So where have I been?

Moving and working means I’ve been quite busy. Last week, I was keeping myself afloat best I can in life. I luckily have been able to keep myself ahead of the game with the students, but I’ve also had a mound of grading to do. Then I come home to clean, figure out how I’m getting certain items I don’t have (pots, pans, whatever) from Craig’s List or otherwise. My cats have been adjusting, as well, which has been some work; my one cat was having a hissing fit with the other two.

Last week, besides the moving stress, was a bit stressful because students like to argue grades. I’m not sure if it’s the nature of the beast, being female, or being young (or a combination), but a handful of students have mindblowingly crazy attitudes. It varies from telling me that I’m not fair for holding their grades to the syllabus, which they not only received prior to me but also we talked about when I did arrive, to being mad at me when they don’t understand what’s going on in class because they were absent and refuse to visit me during my tutoring hours. I’m not trying to be mean or harsh, but sometimes I’m astounded with the lack of accountability on the students’ behalf. I understand life is hard, but you have to take control of things. Thank goodness it’s only a handful, but they can sour things fast. I luckily have some fantastic students who may not totally understand physics, but they’re willing to work at it and not become accusative.

I’m also trying to make decisions on the rest of my life. Do I go to grad school next year (or rather, try to)? What kind of job do I want? And so on. Our work schedules for the next semester have not come out yet, which is stressful. While everyone at work insists that they keep people on as long as they can, there is no guarantee. I’m not trying to be negative or think for the worst, but the reality is I have a contract for so long. So in addition to trying to make long term plans, I am trying to keep my options open for the shorter term.

During my spare moments last week, I’ve also been exploring dance options. I discovered that the studio I used to attend offers a work-study program for dance classes, so I applied to there. I’m also looking at taking a drop-in ballet class. Once I have a feel for my job situation, I’ll likely return to Odissi classes here (or possibly Bharatanatyam). I would love to find a Flamenco class, but I a) don’t want to overextend myself and b) don’t know where one is.

A good part of me is interested in establishing a social life here of sorts; the last time I lived in the area, a bunch of my friends were here. They have either moved away, or we’ve gone very separate life paths at this point. I don’t want to go out all the time, but it’d be nice to hang out with some other people.

So that’s me in a nutshell for now. I think that I should be able to update more frequently next week, but who knows?

 

I’ve moved

To a completely different apartment than the last one I had described. This one was simply a better deal. The apartment has more than enough space for me and three cats. I have a room I intend on using for a dance/yoga studio, which is nice. It’s plenty of room for veil. I’m also on ground floor, so if I resume to louder forms of dance (Flamenco, Odissi), noise won’t be much of a concern.

It is weird having my own space and having to maintain it after literally living out of a suitcase for the past 2 months or so. It is strange to be alone and only surrounded by cats. I don’t mind it necessarily, this is just s change. I feel like I’m slowly getting myself into a routine. I’m a fairly habitual person. I’m not so stuck in my ways that I won’t ever change, but I do appreciate consistency to some degree.

I will resume blogging more once I have better internet. I am currently using the town’s wireless internet (no contract, first month only 1 dollar), but it’s spotty.

 

Happy Halloween!

I applied for an apartment on Thursday. The location wasn’t 100% perfect and it is small, but it will do for now. I always take apartments with a grain of salt. You can’t have it all, unfortunately. The important part is that it meets my basic criteria. I’m also glad to be finished with the struggle that is apartment hunting in Boston. I can’t imagine what apartment hunting in NYC is like, since I imagine it may be worse. Boston has a competitive market that is very expensive. Chicago apartment hunting was a walk in the park compared to here.

My Halloween plans aren’t much of anything. I get to grade . My firm final date for late labs was Wednesday. Not only is it a huge workload for me to keep grading labs from way back when, but it also not beneficial towards the students. They can’t improve their writing (in principle) if they receive no feedback whatsoever. I noticed, even when students are mad about lower grades on lab reports, they eventually become better writers if only for the grade.

Have a safe and happy Halloween everyone!

 

The apartment hunt continues

It seems like nothing will pan out. The short of it has been:

• The realtors have often behaved as though they’re doing me a favor. I think my time in Chicago has made me expect really good customer service; it was a sticking point for many people I knew.
• My employment is an issue. That is to be expected, since I only am employed through December.
• According to some people, I have no significant rental history. I find that perplexing, because I have 3 years of renting faithfully.
• No one wants to negotiate. In Boston, the rental season starts in March and goes through August/September. If you have not rented a place out, it becomes much harder. Realtors have been offended if I ask if they would remove/negotiate the fee or lower rent by $100. I actually had one tell me that the landlord would rather see the apartment sit empty than lower the price. That doesn’t make sense to me, because they have to pay for heat anyway.

I need positive vibes for this one. It feels like I’m climbing up a 90 degree hill at times.

 

Wish me luck on getting an apartment

I filled out paperwork for an apartment that I’m interested in today. If all goes well, I should be on my own again by November 1st and back with my cats. It is really time, since I’ve been essentially living out of a suitcase since the end of August. When I get my stuff back, it’ll be like Christmas early.

The place I want is a bit bigger than I need, but I figure it’ll be a good excuse to make a dance studio or home office. With all my moving, I’ve really gotten down to crucial basics and don’t own a lot besides books and cooking gear.

Positive thoughts for me getting a place soon!

 

Life occasionally throws a curve ball

I’ve been debating about writing this in my blog, since I try to keep it light and alittle apersonal (perhaps, trying to keep it more professional). However, I am a person at the end of the day. My father died last week, which is why there have been no updates. I simply wasn’t in the mood to write or make progress on my life goals. My father and I didn’t have the best relationship, and the grieving process has been difficult in many respects, much different than when my mother died.

For obvious reasons, my father’s death put my life on hold for last week. This week, I finally contacted the temp agency I had used the last time I had lived in Boston. Although the contact I had originally used is no longer there, I have a very good record there. If you’ve never used a temp agency, the way the company and individual workers make money is if you make money. Evidently, some folks are unreliable and won’t show up to work or do their jobs, so having a good record is important. The temp agency is sending me on an interview tomorrow with a company I had originally worked at in 2006-2007, before grad school. Company B is thisclose to scheduling round II interview with me. There will most likely be a round III interview, if I do well with round II, but the HR person said that those interviews are usually scheduled within days of round II and decisions are made quickly.

With that, I’m in principle looking to move out of Providence soon, like Oct 1 soon. This weekend I’m heading to my hometown to see my brother and settle some matters, but I’m lucky enough to have a friend who’ll start the hunt for me.

 

I have arrived

On Saturday, I arrived in Providence, RI. My move was epic fail. On Friday, I spent most of the day trying to talk to my movers. On Saturday, they didn’t show and worse, sent a cancellation at 12 noon. I told them that I was leaving at 12 noon to catch my flight. Luckily, my SO’s parents are awesome and repacking and sending my stuff. I did a decent job packing for moving which is different from packing for shipping. I feel like a jerk leaving my stuff, but- I didn’t have a lot of choices. I’m still upset about my movers. I find it truly unprofessional to cancel so last minute (allegedly, a truck was broken) and then to not even call to apologize or inform me of the situation.

As I said that day, some day I will laugh about it. Today is unfortunately not that day. I slept for about 12 hours once I moved to Providence (I am staying with friends), and I spent Sunday preparing for my cats. Monday I went into Boston to interview and see my SO. The interview was relatively short (35 min; I am accustomed to at least an hour long interview). I think it went okay. Right now, I’m trying to organize another interview, as well as work on my thesis. Jobs being posted have ceased a little, which is a little distressing, but I hope that they’ll pick up as the month continues.

I miss Chicago. I feel sureal being back; I can’t really describe it, but I haven’t mentally clicked that the New England area is my home again. I guess I may be in denial, since I had visited at least once a year during my stint in Chicago. Oh well. I think it’ll be an adventure. I just need a job to fund it!

 

Possibly my last post from Chicago

The sun has finally showed up today, which is nice. I haven’t seen much of the Chicago area in the past few weeks (school and neighborhood). I’m going to miss it. I’m a sentimental fool at times, but I did like living here. I did make some friends. I think, unfortunately, to continue the theme from Fight Club (a small handful of my friends and I have been obsessing over it; it’s amazing if you haven’t seen it), I came to Chicago at a very strange time in my life.

Moving this time has been one of the more stressful moves. I’ve never hired movers before, let alone cat movers. The communication has been fair to poor, and that leaves me anxious.

I look forward to leaving Chicago right now, because my life feels like it’s stagnant. I have an interview Monday and hopefully another interview this week coming up (I received a call back interview from a job I had interviewed before). I like Chicago a lot, and I ambivalent about moving back to the East coast; however, there are simply not jobs here. I did try getting a job here for quite a while, and it just isn’t happening. I’m not convinced that it is me but the economy. Five people in the class before me don’t have jobs; that’s 5 out of 7, and one of them had a job coming into grad school. Some of them haven’t had a job for about a year. It’s scary times out there. As much as  I hate a thousand mile move, I can’t wait around on a job that probably doesn’t exists. The odds don’t appear to be in my favor.

Even though I’d close to being done with packing, there is still more to do. I guess the next time I write, I’ll be in Providence, RI.

 

Starting to miss Chicago

I haven’t gotten to see very much lately of the city, besides my school and where I live, but I started realizing today that I did grow to enjoy living here. Chicago isn’t perfect, to say the least, but it has been home for the past 2 years. After being rather transient (since I was 17, I’ve spent the academic year living in one place and summers somewhere else), I liked living in one place consistently. For misc. reasons, I’ve lacked a lot of stability in my life since my mother died, so being in one place and having a routine was good for me. That isn’t say that I would’ve been thrilled having a set routine in another city. People in Chicago are incredibly nice. It’s very pretty, and I love my neighborhood.

One of the biggest disappointments for me this summer has been that I haven’t had the time to trek up to Arabesque or go take lessons with Danielle. I’m going to miss them. I have had a lot of growth in my dance since moving here; I think I have more questions than answers, though! The more I’ve learned the less I realize know or am solid about, like what style am I? I regret not playing more in the dance community, too. They are very nice people, and- it’s nice to be a part of a good community. I’m thankful that I did participate in the community, even if it was on the fringes.

Probably around every time this year, I write something about getting nostalgic. I’m not one who embraces changes. The unknown scares the beejezus out of me, honestly. Some people say good things can happen, but I don’t see why bad things aren’t equally probable. I still don’t have a job. The money Obama is pumping into science- it happens in September, allegedly, but national labs take a long time to hire, and who knows what kind of jobs they are? One of the downsides of physics jobs is that they want specific knowledge and experience. I talked with a professor the other day; his best advice was to learn as much as you can and network like crazy.

In any case, the summer is drawing itself to a close. It’s cold here in Chicago, about 60some degrees Farenheit. The future is creeping in, even in the weather.

 

Vedi, vidi, not quite vici

My thesis defense was yesterday. It went okay. I was disappointed by the lack of crowd (one adjunct admitted he went to the beach). The presentation was not flawless. I use Keynote, which is the Mac version of Powerpoint; I prefer it, though I have Powerpoint. The day before, when I rehearsed, Keynote had an aweseome presenter only display, where I had a clock and my notes on my screen, and the presentation on the big screen. True to how life rolls, I wasn’t able to get that back the next day, even though I hadn’t changed any settings on my compuer and no one had used the room for my presentation.

The defense part (the part behind closed doors) was intense. At least mine wasn’t a friendly meeting of professors; we were there for business and nothing nice. I have to do rewriting. Everyone has different standards; some things that my advisor had wanted me to do and loved were things the committee hated. Go figure. The only bad thing about the edits are that some of them I need to have access to stuff at school. Due to my job search and lack of job, I am moving in with a friend in Providence, RI next week sometime. I have to work hard to get stuff done all while packing.

The other thing that made yesterday rough was a friend wanted to cancel on me for moving. I was relying on this, since I’m moving within a week or so. I have since found a reasonable mover, but I now need to figure out how to move my cats. Airlines won’t let me fly with three cats or buy seats or anything like that. I’m not sure why, but that’s what I found out from customer service tonight. Anyone have any advice?

That’s where my life stands. My big relaxing stuff today (and part of yesterday when I wasn’t freaking out about my move) was eating malai kofta from my favorite Indian restaurant, playing Sims 3, and sitting around in my PJs.