Thoughts and Words Ill-Sorted

Many thanks for the good wishes and congratulations.  I had a great day yesterday.  My advisors were warm and encouraging throughout the defense, I really benefited from hearing them articulate my arguments and lay out how they saw the pieces interact (it’s amazing what you don’t know about your own work!), and they have great suggestions for the book that the dissertation will become.  It was a very, very fun morning.  I have forgotten how great it is to talk shop.  I do have some things to tweak before submitting the material for graduation, but most of their comments were geared toward later publication.  Best of all (for a geek), they brought up some peripheral material from the chapters I’ve written and encouraged me to make that the start of a whole new mini research project.  I had had it in mind off and on, but it was great to hear it affirmed, and now I’m excited about having that tucked away for the future as I turn to revisions, book publication, and the job market.

I did a bit of library work while I was on campus, but the day really flew.  I met my friend Kate for dinner, and we roamed bookstores, ate delicious food, got a bird’s-eye view of the night skyline, and walked the dark streets of Ithaca.  It was a great evening out.  I have stayed pretty close to home in our past year in Oxford, and this week has been a bounty of good conversation with good friends (often with good food–even better!).

I am writing this from the airport, where my flight has been, ahem, delayed.  I’ll break the news to my parents when they awaken.  Hang in there, Grandma and Grandpa!  I know they’re doing really well with the kids, but I also know it would be great to have more hands on deck.

Erin

Erin tells me the exam went really well. All the more impressive, considering our two lovely children determined to hijack our careers.

This morning Christi made me breakfast (yes, she’s really that nice) and then we headed out for an early hike at Treman.  It was great to be hiking familiar territory, and my legs appreciated the stretch.  I had lunch with Flora and got a chance to catch up with her, after which we walked up to campus and I confirmed that the English department is still there, as are many of my favorite people in it.  I then did a bit of shopping for the kids downtown, in my favorite baby store.  I can’t believe I’m buying shoes for my son.  I know “they grow up fast,” but it’s still disconcerting.

I also made a fast, slightly desperate run to FedEx just before they closed, so that I could send milk home to the babe.  Yes, it’s a bit crazy, but I hoped to avoid having to try new food on Nathaniel in the midst of so many other changes.  And no, I had not managed to leave anywhere near enough food with the grandparents, despite my best efforts.

This evening Christi and I had dinner with her parents, and I had the very strong sense that I was “home,” far away as my kids, parents, and husband might be.  In addition to the pile of amazing food Christi came out with delicious treats from a fabulous patisserie and we lived large.  Since I am having art withdrawal, now that I no longer live next door to an artist, I was really thrilled that I got a chance to pore over her new calendars and hand-painted shoes.

Now it’s time to retire and rest up for the exam tomorrow morning.  I am excited that the day is finally here, curious to see what my committee members say, and a bit nervous about the recommendations that they might make for revision.

Erin

My Ithaca visit is going extremely well.  Although Nathaniel sabotaged our sleep last night (keeping all three adults up: quite a feat!) and we had to leave the house by 4:30am, everything else has gone amazingly smoothly.  On my first flight I got to chat pathogens with a nice biology professor from the University of Iowa who was coming to Ithaca for a seminar.  We had a great conversation about germs, bacteria, ear infections, and the like!  I had an easy connection, and my second flight got me into Ithaca half an hour early.

When I arrived at Christi’s house she was finishing up a fantastic curried squash soup and spicy hummus, which made for a delicious lunch while we swapped stories.  We took a walk down the hill, along my old route, and then I headed out for a play date with Jenny, Natalia, and their little ones.  I was thrilled to see the changes in the kids and hear about the great developments in both families.  I love seeing how different little kids can be from one another; although I remember some of the same stages and sounds from Katherine’s development, both of the little ones today had their own style and their own voice.  Great fun.

After the play date I picked up my favorite local dessert, the black-and-white cookie at Greenstar (which is named, this being hippie Ithaca, the ying-yang cookie), something I’ve been looking forward to for weeks, and met Christi at Just A Taste for a delicious tapas dinner.  So many flavors, so much conversation, and so great to be home again.  I am now headed to bed at a ridiculously early hour, hoping to make up for some of the sleep I’ve missed.

Erin

I leave in the wee hours tomorrow morning for Ithaca.  I’ll be there Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (the defense is Friday morning), and I return early on Saturday morning.  Mom and Dad seem prepared for the kids, though I know they’re going to have their hands full.  Katherine is really pulling some tricks to get out of eating food other than yogurt and bananas (sooooo not cool with us in normal circumstances!), and Nathaniel is keeping us busy with a few hours of crying in the late evenings and in the wee hours of the night.  I wish I could take off when all of the adults in the house were well-rested, but I suppose it would be futile to wait for that day.

This is, as far as I can recall, the first time I’ll be going somewhere without kids in tow since we had Katherine.  I’ve gone to a number of conferences pregnant (Boston and Montreal with Katherine, Portland with Nathaniel) and with infants and Mom or Sydney in the hotel room (New York City, Philadelphia, both with Katherine), we’ve hauled them along on vacations (Arkansas, Switzerland), and Nathaniel even joined us on our overnight anniversary trip last year.  I wish I could take Sydney along to Ithaca, but I’m excited to see friends and do work and be able to focus on the people at hand, rather than the little ones who usually consume my attention.

I’m excited to go back “home,” to see friends, to hear what my advisors have to say, and to take my first vacation without children in a long time.  My carry-on is very small, and half of it is taken up by a pump so that I can keep up the milk for Nathaniel, but I’m also tucking in a pair of sneakers in hopes of some hiking!

Erin

A while back people were worrying about what Hurricane Katia might do. As it turned out, Katia never came onshore in the US. It did, however, remain a large, powerful storm as it made its way across the Atlantic, thereby making British birdwatchers salivate in anticipation. That’s because the most sought after rarities around here are North American birds and the way those get here is by storms moving across the Atlantic. I’m more than happy to make my England list as long as possible, but, still, North American birds aren’t the ones that make me most excited. Storms, however, also push pelagic species to land where I stand a chance of seeing them. That, and the fact that I’d long wanted to go birdwatching in Cornwall anyway, made me buy a train ticket to the most southwesterly corner of England for last Tuesday, a little after the storm was scheduled to hit here. I came back late last night after tramping around the Penwith Peninsula for a few days.

I had a great time. I love the scenery (what’s not to like about heaths, cliffs, sandy beaches, ocean, and fuschsia hedges along the roads?) and I saw lots of birds, including eight new species for me (16 new species for my UK list).

On Thursday I hiked to Gwennap’s Head, which is a promontory on the south side of the peninsula. It’s one of the best places in England to catch seabirds as they fly by. It’s also where the SeaWatch Southwest team is stationed, so I joined them. I sat there there on the windy cliff for about six hours, peering through a scope onto the ocean about a mile out (not an exaggeration), looking for little specks to come flying by. Most of the birds in question are actually quite large, but they don’t look like it when they’re a mile out on the water. It was a good thing that I was with the team, since even with a scope most of the birds were too far away for me to identify. Distinguishing species that look very similar to each other when they’re flying by with ocean glare behind them and the scope vibrating from the wind … well, it takes more experience than I have to identify birds largely on the basis of subtle variations in shape and how fast they beat their wings.

We had fun (though I imagine ten hours a day, day after day, takes some dedication). One of the team members spent some time in Belize doing research on sea turtles. She also kindly offered to drop me off in Hayle, the town where I was staying, so that I didn’t have to hike another couple of hours to catch the one bus that would go back to Penzance where I might then be able to catch a train back to Hayle. Another member turned out to be from the States; his father taught at Cornell for a long time.

When no shearwaters were flying by and we ran out of things to talk about, we were entertained by a pair of choughs that nested nearby. Choughs are the county bird for Cornwall, so people are very happy to have a few pairs back after they went extinct in the area for a while. Few birds are as fun to watch. They’re incredibly playful and acrobatic, making the best use possible of the cliffs that they prefer as their habitat. What better bird to be number 500 on my life list?

Photo by Paul Roberts.

This morning Mom and I took the kids to the National Cattle Congress, which just happens to be going on while we’re in town.  We ignored most of the carnival-esque elements and headed straight for the barns to show Katherine the animals.  It took a little time for her to relax, and she was pretty keen on being high up, in our arms, while examining the livestock, but when we asked her if she wanted to see more animals she gave us a vigorous nod.  We surveyed cattle, goats, and pigs, and considered draft horses from a safe distance.  Several times Katherine ordered me to touch the animals while she clung to my back.  So I let calves and llamas lick my hands, and reached up high to pet the Clydesdale on the forehead.  Katherine did, though, readily pet the chicks and even the rabbits.  With a lot of coaxing she even pet a chocolate lab puppy.  She was quick to spot the eggs in the chicken coop and in the peacock pen, and she learned a new animal noise: after watching the donkeys pester bystanders for quite awhile, she suddenly broke out into smiles, pointed, and said, “Hee-haww, hee-haww, he-haww.”  Education at its best.

Erin

For my dissertation defense to go forward, I have to have a form submitted to the grad school at least one week before the exam is to take place.  The form requires signatures from all of my committee members (four people).  Which means that I sit, biting my nails, hoping that they won’t let my emails simply sit in their inbox, that the office staff will catch them as they walk by, and wondering whether I dare risk another reminder email.  I understand the need for paperwork, but it’s always best if the person for whom the exam is most important is empowered to make it happen.  And it’s best if signatures aren’t required so often that professors’ eyes glaze over at the thought of another form crossing their desk.

Erin

The day after I wrote about his new crawling technique and the surprising way he skipped over the rolling over skill, he proved me wrong.  He was sleeping on my parents’ bed when a cry from Katherine woke him up.  Without opening his eyes, he arched his back, rolled over, and found himself on all fours and crying in protest as his eyes fluttered open.  He has now exhibited this dangerous tendency to roll without looking several times now, and if he keeps it up he’ll be sleeping on the floor.

I may make him sleep on the floor, anyway: my parents have been taking him for shifts in the middle of the night and early in the morning, but I’m still exhausted.  Last night I finally managed to count how many times he woke up between 8:30 pm and 8:30am: 6.  No wonder I’m tired!  So much for sleeping through the night; he’s just adding more feeding and waking sessions to his slumber as he gets older!

Erin

Wednesday evening, when we finally arrived home, Nathaniel decided to make his move.  I set him on the floor while I unpacked, but when I looked up I realized he was several feet from where I’d set him down.  I put him back, got busy, and found that he’d moved again by the time I checked on him.  He’d apparently decided that two days in a carseat, with his feet in the air, was enough sitting on his rear.  He’s now officially crawling!

Except that it’s apparently a very frustrating activity.  He complains a great deal as he does it, and it looks awkward.  Unlike Katherine, who was stiff as a board, unable to move arm or leg as she remained poised on her fingers and toes, Nathaniel looks like he’s swimming.  Arms and legs move fluidly, and even when he’s sitting he’s rocking back and forth on his rear.  At the moment he’s just a lot of trouble: he gets stuck in corners, under furniture, and he loves to make his way over to his grandmother’s stack of magazines (where the pages make a satisfying crunch as he rips, wrinkles, and chews).  I would say he’s going to perfect his technique very soon, except that he’s much more interested in pulling himself up on furniture.  A day after crawling, he was pulling himself into a standing position with the help of low tables, grabbing for anything he could reach on their surfaces.  Funny, I think he’s doing all this without ever mastering the art of rolling over . . .

Erin