dream job.  Dave has no desire to live in Mississippi or Georgia, but both Southern Miss and Southern Georgia got job applications from me.  While I know intellectually, that I should be happy with any job I get, I have a hard time thinking about a world where I don't get interest from the shittiest schools who are getting applications from me.  I don't want to name names, but if places like Wichita State or Midwestern State aren't interested, then I probably really should just hang it up.  Seriously. These are the things I worry about.

In any case, job market update tangent aside, while I was in the office working on Saturday, Dave took Nico to a pumpkin patch to get a pumpkin.

Isn't he squishable?

Pumpkin Festival

So, this weekend was pretty awesome.  We started with playing at the park till dark on Friday night.  His BFF Ovid was there.  And since Dave and I have been doing tryouts all week- we wanted to let him get some play time in.  

We took Nico up to the pumpkin festival in Havana on Saturday. 

 

Ovid was there- although for some reason Nico insists on calling him Ovi.  I don't know why.  Here he is listening to Ovid's Dad, Tim read curious George.  

By far, one of Nico's favorite things ever, is to ride on these little train things they have at festivals.

This festival had two- one that had little cars mounted to a trailer, which are all linked up (like a train) and pulled by a ATV.  Note to self: if this tenure track faculty thing doesnt work out, I need to get one of these things.  They cost three tickets (=three dollars) per ride.  And Nico would have ridden it all day if we had more tickets.  Basically, the guy on the ATV pulls the train down the closed off street, turns around and goes back and turns around.  And all kinds of kids were queing up to ride.  Pretty awesome.

 

We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out at the house.  Sunday Nico and I went to get groceries while Dave went to the gym.  Then I went to the gym and when Nico woke up, we went to play soccer.  I was given an early birthday gift when the referee opted to not give me a red card for a hard tackle against an opposing player. To make matters worse, the guy is super fast and relatively smallish... so he flew.  We both laughed about it getting up.  I fully expected to be booked for it, simply because it was a clumsy tackle.  But not ejected.  To this I have only three comments:

1.  That guy had it coming.  He'd been roughing up my defenders pretty much all day.
2.  While he did have it coming, I wasn't actually trying to get him.  I was trying to get the ball.  And contrary to popular belief, I don't always look for the hard tackle.  Sometimes I try not to get the player (like when I am playing against the girls).  Sunday night I really was trying not to get the guy. And just so we are clear, I usually fess up when I get someone on purpose.
3.  I doubt I would have been called in the Prem.  Dave says its not uncommon for that to get called in the Prem.  Of course, I think its bullshit when it's called in the Prem.  The tackle in and of itself isn't a red cardable offense (probably).  It's just that he was in a goal-scoring position and I was the last man back.  To which I argue that giving a goalkeeper a red card for a tackle that had it been committed forty yards down field would not have been a foul is unjust.  And I didnt come from behind.  But, apparently that is neither here nor there, because the other captain wanted the game to go forward playing against a goalkeeper and consulted the referee to not eject me, so I was allowed to stay on. So I guess, yay?

Squish

Not much going on around here.  I am under a pretty crazy deadline for our presentation for the APHA meeting later this month.  What else is new? Also, we started tryouts this week.  It's tough because I am feeling kind of a let down from last year.  They had so much excitement last year.  Maybe because there were 11 seniors, so much of their excitement was about being seniors.  And being awesome at soccer.

We havent had many girls out for soccer.  Not enough for two teams, which is crazy.  Just crazy.  We have decided to put off naming teams until next week.  We're trying to get enough kids so we can have a JV team... and not have to have 16843546 kids on varsity or worse, cut kids out of the program.


While I was on lockdown last weekend, Dave and Nico had lots of funs.  They went to Airport Fest, which was out at the airport.  Nico got to sit in a plane and a firetruck (I am not sure what the firetruck had to do with anything, but oh well).

Seriously?  Look at that face!  Doesn't he look so happy?

A stomach bug has been going around Nico's big school, so I kept him home from school today.  Can't you just squish him?

8 of 10

Not much new going on around here.  I am gang busters on the job market.  I had a really good connection on the job market, a friend sent me a post at DePaul (in Chicago), which is almost perfect.  But its not faculty and appears to be a position wherein I hold faculty's hands walking them through methodology and statistics, which is great if they want to listen to me.  But if they don't want to listen to me, then I will have to put the muscle on them.  Also, they need someone immediately... I am not really sure how that would work- especially given the soccer season not ending until Late January (God Willing). It has about 8 of the 10 criteria that we are looking for in a job.  The two that it doesnt meet is "DOES NOT HAVE UNGODLY COLD WINTERS" and "CLOSE TO GRANDPARENTS, NICODY, OR SACHLEBENS".  Oh well.

I have sent off about 40 applications with about another 12 needing to get out by November 1.  On top of work and soccer.  :(

Nico launched himself off the bed and landed on his face this weekend.  Has a real dark mark on his face.  But he is getting pretty good at goalkeeping:


Dave is taking Nico to a festival at the airport this weekend- which combines our two favorite things: airports and festivals.  It will be awesome.

All for now.

Smacked in the Head.

Something I can't quite figure out is when Nico is at the park with his BFF Ovid.  Now, Ovid is a few months younger than Nico.  I think Nico has a much more developed vocabulary, but Ovid was potty trained sooner, so whatever.  We have met Ovid and his mom at Optimist park a couple of times and the last two times its been an absolute panic riot when it's time to go.

Yesterday, he smacked his friend in the face.  In the face. And there was the meltdown.

They are totally best friends forever, so I don't understand.

Another interesting thing he is doing lately is qualifying some of this statements.  Like, "This macaronni and cheese is kinda good" or "It's a pretty nice night out".  It is awesome.

Sumo and Spanish

Here is a video of Dave and Nico doing sumo.  Its awesome.


We have also started teaching him spanish and french words.  This was always going to happen, since Dave speaks so much french already.  According to Dave, Nico's pronunciation is pretty good.  But, check this out:


Disregarding the fact that Nico is picking his nose here... listen to him roll his Rs and Ls.  Words like brown (marron) and yellow (amarillo).  Pretty impressive.  I know adults who can't do that.

Did I spoil your plans?

I really do feel bad about Nico not getting to see his friends at his old school.  He and his little buddy Ovid are just hysterical together.  The last time we went to the park they ran up to each other and hugged.  It was awesome.  This morning, Nico was talking about how he didnt want to go to school, he just wanted to stay at the house and sword fight.  like this:

I know- how much fun is that?  So I compromised with Nico and told him that he had to go to school because after we were going to take the swords to the park and meet Ovid there... so Ovid and Nico are going to fight with swords at the park.  Isn't that amazing?  What could be better than best friends and sword fighting at the park? 

In other news, we have been doing preseason.

Preseason used to be just a way that we would get around FHSAA rules about when practice could start.  But now we actually use it for fitness.  I wish I had a lot of spare time on my hands... I would love to make some highlight video for the girls this year. I think they would love it. 

Other than that... Dave gets back from Jacksonville today.  Nico has a birthday party tomorrow.  And we have practice.  And I am running a race.  Theoretically.  I was supposed to run a race last weekend, but whatever... 

I have 11 more job applications to put out before October 15.  I have 28 applications "out there" right now. I think it goes fine until I look at one that was submitted to Kenyon, where in I addressed it to Professor Sacks, but then say, "Dear Professor Sachs..."  FML.  These are the things that I hate and that kill me.  My only hope is that they write that off as a brilliant mind who can't be bothered to think about the difference between an h and a k... but likely they write that off as me being a dumbass...Which is fair. But its a job I would never get... so, I guess no harm done, right?

I don't even care...

I have come to the conclusion that I must not have a very expanded vocubulary or pattern of speech.  I came to this realization that there have been times when someone has said something and I have recognized it as something that I say a lot....For example, I used to say, "Barf!"  A lot.  Like: "Hey Jessi, how do you feel about going to work today?"  Me: "Barf!" "Jessi, how do you feel about playing playing Momo's team today?"  Me: "Double Barf!"

I notice it even more now with Nico because he sometimes will parrot what I say.  One thing he has been saying lately is "I don't even care!"  Mostly it's in the context of us playing around.  We will be in the car and he will put his foot on the back of my seat or my shoulder and he'll say, "look Mom!"  And then I will "get him".  "Getting Nico" is mostly just me tickling him.  And I say things like, "I'm gonna get those legs, I don't even care!"  Its really funny.  Nico laughs. So he's been saying that a lot lately, "I don't even care."  

Other than that, not much going on around here.  I have been working out a lot on my lunch break.  My friend from DOH who now works at the COM upstairs works out too, so that is nice.  We keep each other accountable.  

The house is a disaster area, once again.  If Nico's tuition wasn't so expensive, we'd just hire a house cleaning service.  Permanently.  I love not having to clean my house.  Which gets me to thinking... how in the hell did the Boomer women do it?  It seems like once a week something has to be done... a sink needs to be fixed, the washer needs to be fixed, the car needs to go to the shop on top of making dinner, doing dishes, doing laundry every night.  Seriously.  And I can't even use the excuse that Nico is playing sports, doing swimming lessons, doing gymnastics, music lessons and such.  I need a clone.  That is it.  A clone.  

All for now. Back to work!

Well-check

We had a pretty laid back weekend.  We started preseason last week, so after we did soccer on Saturday, we mostly hung out at the house.  Here is Nico at the park on Sunday, before nap and our soccer game on Sunday night. 

Nico went to the doctor yesterday for his 3 year well-child visit.  BTW- how fantastic is not paying co-pays for that?  I think it's awesome!  

Nico weights 33 lbs, and is 38 inches tall.  He is in the 55% for both.  Apparently, my son is an elf-child.  He has been dealing with a head cold of some sort, perhaps leftover from the thing that Dave and I caught last week.  So, we kept him home from school yesterday- where in I got this adorable picture of him while he slept.  

We didnt do much except watch some TV and snuggle on the couch.  I had big plans for doing Christmas crafts and such.  But we ran out of time. Yes, I am already beginning it.  I don't even care.  Mostly because Christmas is my favorite holiday and I want it to be Nico's too.  But also because I tend to get my a$$ kicked during the soccer season, and I am not trying to wait to do all christmas things till our mid-season break.  

All for now.   

Mopping...

So the first day I took Nico to his new big school, he mopped. His new big school has a fluid deck- where in the kids put on water shoes (crocs) and smocks.  They wash baby dolls, have painting, stamping, a mud kitchen (seriously, a mud kitchen?  what is that?) and mops.  Nico mopped the whole deck while we were there.

I ordered a mop from Amazon for Nico thinking that he would love it.  We busted it this weekend.  When Nico mopped for 5 minutes.  Seriously.  5 minutes before he was ready to do something else.  Boooo!!

I was sick this weekend.  Some type of cold or something.  It's weird, because I remember when I first moved to Tallahassee I got really sick... bronchitis and pneumonia.  I was working as a preschool teacher and couldnt afford to take any time off- so I didnt.  Now a little cold puts me on my a$$... I guess I am getting old.  It sucks.

Preseason starts today.  Can't wait till someone throws up.... I warned them about it :)

Smarty McSmarts

I can't remember why, but over the weekend, Nico and I were talking about President Obama.  I was explaining to Nico that a president is a person that Americans pick to be our leader, to help make decisions for the country.  And that President Obama is our president right now.

Fast forward to last night when I come home late from the office.  Nico and Dave are getting ready for bed when Dave tells me that Nico blew his mind tonight by explaining that he knew "President Orvama" is our president and helps make decisions.  Isn't that great? Really smart.  

Here he is working a game that Max and Emme got him for his birthday.  

Long Labor Day Weekend.

So the question on whether or not Nico was going to be allowed to travel was answered this week. The ANSWER IS YES!!  Nico was great!

Since Dave was down in Tampa covering the RNC, Nico and I left from Tallahassee on Thursday afternoon.  I scooped him up from his school before nap and we headed to the airport.  We had a brief moment when he was acting like the Assistant Regional Manager of the Jerk Store.  In fact, the only time he acted up was while we were in the airport in Tallahassee and Atlanta.  And by acting up, he was basically just trying to get away from me- which I probably wouldnt care about it if he were 5 or 8 and aware that TSA would bounce his little ass on the no fly list if he cuts up too much.  When your kid is 3 your biggest worry in life is that someone is going to take him.  Add to that the fact that Nico is ridiculously good looking.  Doesn't this look like the kind of kid you would want to steal?  I thought so.  

The flight from Tallahassee to Atlanta was easy.  Nico didnt cry or fuss on the flight.  Which was awesome.  He stayed awake until we were leaving Atlanta when he fell asleep while taxiing for take-off.  He was sitting in the window seat and just put his head in my lap and took a little nap.  It was awesome.  

Nicole, Emme and Max scooped us up from the airport and took us back to their place in Rockwall.  They moved this summer from Dallas to the suburb of Rockwall.  Their house is huge and we had a blast there. Max and Emme have lots of toys that Nico loved playing with (including several ride-on cars like firetrucks).  Friday we hung around the house waiting for everyone to get done with school and work.  Oh and we got a hamburger cake.  But we didn't get any pictures of it.  :(

Friday night we scooped up Dave from the airport and headed back to Rockwall.  Saturday we headed to the harbor (on a lake in Rockwall) and had Chilosos for dinner.  

The harbor is cool because we also got some ice cream and listened to the Rockwall symphony play some movie soundtracks.  We sat in the grass and listened and the kids went in the light house.  It was awesome.  

We ended up winning the tournament.  I got to see Julia and her husband Jake.  Julia just had ankle surgery, or else she would have played with us during the tournament.  The girls that were on the team are really cool.  Good players... no drama, no attitude.  It was great.

The kids had a great time... even if it was apparent that someone is definitely an only child (and his name rhymes with Rico).  Nicole and Cody have a pool, so it was great swimming a bunch.   The great thing about a pool is that its easier to jump in the pool than to take a bath just before bed time.  Isnt that awesome!!  We got some snuggles with Beckett... who is getting big.  That boy is going to be a biggun!!

In all it was a great long weekend.  But now we are back.  Back on the grind.  Back to work.  Back to school.  Booo!

Interview...

So, since some of you have asked.  Since I am on the Academic Job market this year and I had an interview with a school last week.  Ohio University's College of Osteopathic Medicine is hiring faculty for their Department of Social Medicine. The application deadline was August 15 and I was contacted for a phone interview shortly thereafter.  I dont know how many other candidates they talked to on the phone, but 6-10 is pretty standard for phone interviews.  The interview was only 20 minutes, so I dont know how standard that is.  It went pretty quickly though.

I was a little unsettled by the fact that the committee seemed mostly interested in my dissertation work, which was odd, because I dont think its all that interesting anymore.  Maybe its because I have been writing or working with that data for 6+ years.  Maybe its the main take home point that I have taken from doing research on infant health disparities: that what we really need is better data sources to go beyond what we already know.  I thought they were interested in me because I am at a college of medicine and my current research is in an area that complements their current research.  But turns out they just wanted to know about my main dissertation findings.  I tried twice to turn the conversation to my current work, but I felt like a big-time spaz during the call. Plus, I just got some weird feelings from the committee. It seemed like they were humoring someone by interviewing me...

Then I got an email from Ike, who had spoken to the search committee chair. I dont know to what extent it is protocol to call a candidate's advisor- my guess is that it varies by college and search committee (the dissertation advisor is theoretically, the closest faculty member to the candidate).  Ike told me about how the conversation went which was mostly positive, but the committee had some concerns about my publication record. At this point in time I have one publication (published in 2009, one coming out later this year, and one that will be under review this week, plus I have another paper that will be out by the end of the fall- all from my dissertation.)  That is not even to talk about papers I can write with the data I am collecting.

I guess the good thing about me as a scholar/candidate is that I am self-aware enough to know that my lack of publications may be a problem.  I know this.  I know that the gap from my first paper (2009) to the one coming out this year (2012) is weird. Although to be fair, this current paper was supposed to come out in 2011.  I wish that I could put an asterisk on my cv and say regarding the gap: "During the period 2009-2012, I got married, had a kid, did an internship in DC, worked for AHCA, worked for DOH, taught for the FSU Dept. of Sociology, tutored athletes, coached three seasons of high school soccer, graduated, and got a paper rejected."  But in the end, it really doesn't matter.  It seems (and not just based on the feedback from OU) that the only currency that matters is publications. Of course, its possible that the OU experience was just a fluke... it was my first interview ever, so maybe the whole thing was a crap shoot. Maybe I will get other interviews and it won't matter.  Maybe OU was always out of my reach.  I was surprised when they wanted an interview. My thought was, "Have you seen my cv?  You know I have 1.5 publications, right?  Okay, you want to interview me... you must be into my "potential".  Okay, I can dig that..."

I would like for once, just once, for something to be easy. I guess there are two ways of looking at it... that maybe all the things that are hard are really just red flags.  Maybe it's the Universe's way of saying, "It's never going to happen, man. It's a pipe dream.  I keep putting up road blocks, but you keep climbing over them.  Can't you just go do something else?"

Or maybe it's the Universe's way of saying, "If you can swim in the deep end with chum, sharks and concrete shoes, swimming in the shallow end with a bang stick, minnows and floaties should be no problem.  Get to swimming, kid."

I don't hold much hope for getting invited for an interview at OU. But I am trying to be as thorough as possible with the job market.  I kinda just wish I could fast forward to next year at this time...

Le train

So, a couple of months ago, I got an email from Groupon about the SAMS Excursion Railway.  SAMS is Savannah and Mobile Shortline, which is a train that leaves from the Georgia Veteran's Memorial Park in Cordele and rides around southern georgia.  It visits Americus and Plains, which are little towns in Southern Georgia.  Plains is where President Jimmy Carter is from.  

We stopped in Plains for lunch.  When we got off the train, we wondered into a firestation, where Nico got to sit in a fire truck.  Which was pretty much awesome! You now how the boy loves fire trucks!!

It was a long day, and guess who curled up in my lap for a little sleep?  Yeah, not so big and tough now is he? Having a toddler is a lot of fun.  Seriously.