Dinner -> Movies -> Drugstore

I had too much wine, so now I'm buzzed-posting, even though I know the baby's going to wake up in like an hour.

First off, my baby is an absolute angel.  There are times when I can put her in the crib awake, and if the lights are dim and the house is quiet, she'll just put herself to sleep.  I thought my first was an easy baby, but now I'm realizing that it's more that he was an adorable happy baby, so it made dealing with all the fussiness worth it.  This one is a legit easy baby.  And she still smiles and coos and makes my day awesome on top of all that.

Also, Halloween... since I'm pretty sure nobody reads my LJ at this point, I gotta say that OMG I kinda love being a fruit fly in my friend's life, but most especially because of the stages that we're in right now.  I feel like I've always had that one guy friend (usually, gay) that I've really connected with.  Recently, my gay told me that his boyfriend is really into babies.  Originally he himself wasn't interested in kids at all, but his boyfriend is so good and so adorable with babies that he's coming around.  This Halloween weekend, I got to see just how adorable his boyfriend is with kids.  I was holding Elara and he just said "aww, baby", and I implicityly trusted said boyfriend with my baby.  He wound up holding her for the majority of the evening.  It was immensely cute.  My friend called his bf "babe", when I've never heard him be comfortable enough to use a pet name on a S.O. before.  Gah, just so much gay cuteness!

Anyway, on to neighborhood's Halloween.  I tried taking Conrad trick or treating... while also taking Elara.... disaster. Conrad was Captain America and I thought that it would be easier to take him around the neighborgood on his little push bike.  He got on and immediately thought we were going to the park, so he got really upset when I stopped at the neighbor's.  Meanwhile, I'm holding Elara in her little turtle costume so it was awkward to even hold her because the turtle shell is as big as she is.  My neighbor had adult trick or treats, so I got a shot of wine, Conrad kind of got candy (not sure he actually made the connection that the things in the bucket were sweets and chocolates at the time) and tried going to my other neighbor's.  Conrad got distracted by their dog and stayed there for 20 minutes... at which point, I was ready to go back to neighbor #1 and get another shot of wine... and Conrad was so distracted that I gave up.  He was really more interested in moving candy from one container to another, and it didn't matter if it was his own or somebody else's, so we went back home and he had a blast giving candy to the Trick or Treaters that came to our door.  At this point, though, it's safe to say that he understands that there's candy in his Halloween basket, seeing as he kept on pulling stuff out of his bag and asking me to open it.

On a totally unrelated (and glad nobody reads my LJ) note... it's really weird when I'm breastfeeding and hubby tries to kiss me amorously.  Like, it's OK when he just gives me a peck on the mouth, but if he tries to really make out with me, my hormones go all crazy and I can't deal with it.  He teased me about it, but it seriously just weirds me out to have those two competing feelings.

My neighborhood organized a Trunk or Treat at the pool parking lot.  I was scrambling last minute to get everything done and wound up 15 minutes late.  Oh well, a lot of the kids enjoyed the Pokémon theme I went with.  Basically just got a tablecloth, taped a bunch of pictures of Pokémon to it, then cut holes around the pictures.  Kevin helped out immensely, cutting out several of the pics I'd printed out.

I had originally thought to put Conrad in a Pikachu outfit, but it was way too big.  So he went with Captain America.  I creeped a pic of Conrad with some guy's motorcycle just because he had the shield.

I find it really interesting to see what people's ideas of couples are, and how people with similar values just seem to clump together.  I thought Kevin and I had been together for a long time.  We'd dated since freshman year of college and got married soon after graduating.  By my high school friends standards, we settled down really young.  But my neighbors freaking blows that out of the water.  One couple have been together since they were in high school.  Another couple have known each other since grade school; one of them moved away, but they met back up freshman year of college and have been together ever since.

I don't know if it's that our expectations are lower, so we find a relationship with just one person "enough", or if we work that much harder to keep the relationship good.  I do get scared that at this point, I'm doing it for the kids and once they're grown and no longer in the house, I'll look at this person that I've spent some 30 years with and realize that, if not for the children, we have nothing in common. I wonder that about Kevin's parents sometimes.  They love each other, but they've fallen into their own habits and interests, so his mom will just get annoyed at his dad, and his dad remains oblivious.

Elara will be 7 weeks old on Monday (Halloween), and Conrad will be 19 months old on Tuesday (Día de Muertos). 

It's so weird and wonderful to have two of them so quickly.  I went to a Tyler's Halloween party last night.  It's been kind of a tradition but it was skipped last year, so some of Tyler's friends were like, "Weren't you pregnant with the first one 2 years ago?"

Conrad's been an excellent big brother.  Some toddlers couldn't care less about another tiny human, but Conrad learned Elara's name within 2 days of meeting her, albeit, he generalized that so now all babies are Elara.  He also looks for her sometimes, like when she's napping in her crib, and I taught him how to burp her.

The one annoying thing is that Conrad had gotten ridiculously clingy.  It started even before Elara was born, but it's definitely gotten worse since her birth.  Kevin blames it on the fact that I was home for the summer and got to spend so much time with him, but I'm not sure if it isn't just a phase.  I don't know who it's more taxing: me because Conrad constantly wants me to hold him, and with the baby that means that I'm juggling two; or Kevin because Conrad rejects him hard sometimes.  Conrad's also been waking up crying in the middle of the night.  Sometimes he goes back to sleep on his own, but often he won't.  It's both heartbreaking to hear and frustrating since he's slept through the night on his own for the past 6 months.  Elara actually got on a schedule really quickly. When her waking times line up with Conrad's, it makes the sleep loss manageable, but when they don't, it's enough to drive me mental.

I shouldn't complain too much, since I am still on maternity leave and able to nap during the day when Elara naps.  Having Conrad in daycare 3 days of the week definitely helps.

Kevin's been good too about getting up with Conrad at 6 am and keeping him occupied so I can sleep just a little bit longer.  I do get annoyed that it usually winds up with Conrad getting a bottle and watching TV, but I gotta pick my battles.  The things that really suck right now are that Kevin does little around the house unless I ask him to, and even then it feels like he does the least possible to accomplish it.  Like Friday night, I was feeling so angry and frustrated at having drove to the gym only to have Conrad lose his shit and I couldn't work out, so I asked Kevin to throw some taquitos and fries in the oven.  He did that, but he didn't clean up afterwards.  Like he just left the empty boxes on the counter instead of taking 2 seconds to throw them out.  And he doesn't do dishes.  The other day I asked him to move clothes from the washer to the dryer, and he missed like 5 things in the washer.  The one thing he does without asking is clean up the cat litter, which to him involves scooping out clumps and putting them into an open wastebasket, then taking that out to the trash only once it's full.  I've told him that's so unsanitary, but he won't change. Actually he made me feel pretty shitty for not doing it saying "Well, it's not like you're pregnant anymore, so you can go back to doing it".  It's not so bad now since I'm still on maternity leave and have the time to do these things, but seriously, I worry about how this is going to play out when I go back to work.

I'm also annoyed at how much time Kevin spends on his phone while watching the kids, and most of the time it's just playing games.

At least we're getting more support from friends, and a big part of that is I'm more ok with asking for and receiving help.

Hmm... not too much to report for 2014.  We've lived in the new, big house for the whole year and still need furniture.  There was a fire at the old duplex, which I don't really want to go over here because the drama from that is more or less past.  I'm teaching and got an article published in December.  Got pregnant, finally!  After a year of trying, freaking out and starting the fertility process, only to have it happen naturally right before I was going to start hormone therapy.... Been awesome and the due date is April 2015.  Found out it's a boy.  Kept a lot of this from my parents until I was half-way through (only told them at Thanksgiving, despite the fact that we found out in August).

So as a result, training took a dramatic stoppage.  I've stopped doing judo entirely, but am starting to do prenatal yoga.  Also, as a little bit of a New Year's Resolution, I've started walking/jogging on the treadmill in an effort to do 2 miles/day whenever I don't do yoga.  Did it yesterday, but don't think I'll get a chance to do it today.  Oh well, another New Year's Resolution is to be gentler on myself when I don't quite meet my expectations.

Speaking of resolutions:

• Read one techical book per month.  The first few books that I've got lined up on the reading list are: Agile Web Development with Rails, Ruby on Rails Tutorial, Engineering Software as a Service, Seven Languages in Seven Weeks.  That's the first 4.  I should probably throw in the C# book I got and a couple of books on Android or iOS app development too.


• Read 15 non-technical, just-for-me books this year.


• Gym it up.  Pre-baby, my plan is to do yoga 2-3x/week and do treadmill for 2 miles plus some easy weightlifting 3-4x/week.  I'm hoping to do something every day, but work schedule and prego feelings may not allow for this.  Post-baby, I want to get back into the MMA gym and maybe do mommy and me yoga.


• Get the Kinect for CP project done


• Get the Kinect facial recognition project done


• Make progress on the Save the Grandparents project


• Apply to be a Service Learning fellow


• Get one article published.


• Attend at least one conference.


• Get at least one poster abstract.


• Write at least one grant


• Have a baby!

The majority of my list is pretty work-oriented... but hey, so have my previous lists and I've been pretty freaking happy with the results every year.  I feel super blessed that I work in a field that (mostly) gives me the time to explore my own talents and interests, while also giving me the flexibility to try to be a good mom (albeit, using up all my sick leave to be able to do it, but until the U.S. imitates other countries in that regard, I guess that's all I can hope for).

I can't believe that it's been six months and I haven't mentioned on here that we bought a new house.... So, yes, we bought a new house!  It's huge and I love it!  The only thing that sucks (kinda) is that we still have the old duplex.  It's nice because we can rent out both apartments, but dealing with tenants has been challenging.  I just got a new tenant in the second floor unit (our old apartment) and she is very demanding.  She has been asking for things to be fixed and replaced.  As the landlord, yes it is my responsibility to fix things, but a lot of the things she is asking for are not essential (like painting things, or replacing screen doors).

Also, really sad, but one of the tenants on the first floor died in the hospital.  She wasn't that old, but she had been struggling with health issues.  Now, I have to broach the delicate subject of asking her brother, who is currently living in the first floor unit, if he can afford the rent without her.  Ugh... being a grown-up is so hard.

Otherwise, the summer has been kind.  I'm not teaching any classes over the summer, so trying to get some other projects out of the way.  Oh, and trying to write a NSF grant for engineering education.  Le sigh.... I need to stop being "busy" and just get things done.  Trying, and failing :(

#summertimesadness

Haven't been on here in a while.  Work has been great and the semester is just flying by (4 more weeks till the end!)  I absolutely adore my students and I got to showcase the work that I have been doing with them during preview day, where prospective students tour the campus and consider if they want to be in the BME program.  Parents seemed to be pretty impressed.  One of them saw the labs that I was doing and asked "Wait, this is a freshman-level class?".... Yes, yes it is.  Also, some of the tour guides were my current students.  After the tour went through, one of my students turned to a prospective student and said "Oh, this is the project that I was telling you about".  Score!  My students are proud of the work that they do in my class!

I also got to inspire some girls at the Capital Region Women in Computing Conference with my lightning talk on how programmers and BMEs can collaborate.  I was freaking out because I thought it was just a 5-minute talk when I agreed to it (Oh, I can talk for 5 minutes no problem).  And then a week before the conference, I found out that there was a specific format to the talk.  I had to make a powerpoint with 20 slides and the slides had to automatically advance every 15 seconds.  Eep!  It turned out OK.  I created a script and didn't have time to memorize it.  But a lot of the conference attendees said that they enjoyed my talk, and appreciated the fact that I quoted Tim Minchin when I talked about academic rigor and challenging your beliefs :)

Judo has been awesome!  In early March, I got to train with the Olympic judo team from Germany!  I've trained with Olympic athletes before, but only when they were past their prime (although, I have to say that Neil Adams is still amazing at 55).  But these guys are going to Rio in 2014, so the fact that they are taking time out of their schedule to train with normal people like me was just so exciting.  I got to roll with Sebastian Seidl and Fabian Seidlmeier, both of whom were very nice (i.e., they did not kill me with their judo skills and strength) and very good-looking (i.e., they absolutely slayed me with their boyish charm and hot bodies).

Here's Sebastian



And here's Fabian


Also, Kevin got promoted to a brown belt in judo yesterday!

I also went to BJJ on Friday.  I feel like it's been a while  (although one of my judo friends pointed out that she saw me at BJJ only a week ago).  BJJ is such a cruel mistress.  I feel like I've been cheating on her with judo, but then I go to judo and I feel like I'm cheating on BJJ.  =\  What's a girl to do?

Other than that, can't wait till the summer.  I'm planning on training and getting lean and strong.  But also, maybe just trying to get pregnant?  I've got a couple of ideas for a new course I'd like to develop and hopefully the faculty will like it.  Otherwise, my plan is to train, lounge by the pool, and chill.  Maybe go travel for a bit. Who knows?  :D

I had all these doubts about my ability as a professor, but this week I feel like I have been doing awesome!
Or at least they laugh at my jokes :)

Some of the highlights of teaching so far have been:

Adding a Fry "Not sure if" image to my Computational Methods lecture



Considered asking students to find mnemonic devices for memorizing the color coding of resistors or make up their own... but then finding examples of offensive ones on the internet so re-thought that activity... and then telling my class that they exist anyway.


I put together a review lecture that had this image:


And I gave a summary of the Current Wars: Edison vs. Tesla (and Westinghouse Corp).... which included the fact that Edison employed fear-mongering to discourage people from using AC technology, going so far as to electrocute animals and trying to coin the term for electrocuting somebody as getting "Westinghoused".  One of the students gave me this great look and asked "Wait, really?"... I may have crushed his admiration of Edison.

Oh, and I compared it to the VHS vs. Betamax, or the HD vs. BluRay, wars from more recently... which was great because the young'uns definitely did not know what Betamax was!

So.... 2013 is turning out to be my year :)

It's been a while since I've posted but the whole thing is:

1. I graduated with my PhD.
2. I got a job!  I'm still not "officially" under contract, but nobody reads LJ anyway, and certainly not people that this news would really affect.  But.... I am taking on a full-time, collateral faculty position, at the university where I earned my PhD, no less.  And that means no having to move!  A collateral position sounds like it's bad, but it's a gazillion times better than adjuncting!  Adjunct professors are paid per class, usually not enough to justify the time required to teach; whereas collateral are full-time faculty members, meaning they get all the usual benefits and the only downside is that it is not a tenure-track position.  I'm basically going to be teaching full-time, no research responsibilities at all!  That doesn't mean that I'm going to not engage in research... I've got plans!
3. Got things in the works to start a company with a good friend of mine.  Also got plans to generate some additional income, potentially.
4. On the research front, got some really awesome ideas.... just need the time to implement them.  Oh, wait, that full-time teaching job that I just got has me transitioning in slowly with only one lecture+lab class this fall!

So, I will be able to really put in time into creating Android apps, writing up research proposals, learning .NET so I can mess around with the Kinect4Windows SDK, and web development in general.

Man, I'm really excited!  Yes, teaching entitled Millenials is going to be difficult, but I definitely think I can rock this gig :)

So I completed my dissertation defense!  I now earned my PhD in Biomedical Engineering.  Now I feel like I can finally get around to all the other things that I've wanted to do with my life, but was too worried that it would take time away from getting my doctorate.  It's kind of a cathartic feeling though :P  I still have some edits from my dissertation committee that I need to work in before I submit my dissertation electronically, so I don't think I can celebrate just yet.  Plus I have all these other plans in the next couple of weeks.

May is going to be crazy!  I'm going up to NJ for my sister's graduation on May 16, then I have to head back for a symposium in VA May 17 (and I have to be there since I'm presenting a poster).  Then I'm heading to Boston for a critical care conference for basically the whole next week.  I've got a poster that I'm presenting at that conference as well.  I'm hoping that somewhere in that weekend before Boston, I can compete in a women's only judo tournament in DC.  Plus on top of all of that, I've got some research stuff that I need to make up, I need to look for a job, and I have new research that I'd like to pursue (or y'know, just forget about research and find a job, live on a beach, something like that).