tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42012789778786497472024-03-12T20:23:19.023-04:00The FabulifeLife on the postdoc budgetLa Petite Coquettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08207138777454168455noreply@blogger.comBlogger69125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4201278977878649747.post-12900551020214676872015-06-24T06:30:00.000-04:002015-06-24T06:30:00.845-04:00On lab meetingsI've been kicking around science for a long time - a loooong time. My apprenticeship to this tenure track position has been over 20 years in the making. For any of you out there that thinks professors are overpaid, and over-protected, think about that. I've been slogging away for 80+ hours a week for crap wage, no benefits and often for free for almost 21 years. There is no possible way that a job paying 5 digits is paying me anywhere near what I deserve.<br />
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But, that's not the point of this post. The point of this post is to discuss the lab meeting. Lab meetings - every P.I. thinks they need them, few P.I.s know how to run one. I've belonged to at least two labs that did not hold them, and one lab that held one for multiple hours on random Fridays. Both situations set me back as a student, as a scientist. Given I have taken the responsibility to train several students early in my position, I've spent a lot of time thinking about how to run a lab meeting. Why would I spend time doing that rather than hacking away at my data? The lab meeting is the cornerstone of lab productivity. Run it well, and you provide a good scaffold for your students and staff to complete tasks, produce science, publish papers. Muck it up, and you breed resentment, get confused about what is actually being done, and waste everyone's Monday morning.<br />
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I have one major suggestion, under which all other suggestions fall<br />
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<i><b>Respect the time of your staff and employees</b></i><br />
This is basic stuff. You may be the P.I. but you aren't a god, a king or a totalitarian president. If you are holding lab meetings so your staff and students can update you on minor issues, listen to you discuss the square footage of your new apartment, watch you grill one person relentlessly over their work, sit and wait 20 minutes for you to show up, or listen to you speak to one person the entire time, you are demoralizing your lab, and you need to take some courses on effective people and project management. Contrary to raging popular belief amongst the more senior of scientists, there is no place for enormous egos in experimental science. Act this way, and you will lose talent in your lab. Act this way, and your work will make you unhappy. <br />
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What does this mean? It means do, do the following:<br />
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1) <i><b>hold a regular group lab meeting</b></i> - even if you think there might not be any major break-throughs that week. Hold a regular meeting at least every two weeks where you discuss scientific progress, or attempts at progress in the lab<br />
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2) <i><b>hold individual staff/student meetings at other times</b></i> - no one wants to hear you discuss your grad student's class schedule, or the blow by blow of setting up purchase orders or reagents with your lab tech. It's an enormous waste of everyone else's time. Save that for your mid-week 15-30 minute update one-on-one meeting, in your office.<br />
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3) <i><b>require update slides </b></i>- make your staff and students provide you with slide that state the precise things they have done since your last meeting. Screen the slides. This is really important - all to often lab meetings turn into "round table discussions" that are really just a P.I. talking a single person about their progress without letting anyone else in on what that person is actually doing. I once sat in a lab for 2 years and had absolutely no idea what the person next to me was actually studying because it was never explicitly discussed. You want to kill morale, make a student feel like an imposter? Talk to only one person at a time and never provide your staff with an overview of the activities of the lab. You will succeed in alienating everyone but the tech in no time. <br />
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4) <i><b>show up on time</b></i> - seriously. If you are showing up to your own meeting late, why the hell are the rest of us sitting here? <br />
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5) <i><b>hold the meeting at a sane hour</b></i> - you have to teach at 9 am? Great. You teach at 9 am. The rest of us do not need to be in a meeting room at 8 am on a Monday. To a person who works an 8-4 job that probably sounds a little uptight. When you work 80 hours a week and have a very reduced social and recreational life (i.e. when you are a grad student, a postdoc), you aren't heading to bed at 10 pm on Sunday. You are up troubleshooting problems, launching analysis, reading, sending those update slides at midnight. When you as a P.I. holds an 8 am meeting on a Monday you are saying "I don't give rats a$$ how exhausted you are" to your students. You are taking parental time from their kids. You are effing up morning work outs. You are basically saying your little update matters more thant their real lives. It doesn't. Early morning meetings are not the hallmark of productivity. They just mean you don't care about how they affect the people who work for you. You teach at 9 am Monday? Fine - hold your meeting Tuesday morning at 9 am. <br />
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6)<i> <b>dedicate at least one meeting a month to reviewing articles </b></i>- part of your job as a P.I. is to train students, and training them how to read and evaluate papers is part of that. A major part of your job is to provide an atmosphere where productive creativity can thrive. To do that, you have to provide space for your students and staff to read what interests them. Let them bring articles to you on any topic. Let them talk about these things out loud and invest in the science. <br />
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7) <i><b>make arrangements for food and coffee/tea</b></i> - you don't have to provide it yourself. Have rotation. Food lightens the mood, creates community, and forgives the poor person who ran out of their house to get to the meeting on time and skipped breakfast.<br />
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8) <i><b>hold a early-mid meeting at the beginning or end of the week</b></i> - no one wants to talk on Wednesday for the first time and no one can effectively act on bench work or even order processing in the afternoon. <br />
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Do not<br />
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1)<i><b> hold meetings that run more than an hour</b></i><br />
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2) <i><b>speak to lab members individually without explaining the context of your discussion to everyone else</b></i><br />
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3) <i><b>speak in languages that the less than the entire lab can understand</b></i>. Practicing your Spanish? Good for you - but if anyone else in the lab does not speak Spanish, you have just alienated them. You have just told them that it isn't important if they understand what is happening in the lab. <br />
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4) <i><b>yell</b></i><br />
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5) <i><b>lose your temper</b></i><br />
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6) <b><i>insult your staff or students</i></b><br />
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7) <b><i>grill anyone</i></b> - really need to get down to the nitty gritty of some tiny aspect of data collection, save it for your mid-week one on one meeting<br />
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8) <i><b>hijack a regular lab meeting to discuss some minute aspect of theory or analysis that has always bothered you.</b></i> Book a part of a meeting to discuss that stuff. Give your staff and trainees time to prepare so they can contribute<br />
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9) <i><b>talk about your personal life for more than a minute</b></i> - no one showed up to this meeting to hear you wax on about your ongoing search for the perfect apartment.<br />
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10) <i><b>declare "we are having a lab meeting in an hour" whenever you please</b></i> - lab meetings are regular scheduled meetings. They are not meetings that happen in the space called "Friday afternoon" just because you feel like having one. You couldn't have one Monday? Oh well. You'll have one next Monday. <br />
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11) <i><b>don't skip multiple meetings in a row</b></i> - as a P.I. you will have conferences and special guests and grant deadlines and inconvenient overseas skype calls. Sometimes all of these things will get in the way and you will have to cancel meeting. One cancelled meeting is fine. Two makes it difficult for the staff and students to keep on top of what is going in the lab. Three cancelled meetings - not cool. Everyone falls behind. You want to book a month long vacation or field expedition - fantastic. You want to tell everyone on Thursday at 5 pm that for the third time in a row you don't see a point in holding a meeting that Monday, you will fray the morale of your team. <br />
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With that, I give you guidelines for productive lab meetings. Good lab meeting = healthy, happy lab and science. <br />
<br />La Petite Coquettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08207138777454168455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4201278977878649747.post-19664544155387959092015-06-22T06:00:00.000-04:002015-06-22T06:00:00.640-04:00The tenure trackAfter all that education, you'd think the tenure track job at an R1 institution would fill a person with a sense of relief. As an undergraduate, graduate student and postdoc you train for years and years. More than a decade - sometimes more than two decades. You'd think the logical feeling would be "finally, I get to be in charge".<br />
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I wish that was my feeling. I think had someone come to me in the middle of my PhD and said "you can ditch this and run your own lab now", maybe I would have felt differently. I certainly felt more competent at the end of my PhD than I now do at the close of my postdoc.<br />
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Part of my hesitation is certainly due to the growing detachment between my benchwork and my analysis. My analysis requires a team of people with stronger math and computational skills than myself. I don't mean "strong math skills", like someone who took an extra statistics class. I mean someone who got a PhD in math. Someone who is writing bioinformatic programs. My feeling of inadequacy has certainly grown since 6 weeks ago, when I was ordered by my boss to tear down the analysis of my most important paper for the 7th time and do something completely new - and was assigned a collaborator who, by and large, creates analytical structures and codes by himself without must explanation.<br />
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So the jump to tenure track is extremely nerve racking.<br />
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It's also a bit of a financial hit. That might sounds kind of crazy, but my husband's income will take a hit in this move. Our income, overall, will be lower than it was during my graduate school days. As we near the end of our 30s, and develop our little family, the question for me really becomes how much longer am I willing to ride this horse?<br />
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From the perspective of asking questions, starting research and pulling papers together I'm willing to ride until I can't ride any further. From the perspective of sitting in one spot for hours on end while I work out the tiniest of coding problems that had halted all progress for 3 or 4 weeks - AND at the end of that process not being sure how much more willing I am to continue coding....research.....getting out of bed....<br />
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This experience of repetitive failure has had me thinking about Fabulife and how I want to move forward with this blog. It seems to me that most of my time in this space has been spent trying to convey that graduate school doesn't have to and, more importantly, shouldn't financially devastate a student. I came out of my graduate degree with a really nice chunk of money in the bank, my credit cards clear, some investments and a student loan paid off. I'm leaving my postdoc with a lot less money in my pocket, and I'm heading into a tenure track position that will not pay me what I deserve for my training or efforts. On top of that my days, because I work in experimental biology and deal with great deal of computational work, are filled with failure. Like every other scientist, I fail every day. I fail and fail and fail until something works. It's tough on the soul. The repeated mousing is tough on my wrists.<br />
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Enjoying oneself within the means provided by the tight budget my academic life has provided means more than just figuring out how to buy a low cost engagement ring. It really means being able to cope with the academic life as a whole. So, this is where Fabulife is headed - a more honest description of the totality of life on a budget, life on the campus. You've been given a heads up. It ain't all going to be cheery accounts of budget friendly whathaveyous. S#$% it getting real in this space.<br />
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So, to recap - tenure track still means counting change, starting your own lab is frightening when your postdoc work isn't published yet, the blog is shifting in focus.<br />
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See you soon!<br />
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<br />La Petite Coquettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08207138777454168455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4201278977878649747.post-23730088565334850472014-09-15T06:00:00.000-04:002014-09-14T22:11:16.680-04:00Budget Weddings: Marshmallow chandelier Hi All,<br />
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This pic has been around forever....well, since at least November 2011. It comes from a stylized shoot of a breakfast wedding by wedding photographer Ely Fair, in collaboration with an Oklahoma-based event design company. Since I saw it a few years back it has been banging around in my brain. I'm long married and do not anticipate getting hitched again by this idea is just too good to leave behind (btw - breakfast parties....amazing. Mid-morning weddings? Why are there so few of those? Who doesn't love breakfast?)<br />
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So here I present to you this oft linked to pic of a marshmallow chandelier.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0TZeWMQmWOVIs97xYdNh9ItI-KqwWHssf29-lDuvbuKTaWDm6Q1DqXFU6UjOmB1o7qHgLKzGIAla5dOm2BwDhPZmjuW7BsuhRJthyphenhyphenEbFj8IuVI1gWsdbCDggKjj7NV4h1_xLBctXbSICv/s1600/elyfair_wdh_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0TZeWMQmWOVIs97xYdNh9ItI-KqwWHssf29-lDuvbuKTaWDm6Q1DqXFU6UjOmB1o7qHgLKzGIAla5dOm2BwDhPZmjuW7BsuhRJthyphenhyphenEbFj8IuVI1gWsdbCDggKjj7NV4h1_xLBctXbSICv/s1600/elyfair_wdh_3.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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The feel of <a href="http://elyfairphotos.com/2011/11/oklahoma-breakfast-stylized-shoot-ely-fair-oklahoma-city-wedding-photographer/">the shoot </a>is pretty fantastic - crisp morning light, great flower and color combinations and some very tasty looking pancakes. I know the DIY small, laid back wedding thing has peaked as a trend, but the shoot is timelessly gorgeous. Honestly, the earnest, small, and fun wedding will always trump all other trends for me.<br />
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So back to the chandelier - I must bring this into my life somehow. It might be a good second birthday decoration for the little one. It occurs to me, also, that we will be having a Fall house warming in the coming year....so maybe that's the time.<br />
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I tried to count the marshmallows here, I put this chandelier
at 6-7 bags of the big marshmallows, plus about $5 for the
line....which makes it a $20-30 range as a project. The fishing line is wrapped
around the marshmallows, which keeps them from slipping or melting
around a string that might have been punched through them with a
needle. You couldn't do this project days in advance because the marshmallows will melt and deform as they take on moisture - basically you will be up 2 nights or the night before tying these things together, and up the morning of the event tying them to some sort of grid on the ceiling...or a light fixture. This is most definitely a dry air project - late Fall and Winter for most folks. Still...cool. I'd do it. <br />
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One consideration for this project. Some transparent rope/fishing lines that you find in the average hardware store next to spools of fine gauge wire contain lead. Be sure to check the labels on the line. California state law requires that lead content be disclosed on such products, so most spools that you find should say something if lead is in there. Why handle lead if you don't have too?<br />
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So it has done the internet rounds, but I really like this shoot - so here it is again for your viewing pleasure. <br />
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<br />La Petite Coquettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08207138777454168455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4201278977878649747.post-76736972217910893322013-12-11T06:30:00.000-05:002013-12-11T12:39:11.856-05:00Most useful baby items during the first 6 months: Ergo carrierand the list continues. I had intended to post more than one recommendation here today, but I have such unabashed love for the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/ERGObaby-Original-Carrier-Black-Camel/dp/B00BJCFN5A/ref=sr_1_1?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1385586441&sr=1-1&keywords=ergo+baby+carrier">Ergobaby original carrier</a> that I'm dedicating an entire post to it.<br />
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5) Baby carrier - <a href="http://www.amazon.com/ERGObaby-Original-Carrier-Black-Camel/dp/B00BJCFN5A/ref=sr_1_1?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1385586441&sr=1-1&keywords=ergo+baby+carrier">Ergobaby</a><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Carriers are great, when you have a baby who HATES her stroller</span></i></b></td></tr>
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Truth be told, our little one was pretty cranky for the first four months of her life. She had reflux and was extremely colicky as a result. When I say "extremely" I am not kidding around. She would cry for 13 or more hours a day - uninterrupted - during most of her second month.<br />
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The word on the street is infant carrying eases colic. The idea is that much of the crying stems from indiscernible reasons and that being close to Mom or Dad is comforting despite whatever discomfort or oversensitivity the child is expressing. That might be true for some kids. It is very hard for me to judge, because our daughter was so uncomfortable with reflux and cried so much it was nearly impossible to leave the house. We, literally, could not put her in a carrier or car seat or stroller for the first 2 months. She would scream hysterically and unrelentingly. This meant that all tasks outside of the house had to be completed by one parent, while the other one sat at home holding the baby with both hands. However, once the reflux and colic started to ease up, the very first tool that let both H and I out of the door at the same time was the infant carrier. For that reason alone, I will always be indebted to Baby Bjorn and Ergo.<br />
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Around month three, we managed to get our little girl into a baby bjorn classic carrier. Once ensconced, she would travel with us to the grocery store and even sleep on my chest while we ate at a restaurant. We even used it to get her down for a nap, on occasion. I really liked this carrier because it had several easy to snap into place locks on the shoulder and waist that made it easy to slip and secure the baby into place - and, importantly, lay a sleeping baby onto a bed and release the carrier without waking her.<br />
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The baby bjorn classic carriers are a two piece structure of straps for parents and a separate pocket structure that attaches to those straps and carries the baby. The pocket attaches, with a number of locking mechanisms, chief amongst them a large plastic lock that forms part of the carrier seat. Around month 5 this large plastic lock became very uncomfortable for our little one. All of her weight sat on it and she would cry every time we put her in the carrier. At this time we moved onto the Ergo, a one piece cloth carrier, the seat of which is formed by a large cotton pocket that tightens against the parent's stomach via a large and well padded waist strap. While the baby bjorn places the baby's weight on the parent's shoulders and between their shoulder blades, the Ergo places most of the weight on a parent's hips. As a baby grows, this carrier becomes infinitely more useful, as the child's weight is carried by the primary weight bearing parts of a human's body. Weight placements and the over structure of an Ergo means that a child can be carried until a child reaches 45 pounds in this carrier - outstripping most other carriers by at 15 pounds.<br />
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We were introduced to the Ergo coincident with our discovery that our little girl hated being in a forward facing stroller (the only way our current stroller faces). Turns out, many children are not magically induced to want to face away from their parents the second they turn 6 months and can no longer be left in a bassinet stroller or a car seat stroller without danger of injury. Our little girl wanted to see us at all times. With the bjorn carrier too small, and the stroller too forward facing, we were a miserable bunch. All of our outings were marked with the anxious screams of a poor little girl who didn't want to face the world alone. The Ergo was such a life saver - again allowing us to leave the house without hysterical screams.<br />
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I would say, between the two, the Ergo is a the better deal. It retails for a little over $100 and can be used (with an insert) from infancy to 45 pounds. They are continually posted on craigslist for less than $100 and are easily washed. It can be adjusted to hang off a parent's side (presumably accommodating twins if you have two carriers) and, when the child is older, it can be positioned on a parent's back. If I could go back I would have used an Ergo with an infant insert from the very beginning. </div>
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La Petite Coquettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08207138777454168455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4201278977878649747.post-17046527996970438922013-12-10T06:30:00.000-05:002013-12-10T11:16:53.076-05:00Most useful baby items during the first 6 months: Part 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b><i>Okay, clothes are useful too...</i></b></span></td></tr>
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It has almost been a year since our little one was born. I've been thinking about this one way ride, and how our baby changed so much so fast. When we found out I was pregnant, two big, panicky thoughts reverberated 1) does anyone here know what to do with a baby? and 2) how the hell are we going to afford this?<br />
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An industrialized mommy complex has been unleashed in the last 10 years that is almost on par with the wedding industry. While throwing a large party that is supposed to embody a relationship and make absolutely everyone with an opinion happy can be stressful, at the end of the day a wedding is an event at which a couple signs a contract agreeing to be, ideally, legally joined to each other. Caring for a child so that said child, say, stays healthy, meets milestones, defecates in a diaper that has been put on properly requires a great deal more preparation, money and time. The objects and experiences available to "help" new parents keep a baby alive and help it thrive are not only infinite, but amount to a lot of cash. Unlike with a wedding, raising a child comes with almost immediately recognizable and barely surmountable responsibilities, along with a healthy dose of persistent guilt that you haven't done it correctly.<br />
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When you are just starting out, as H and I are, the perceived expense of a baby and the things you are "supposed" to buy or do are really overwhelming. When I think back to those first few months of our little one's life, there are only a few things that we really needed, and fewer still that helpful but optional. Here are the top five items that helped us slug through the first 6 months.<br />
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1) <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-Little-Lamb-Deluxe-Infant/dp/B001GQ2RUS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385586158&sr=8-1&keywords=Little+lamb+bouncer+chair">Bouncer chair</a><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6lajWRfyUQjtwMv5QCgUjp_om6VvajnhSFISZ0-Dfq6DwYVxeTx9oN8HhkRiSQ3U7g90gPDUMnZR6MD2SqdCvoEnLPOzc9qhYSan-zZekCI1xeoPnw6H5AZE16JUsMdth5Ta345mw_HK0/s1600/bouncer+chair.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6lajWRfyUQjtwMv5QCgUjp_om6VvajnhSFISZ0-Dfq6DwYVxeTx9oN8HhkRiSQ3U7g90gPDUMnZR6MD2SqdCvoEnLPOzc9qhYSan-zZekCI1xeoPnw6H5AZE16JUsMdth5Ta345mw_HK0/s320/bouncer+chair.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Handy for a little one that needs to be "held" to nap.</span></i></b></td></tr>
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When our little one came home she needed to be held constantly. She had difficulty settling into the crib and would cry for hours and hours. We eventually discovered that she would sleep if we placed her in the bouncer chair. I guess it closed in around her a little bit. In those very early days, one of us would stay awake with her in this chair, while the other guy slept. As she grew, the chair became a place where she could sit and watch us while we did little tasks in the same room. We used it right up until the day she could sit up on her own. A friend of ours very generously gave us the Fisher Price My Little Lamb Deluxe Infant Seat, which vibrates and plays music. Honestly, we never used those features. They kept the baby awake. There is very likely a cheaper version of this seat that would have served the same purpose.<br />
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2) <a href="http://www.amazon.com/aden-anais-Swaddle-Blanket-Friends/dp/B002USE0Q0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386429950&sr=8-1&keywords=aden+and+anais">Muslin wraps</a><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpPSGjpeJ8NlP8WF8dmsfM023sRlsmQPMSwyzy_72fCfOSjqBpDwCAdkqo_lvc6JrNjpOMT1Rad-8jF4RAhxWQRdi0xKYUxn1ALeKLDDYpY6ACRZ5PhPUWQMJtCyFU1pcpezPyh2bRUbRP/s1600/IMG_0583_2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpPSGjpeJ8NlP8WF8dmsfM023sRlsmQPMSwyzy_72fCfOSjqBpDwCAdkqo_lvc6JrNjpOMT1Rad-8jF4RAhxWQRdi0xKYUxn1ALeKLDDYpY6ACRZ5PhPUWQMJtCyFU1pcpezPyh2bRUbRP/s320/IMG_0583_2.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Muslin wraps are handy for the swaddling challenged.</span></i></b></td></tr>
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Best.swaddling.blanket.ever. Hands down champion. These wraps are long and stretchy, making swaddling a breeze. Our little baby was very uncomfortable with reflux during her early months, and swaddling made her feel marginally better. We now use these blankets to cover the ground when we sit in the park, or to cover her legs in the stroller/car seat on a mild day. They are also useful as make-shift sun shields. We got by with two by Aden and Anais, which I snagged on sale for $10 a piece.<br />
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3) <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tommee-Tippee-Closer-Microwave-Sterilizer/dp/B004HK3WOU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1386430056&sr=8-2&keywords=tommee+tippee+bottle+sterilizer">Microwaveable bottle sterilizer</a><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuvaVNOziL5Ijh9NOfOrsp9roqBbxQQGy8EjKNdAZcvQq_uu2nncAYO5zjadIwt4j1mVqs2ZdNA398qJc-LFLmgwEY2BRsxIXZV6lgwHLvYnuipLD8pbPBmOEJ6kQ8Zoro6Aj9LhqCsInS/s1600/pTRU1-6945752dt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuvaVNOziL5Ijh9NOfOrsp9roqBbxQQGy8EjKNdAZcvQq_uu2nncAYO5zjadIwt4j1mVqs2ZdNA398qJc-LFLmgwEY2BRsxIXZV6lgwHLvYnuipLD8pbPBmOEJ6kQ8Zoro6Aj9LhqCsInS/s320/pTRU1-6945752dt.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b><i>You name it, we sterilized it in here.</i></b></span></td></tr>
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Once the bottles are boiled that first time, they still need to be sterilized before every use during the first 4 months of a child's life. With this sterilizer and 200 ml of water, 6 bottles can be sterilized in the microwave while a busy parent accomplishes other things. Four minutes on high, followed by four minutes of rest and the bottles are ready to go.<br />
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A friend of ours gave us her old <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tommee-Tippee-Closer-Microwave-Sterilizer/dp/B004HK3WOU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1386430056&sr=8-2&keywords=tommee+tippee+bottle+sterilizer">Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature bottles and sterilizer</a>. The bottle folks would have you believe that their microwaveable sterilizers only fit their bottles. Anyone with depth perception can see that isn't true. It is particularly untrue of the the Tommee Tippee sterilizer, as it is designed to fit Tommee Tippee bottles, which are extra wide and sometime very tall. We were able to stick pacifiers, Avent bottles as well as Ameda and Medela breast pump bottles in here no problem. In fact, this sterilizer was most helpful during the period that I pumped milk at work. Breast pump bottles absolutely have to be sterile. Every morning, I would pop the bottles into this sterilizer, get ready for work, and pack them into my purse on the way out the door. Indispensable.<br />
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4) <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ameda-Purely-Yours-Breast-Pump/dp/B004E9SW7G/ref=sr_1_1?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1385586358&sr=1-1&keywords=ameda+purely+yours">Breast pump - Ameda, Purely Yours</a><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmirAQrbDJ_RgFS7vLb420V9BowRwKl5hvJ5ESAGHoIsviUHqMiRFaE88vpn4tiaHz6wqSokSjWFUYpAuDkXLVtsKhf4a8Pr4h_3HMd3zIb9lCmVDS2K25MKep-FQZ1rMLqcD5awF_2TQy/s1600/breast+pump.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmirAQrbDJ_RgFS7vLb420V9BowRwKl5hvJ5ESAGHoIsviUHqMiRFaE88vpn4tiaHz6wqSokSjWFUYpAuDkXLVtsKhf4a8Pr4h_3HMd3zIb9lCmVDS2K25MKep-FQZ1rMLqcD5awF_2TQy/s320/breast+pump.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Breastfeeding: great for baby health, and <br />budget friendly too</span></i></b></td></tr>
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I almost recommended my bottle brush over this pump. I didn't have much success pumping at work, as there was no space to do so. That said, this pump worked well at home. Since it is closed system, the pump cannot be contaminated by cytomegalovirus and other such nasties, so the device is easy to resell or donate when a mother is done with it (sans the tubing, filters and cups, of course). In this respect, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ameda-Purely-Yours-Breast-Pump/dp/B004E9SW7G/ref=sr_1_1?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1385586358&sr=1-1&keywords=ameda+purely+yours">The Ameda Purely Yours double breast pump</a> is very similar to the hospital pumps.<br />
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I was the happy recipient of this pump, which had been used by two other women. When I first returned to work, my supply dipped so I rented a hospital pump for a month in the hopes of boosting my supply. I found no discernible difference between the two pumps. In the end, though, this little guy gave out about 4 months before I stopped breastfeeding our little one. I guess four years of virtually constant use was too much. If you consider that a week's supply of formula for a 6 month old is roughly $30, investing $200 in a new pump to use for a year is kind of a budget and health no brainer.<br />
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5) <a href="http://wazoodle.com/index.php/diaper-making/absorbent-fabrics/sherpa-terry-velour/sherpa-natural.html">Sherpa - as diaper wipes, face wipes, miracle clean up fabric</a><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv4OaoYok7vcm4hRNgvC80W7TVuBMlU_Hs53pyw92rES_VIsyLmCMkyuNjkZ_qRpa4X9d3o_2bWaBw6rw6DbUJz20sIoKR0jwHQ45XAZ8kxGFDZ1Z4Hy8wGfU9wu7iAll6yEvnsOS_4owh/s1600/sherpa_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv4OaoYok7vcm4hRNgvC80W7TVuBMlU_Hs53pyw92rES_VIsyLmCMkyuNjkZ_qRpa4X9d3o_2bWaBw6rw6DbUJz20sIoKR0jwHQ45XAZ8kxGFDZ1Z4Hy8wGfU9wu7iAll6yEvnsOS_4owh/s1600/sherpa_2.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b><i>Best baby purchase ever, hands down.</i></b></span> <br />
Photo credit: Wazoodle</td></tr>
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So this was a bit of a surprise. Babies seem to require an insane amount of fabric be invested in mopping up messes everyday. Between pee spray, milk drool, bum wiping, wetting themselves mid-diaper change and the unidentifiable muck collecting around hands and face, babies need to be wiped down constantly. An easy cleaning fix is to buy cartons of diaper wipes and keep them handy during all baby interfacing. Diaper wipes, however, are usually made of some kind of polyester mix. This means they do not break down in land fill. While cheap on a per pack basis (around $4 for a small pack), the ludicrous amount of wiping up required to keep a baby alive and healthy means that in the very short term diaper wipe buying becomes expensive.<br />
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While looking into how to make our own cloth diapers (more on that later), I found a very absorbent and inexpensive knit fabric called "sherpa" referenced frequently as a good absorbent layer fabric. A quick google search led me to a New Jersey company named <a href="http://www.wazoodle.com/">Wazoodle</a>, which sells <a href="http://wazoodle.com/index.php/diaper-making/absorbent-fabrics/sherpa-terry-velour/sherpa-natural.html">organic cotton sherpa</a> for around $13 a yard. I bought a yard and a half, cut it up into roughly diaper wipe size (no sewing required, since the fabric is knit) and haven't bought a wipe since. Not only does the fabric absorb over 3 cups of liquid per square yard/square meter, it is softer than most terry clothes and its nap is the best dirty bum cleaner we have every used. We keep a little homemade diaper wipe solution beside the changing area and dip these bad boys into it at change time. We have another set that we keep just for wiping food covered faces. At the end of the week, we wash the sherpa with either the cloth diapers or regular clothes (depending on how it was used). The purchase of this fabric, no lie, was the most budget friendly and clean-baby making decision we ever made.<br />
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What items have you found most useful? Any DIY baby supply suggestions?<br />
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<br />La Petite Coquettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08207138777454168455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4201278977878649747.post-58859724751490814082013-12-09T06:30:00.000-05:002013-12-09T14:36:08.544-05:00Etsy engagement rings part 2<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYLIjx5jFLgWrbFAveeCNnVzp4nOpc7YrWlHUhou-TlA1qUfM9DMY-feNgu-yWAdCrCO5ETPkPBNjzBl7qUE3gA1rurbZwNaV6iQF-rw9weOheMgzTTP0CKDfQTagpwSiQ7qiFo-Or-U2h/s1600/il_570xN.526356201_d0sl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYLIjx5jFLgWrbFAveeCNnVzp4nOpc7YrWlHUhou-TlA1qUfM9DMY-feNgu-yWAdCrCO5ETPkPBNjzBl7qUE3gA1rurbZwNaV6iQF-rw9weOheMgzTTP0CKDfQTagpwSiQ7qiFo-Or-U2h/s320/il_570xN.526356201_d0sl.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b><i>Squeeeeee!!!! SO PRETTY! </i></b></span><br />
Photo credit: Marajoyce</td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; line-height: 24px;">The Christmas season is fast coming upon us. With trees and mistletoe comes, inevitably, a slew of Christmas time proposals. A Christmas time proposal might mean snowy romance and glowing lights to some. Eternally budget-minded, for me Christmas engagements mean an important expense at a expensive time of year. </span></div>
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Couples have varying views on what an engagement ring should be. I knew at the time that H proposed to me that I wanted a pretty, reclaimed ring for under $300. </div>
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As I've mentioned before on this blog, I'm a huge proponent of hand-crafted engagement rings that use reclaimed materials and semi-precious stones (I ended up finding a beautiful piece featuring a semi-precious stone on eBay for $102). I love the aesthetic of such pieces. Buying such rings has the added benefit of supporting a small business, having greater control over design and, in the case of rings made from reclaimed materials, the benefit of being environmental friendly and avoiding the ethical muck of blood jewels.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Here is a selection of handcrafted rings for under $200 a piece currently available on Etsy*. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span itemprop="name"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: normal;"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/154782996/moonstone-14k-solid-gold-ring-rose-cut?ref=br_feed_17&br_feed_tlp=jewelry">Moonstone &14k Solid Gold Ring</a> by </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span itemprop="title">Ringsland - $149</span></span></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/154782996/moonstone-14k-solid-gold-ring-rose-cut?ref=br_feed_17&br_feed_tlp=jewelry"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhYvwwa0uF58SWlY5pFi_qy28mT-Uv7bDtNy7kWBOT0yi7tttlg5-ItEGuucX1QTxJmmpPjj0o5pZ4KvIyNRVaL9WdR_Ucmpye7kXMDrrXDBv193_MavuuHacx1zbleqOaTj1zt2Mrkl_K/s320/il_570xN.472378590_eyka.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/154782996/moonstone-14k-solid-gold-ring-rose-cut?ref=br_feed_17&br_feed_tlp=jewelry">Photo credit: Ringsland</a></td></tr>
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I LOVE the bezel set and the misty quality of the stone. So pretty!! Ringsland makes some rings to order, so there might be wiggle room on stone size and color. </div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: normal; font-weight: bold;">2.5ct Cushion Cut Ring , <a href="http://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/150593319/25ct-cushion-cut-ring-green-amethyst?ref=shop_home_feat">Green Amethyst </a></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: normal; font-weight: bold;"> or <a href="http://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/171306735/light-citrine-ring-cushion-cut-ring?ref=shop_home_active">Citrine Ring</a> by Baragent- $125.94</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/150593319/25ct-cushion-cut-ring-green-amethyst?ref=shop_home_feat"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWRgWl-cx5YRAv9kK6N-Jw97RNOS7ojAvlEpCMvasAJW6S6jtQyoNQhkr58AKVqtYd52YoHrKs0TzIYqtOeOeAH9DmaiUb9AcD-yTItJy_2R5rKXUsF2yyc1HiKYBXa1b4iACP3b8RIWiJ/s320/il_570xN.461851048_dgi3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsb3xsYG0upRfMUiRRyZ4cXKS2x9pOUB4KagMqFi3K0_Xakym9aFoalEAJslbcYcJXIrrt4BznDAgnRK2fY6fuYoIvRqVLZkJ-nAVHMI8Qr02tfZfS7hOyuV1Nar2Uq94ZLWF-28m4XXgs/s1600/il_570xN.533910942_m3lw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsb3xsYG0upRfMUiRRyZ4cXKS2x9pOUB4KagMqFi3K0_Xakym9aFoalEAJslbcYcJXIrrt4BznDAgnRK2fY6fuYoIvRqVLZkJ-nAVHMI8Qr02tfZfS7hOyuV1Nar2Uq94ZLWF-28m4XXgs/s320/il_570xN.533910942_m3lw.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/barargent?ref=l2-shopheader-name">Photo credit: Barargent</a></td></tr>
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I could not choose between these two very chic rings featuring cushion cut stones available at Baragent. The company's <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: normal;">designs tend towards art deco style and statement pieces, with multi-faceted stones. Almost all designs in the shop fall under the $150 mark, with a few pieces coming in at just over $20.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/169384122/aquamarine-twig-gemstone-ring-silver?ref=br_feed_44&br_feed_tlp=jewelry">Aquamarine Twig Gemstone Ring</a>, Silver by Marajoyce - $153.32 </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqXAWjEXCXktuDB6T42LlbSYefsoyt0K5F_WdJ_85l0Ln-MF0ItzDN3D_TvWIciUn71b42oc3kshhyiwYIYGOjddYKZcyRP0LSSwE6_nXsJLgvVxNJQ3DCnjvDq4CxP6qnX3N6UumUGwoi/s1600/il_570xN.526356201_d0sl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqXAWjEXCXktuDB6T42LlbSYefsoyt0K5F_WdJ_85l0Ln-MF0ItzDN3D_TvWIciUn71b42oc3kshhyiwYIYGOjddYKZcyRP0LSSwE6_nXsJLgvVxNJQ3DCnjvDq4CxP6qnX3N6UumUGwoi/s320/il_570xN.526356201_d0sl.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/169384122/aquamarine-twig-gemstone-ring-silver?ref=shop_home_active">Photo credit: Marajoyce</a></td></tr>
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I am a fan of the bezel set ring, in large part because it reminds me of ancient Mediterranean jewelry. Most of the designs by Marajoyce have a distinct Roman feel to them, with some pieces featuring real Roman era coins. This particular ring, in my view, is a bit of a departure from the other designs in the shop, both in its stone color and band width. Many of the pieces are larger statement pieces, multi-colored and many featured. Beautiful, but for my taste, this ring really hits it out of the ball park - just a lovely and peaceful mix of aqua/azure tones paired with a silver, tactile band. </div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">* </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">I have not purchased any items from these vendors. I just dig the rings. </span></div>
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<br />La Petite Coquettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08207138777454168455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4201278977878649747.post-75563216773200142922013-12-04T06:30:00.000-05:002013-12-04T06:30:01.251-05:00 Making a blanket out of pashmina scarves<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjjcTrZuAuWfFpi4iHibxI_6aw9s0RczhrqHqglzbmbBKfsyJJd92IpWWP66lByA0NMo5jMy_IWYHjAOJUdCyVucc_q0Bcpur-mBNCghZxEmwuuuXbyYKbg7_sGPa1yyBBsZvC9V4tzhv_/s1600/IMG_3075.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjjcTrZuAuWfFpi4iHibxI_6aw9s0RczhrqHqglzbmbBKfsyJJd92IpWWP66lByA0NMo5jMy_IWYHjAOJUdCyVucc_q0Bcpur-mBNCghZxEmwuuuXbyYKbg7_sGPa1yyBBsZvC9V4tzhv_/s320/IMG_3075.JPG" width="257" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i>$25 and some street haggling later,<br /> I have a throw blanket</i></span></b></td></tr>
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Our current apartment is very small. It is approximately 450 square feet. As we were packing to move I realized that for the space to feel orderly and clean, it would have to be well organized and coordinated in terms of both shape of items and their color.<br />
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We decided to buy some new furniture to fit the space. I went on the hunt for the perfect throw blanket for the living room couch. I knew that I wanted the blanket to be predominately white and turquoise, without a lot of intricate patterning. This turned out to be a fruitless search, as the gods of West elm, CB2, Target etc. all seemed to conspire to be really into gray and yellow at the time I started the hunt. This is when I decided to make my own blanket.<br />
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As our move coincided with the last three months of my pregnancy, grant season and a major publication project, I knew I didn't have a lot of time to quilt or knit a blanket. Moreover, I had just seen the perfect turquoise color on the streets of NYC - a "pashmina" scarf being sold by a table vendor. Fake pashminas pepper Manhattan. They are sold by every street vendor in the city, for about $5 a piece. That's when I decided to make a throw blanket out of pashmina scarves.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjejcuaO6mcbmRFtRoP6cNwlrjcMen-dWgQayHARXEhhdrvgGHJzhDSwjTP0SazXOO8ylkUKQ-K1ukxMoxFW0a5wOzpWGc32XcGvmetYanrhJph_FIbCr5e1qmFs1aVQxxg9bxeVJhB0eRE/s1600/IMG_8533.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjejcuaO6mcbmRFtRoP6cNwlrjcMen-dWgQayHARXEhhdrvgGHJzhDSwjTP0SazXOO8ylkUKQ-K1ukxMoxFW0a5wOzpWGc32XcGvmetYanrhJph_FIbCr5e1qmFs1aVQxxg9bxeVJhB0eRE/s320/IMG_8533.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">My street shopping bounty </span></i></b></td></tr>
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I picked up two turquoise scarves with white scarf for contrast, and then more or less followed the blanket-making instructions I found at <a href="http://www.centsationalgirl.com/2011/09/striped-pashmina-throw-simple-sew/">Centsational Girl</a>. I made a few adjustments, mentioned below. The blanket is basically a striped duvet cover that sewn directly over a piece of quilt batting. The total cost of this project is $25-$35 - $15 for the scarves, and $10 or $20 depending on whether you want polyester or cotton batting.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2HH4huhPzuK62OyoEK4FaUczcT0GE_yOq1ao1Ge8qQTmZ7g1yYTKNr21DXtu3F83jy41AKKmsZTxn8b0XPQs7L1cFwY3B1sQcynbpLKSSotVlJU0qgOwSmQ5UaYIqWYeZVmiOt91AQsEX/s1600/IMG_8536.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2HH4huhPzuK62OyoEK4FaUczcT0GE_yOq1ao1Ge8qQTmZ7g1yYTKNr21DXtu3F83jy41AKKmsZTxn8b0XPQs7L1cFwY3B1sQcynbpLKSSotVlJU0qgOwSmQ5UaYIqWYeZVmiOt91AQsEX/s320/IMG_8536.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Cut the scarf into strips and pin the first<br /> two strips together</span></i></b></td></tr>
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Three scarves will make a blanket about the size of a twin coverlet. The first step to make a striped blanket is to cut the scarves in half, lengthwise. The scarf strips will, eventually, be assembled and sewn in two groups of three. The two sewn groups are then sewn together. To start, pin two of the lengths together, right side in, and sew them with a straight stitch. Since the scarves fray, I found it helpful to give myself a little bit more than the standard 1/4 seam allowance. I left about 1/2 inch of allowance.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhod16ejv18i5v_yQ0qxOnW_P7tprTtQFLGl4u-dxH6jJCt8OWZKNBwDRYk6OMnaUGqvb_t8PGBUuAQUdEdu8WNgjmmVA5mURDuNDNysOPn3QgZHomXlQTxZ4utVdhxzok9Gt_m7BLFnyfZ/s1600/IMG_8547.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhod16ejv18i5v_yQ0qxOnW_P7tprTtQFLGl4u-dxH6jJCt8OWZKNBwDRYk6OMnaUGqvb_t8PGBUuAQUdEdu8WNgjmmVA5mURDuNDNysOPn3QgZHomXlQTxZ4utVdhxzok9Gt_m7BLFnyfZ/s320/IMG_8547.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">It is helpful to leave a 1/2 inch seam allowance</span></i></b></td></tr>
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To this pair of sewn strips, add and pin the third strip and sew. Repeat this entire process a second time to make a second sewn panel of three strips. Then assemble the two panels, right side in, pin and sew along the two long sides and one short side. Leave one short side open. Turn the newly assembled blanket cover right side out and carefully line up with the quilt batting and temporarily pin it in place. Us as few pins as possible, as these scarves sort of lack a self-healing ability. The holes left by the pins might be apparent.<br />
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It's possible, due to differences in scarf, seam allowances and batting widths that the cover will be slightly smaller than the batting. At this point, the batting can be trimmed if needed. I found that the batting needed to be trimmed, though Centsational Girl seemed to get her batting to slip in effortlessly - no lining up, no trimming.<br />
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<b><i>No pic of the lining up process, sorry</i></b>. </div>
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After trimming the batting, it's a simple matter of guiding the batting into the gigantic duvet cover just sewn and straightening it so that the batting corners fit into the cover corners. Once the batting is in place at the corners, I stitched the batting to the cover in a few places, along the fringe of the scarves. I don't have pictures of this process because in the tiny apartment in which I assembled this blanket, I had to slip the batting and then hang the blanket across a door and a few other structures to complete this task. Presumably, you have a more spacious apartment and won't have to spread you blanket across two separate rooms to get the batting into place.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvz7gH8NudS9rfvVXwI_hXtqX3rfyLO5fyVJiaIBWSziLHvaK68KPeAOHgdWMakOmGq1RuLZoBT2K4Vr1mWCwQq-eW9dtFYpvWFDOyjj9XEDec1_I2h_0BYifw5cgbUFZ07DJJkozxWQEf/s1600/IMG_3079.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvz7gH8NudS9rfvVXwI_hXtqX3rfyLO5fyVJiaIBWSziLHvaK68KPeAOHgdWMakOmGq1RuLZoBT2K4Vr1mWCwQq-eW9dtFYpvWFDOyjj9XEDec1_I2h_0BYifw5cgbUFZ07DJJkozxWQEf/s320/IMG_3079.JPG" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">hand stitch the open side of the cover <br />and you are done!</span></i></b></td></tr>
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Once the batting is in place, be sure to lay the blanket flat, smooth the cover and batting and pin the open end to the batting in a handful of places. Hand stitch the open end of the blanket closed using a slip stitch, or whatever stitch rocks your world. Centsational Girl likes colorful and apparent stitches so she used very colorful thread. I prefer less apparent stitching, so I used a more subtle color.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3Vbn-BqE9MeRJDxWgSvVds53TFN_8h5WXjkVlpwd7TcEDtmXC4CrZdcIUMikmVLbVjXDHvK807JyJWL5LZjqgdooIKPBXt5NC2GNdV4jBXAdf2tovVt9rXfWE9OOj4p3pU_jRvqv3ZcTO/s1600/IMG_3073.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3Vbn-BqE9MeRJDxWgSvVds53TFN_8h5WXjkVlpwd7TcEDtmXC4CrZdcIUMikmVLbVjXDHvK807JyJWL5LZjqgdooIKPBXt5NC2GNdV4jBXAdf2tovVt9rXfWE9OOj4p3pU_jRvqv3ZcTO/s320/IMG_3073.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The finished product in its usual place. </span></i></b></td></tr>
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Three final thoughts on this project. 1) I love the blanket (it is super warm), but would have liked it to be a bit more square. If I were to redo this project I would resize the batting 2) the blanket actually holds up really well. It has collected a few snags from heavy use, but that's hardly a problem. 3) I really like this project because when the cover eventually gives out or I grow tired of the colours, the batting can be used again and again.<br />
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<br />La Petite Coquettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08207138777454168455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4201278977878649747.post-91342076846342347962013-12-03T06:30:00.000-05:002013-12-03T06:30:03.634-05:00Scratch and win pregnancy announcements<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9isyvs3Ti7xPxHm35kgKd56816raGGj3AHl5iHow-WaWKMgVnPhzqUXUK-0xjOoLnXaB7H1_Ife9WVYw26_tiQeSB2ev5FVhhOy_4d74zF52kuUhBWAP4uysdeMBVpra9pUPAmE81e9fn/s1600/pregnancy+test.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9isyvs3Ti7xPxHm35kgKd56816raGGj3AHl5iHow-WaWKMgVnPhzqUXUK-0xjOoLnXaB7H1_Ife9WVYw26_tiQeSB2ev5FVhhOy_4d74zF52kuUhBWAP4uysdeMBVpra9pUPAmE81e9fn/s320/pregnancy+test.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"></span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i>The itty bitty, teeny weeny, faintest of lines</i></span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i>that changed everything</i></span></b></div>
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Photo credit: me</div>
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A few weeks after I deposited my dissertation, H and I decided to revisit our plan to have children. We were very quiet about trying to get pregnant, discussing the possibility with no one but my doctor.<br />
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We weren't private for long, because 10 days after we decided to try I found myself holding the plastic wand pictured above. Unabashedly excited about this child, I decided to come up with a playful way to tell my parents the news.<br />
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Around 13 weeks, we decided to make scratch and win tickets by following <a href="http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/226949/scratch-save-date-how">these instructions</a>. Basically, I designed a game-like card and printed it on cardstock. I made mine in powerpoint, saved it as a tif and printed it on our colour inkejet printer at home.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr2UOPI8zzNaLKyGI4Hen4HARD8ScVoj0lVploK2k7l259NNjNViuGz2JD0_7AGsejQVS28WTBSDVK332Dyb2SkyGRzuE_-RjLhniVvMjPjjkE2kIdbe8T0k_TfBJS4r0tzhPLKqs_IlF-/s1600/scratch+card2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr2UOPI8zzNaLKyGI4Hen4HARD8ScVoj0lVploK2k7l259NNjNViuGz2JD0_7AGsejQVS28WTBSDVK332Dyb2SkyGRzuE_-RjLhniVvMjPjjkE2kIdbe8T0k_TfBJS4r0tzhPLKqs_IlF-/s320/scratch+card2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Now to make it a scratch card. Martha Stewart's tutorial suggested painting the circles with a mix of liquid acrylic paint and dish detergent. The trick to making the card easy to scratch is to first cover the areas to be scratched with clear packing tape before painting. If you just paint the card, you'll have gooey paint on a card that will not scratch off.<br />
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Stick a stretch of packing tape to wax paper. The wax paper acts as the sticker backing. Cut the tape to the appropriate shape, peel the wax paper off and stick your packing tape sticker to the space you want to your recipient to scratch.<br />
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Then mix your liquid acrylic paint with a drop of dish detergent and paint over the tape. Let it dry and voila, a scratch and win card.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDNmasPCfVE6NwKW-s8jdNFWUAZyAOYTGMChIqSjVdzZj4LgxMxBEHiDSbq1_H6lYbIzHW0xSYASh6ENWW5ucFIth6FviXjfW_L24LvPOLiIohu9HMYdwMsC0sCBQY4ABnE6nEtDMrSpws/s1600/IMG_8210.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDNmasPCfVE6NwKW-s8jdNFWUAZyAOYTGMChIqSjVdzZj4LgxMxBEHiDSbq1_H6lYbIzHW0xSYASh6ENWW5ucFIth6FviXjfW_L24LvPOLiIohu9HMYdwMsC0sCBQY4ABnE6nEtDMrSpws/s320/IMG_8210.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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If I could go back I think I would have worded the card "November 23rd, 2012 is my due date". As I worded it my parents discovered I was pregnant when they scratched the first circle, leaving the the last two circles to be scratched after congratulations and hugs etc.. All of that said, it was an easy project. My parents loved it and it introduced our little one in a fun and lighthearted way.<br />
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<br />La Petite Coquettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08207138777454168455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4201278977878649747.post-4690489202144389952013-12-02T06:30:00.000-05:002013-12-02T06:30:00.091-05:002013, gone so soon<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2F4NNJAWQL6z0xYtBMxxIbd2T2XrcA9lXXQaP7M4r_CQ7rAL9OgeU_hNJqn6XHfYPA-ogtR1yXeXHNVSci3mdFk76JhA_1oEfEQxvq2snszOoW74f_GhzxspWZsgWdve8PNlyCr8zBdW7/s1600/IMG_0896_2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2F4NNJAWQL6z0xYtBMxxIbd2T2XrcA9lXXQaP7M4r_CQ7rAL9OgeU_hNJqn6XHfYPA-ogtR1yXeXHNVSci3mdFk76JhA_1oEfEQxvq2snszOoW74f_GhzxspWZsgWdve8PNlyCr8zBdW7/s320/IMG_0896_2.JPG" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b><i>My "home only" to do list the day before our little one was born</i></b></span></td></tr>
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Lovely readers (I do count the hits on this site, and apparently there are more of you out there than I thought), I've been a bad poster of posts. I'm sorry for having been derelict in my duties. The period between my last 2012 post and today has been insanely busy. To give you a little run down, since I last posted I have<br />
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- become unemployed<br />
- landed a postdoctoral position outside of NYC<br />
....and subsequently messed with just about every other life plan H and I have made in the last 5 years</div>
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- hired several immigration lawyers<br />
- became pregnant<br />
- made several weeks long trips to research centers to complete work for said postdoc<br />
- moved to another country.<br />
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This is no small feat when you have possessions you intend to keep. A move like this requires a detailed manifest of every packed box with an estimate of how much the items inside the box cost. It took months to pack<br />
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- settled into a new home<br />
- became the sole breadwinner on a much, much lower income.<br />
- wrote many grants, and won three<br />
- handed in one grant while in labor<br />
- gave birth to a beautiful baby<br />
- discovered the wonders of cloth diapering<br />
- pumped out 4 publications<br />
- started three major research projects<br />
- started a work-related book proposal<br />
- submitted quite a few permanent job applications<br />
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....and have started to pack up to move again. </div>
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Huh, I guess that's it. It seems like more. </div>
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La Petite Coquettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08207138777454168455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4201278977878649747.post-58795566577068241992013-11-28T06:30:00.000-05:002013-11-28T06:30:04.065-05:00Moment of Happy in home decor<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_2vhxkb6I1WYFyGkNYPyMBSvUW4IeiIkfcX396YLv5ZysjUhe-33JpyRY-lFLSHgLBvkC3_MvKmGvCQOhayyKE7OKdR_DiAeVBePeCLUEhXcD7vRhjmS8NwckthshA7RzEBIlEUh6PFIh/s1600/IMG_7769.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5710128051039334754" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_2vhxkb6I1WYFyGkNYPyMBSvUW4IeiIkfcX396YLv5ZysjUhe-33JpyRY-lFLSHgLBvkC3_MvKmGvCQOhayyKE7OKdR_DiAeVBePeCLUEhXcD7vRhjmS8NwckthshA7RzEBIlEUh6PFIh/s400/IMG_7769.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 286px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
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<b><i>My dissertation killed the happy in my apartmen</i></b>t</div>
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In the wake of my PhD I published papers- or at least I tried to publish papers. While I did this and waited for my postdoc to start, I dwelled in burnout. The author of my favourite blog in the whole wide world would call this "dwelling in possibility". That chick, however, gets stuff done. She is setting up a school, building and organizing a house, raising a two kids etc.. I, by contrast, sat on my couch, working up the energy to get to the gym at 2 pm. It occurs to me that had I taken a trip after my dissertation was deposited - if I had even chilled in a organized way that week, I would have been more productive in the weeks that followed. I might even be more productive now. </div>
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I did however, reclaim certain aspects of my life and household. This included 1) destuffing/decluttering 2) reorganizing and repairing and 3) completing some decor projects. </div>
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My PhD years were fun, but the last 3 years were stressful. I worked veeeery long hours, in a very aggressive and unsupportive environment. For 3 years, I just came home and collapsed into bed. As a result, we never really settled into our apartment. It was filled with half done projects. It was messy. It wasn't a refuge. It was just something else I have to do. </div>
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So in the weeks after my dissertation, I decided to re-introduce the happy. H and I are worked a special project to pull the living room together. Before I put that up here, I'm posting my easiest solution to bringing in the happy - pretty drawer pulls. All found on Etsy - all pretty and delightful and welcome to replace the sad Ace hardware burnished brass pulls that dragged down our home. </div>
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<a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/VintageSkye#">VintageSkyes </a>is a delightful Etsy shop that produces handstamped "vintage inspired" drawer pulls. The shop contains dozens of designs, most in black and white. While some stamped designs have 19th century science plate illustration feeling to them, others are dead ringers for late 19th century advertising typographic symbols, or actual government stamps (i.e. U.S. Post Office). I'm in love with all of them. At the cost of $7 a knob, I could happily see these ushering in the pretty in my kitchen.<br />
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I am particularly fond of this Matryoshka doll pull. I've never seen anything like it before. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf83xrCE4vUmhFDDFccvCgmVYIR24Z2iJ7S24ypCvMy-cmxGK5z4UZDLRZEmrl2D72OBojbZgN71xCwWVqYuhhKSrLofL2LAh1hK_LkWlHo4TwqlDHn-liXs7-vXdoDcdqqqSHXloI02YH/s1600/il_570xN.436207799_bkhf-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf83xrCE4vUmhFDDFccvCgmVYIR24Z2iJ7S24ypCvMy-cmxGK5z4UZDLRZEmrl2D72OBojbZgN71xCwWVqYuhhKSrLofL2LAh1hK_LkWlHo4TwqlDHn-liXs7-vXdoDcdqqqSHXloI02YH/s320/il_570xN.436207799_bkhf-1.jpg" width="318" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo credit: VintageSkye</td></tr>
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<a href="http://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/VeritasInspired?ref=l2-shop-info-name#">Veritas Inspired </a> sells recovered drawer pulls, amongst other metal objects. The feel of the shop is very shabby chic, but the owner does find some interesting pulls and will paint and shab them up anyway you might like. </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv0m7jE26mZkvWaqE1rnHlsDj9qURJdKd-eWbeb6wsHe6VuGxgIMAbzx09RdJ8sA2YE2HNhGq2iu1JHsPk6rDYmjsXptpeXyDfNbIvyiCoVRnsZOXCumEtYwOTfcv9XDDHi_J2DvmoVd7A/s1600/il_570xN.393459440_8o2m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv0m7jE26mZkvWaqE1rnHlsDj9qURJdKd-eWbeb6wsHe6VuGxgIMAbzx09RdJ8sA2YE2HNhGq2iu1JHsPk6rDYmjsXptpeXyDfNbIvyiCoVRnsZOXCumEtYwOTfcv9XDDHi_J2DvmoVd7A/s320/il_570xN.393459440_8o2m.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo credit: VeritasInspired</td></tr>
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I'm not sure how this happened, but I have a serious case of the cutes that my grad school self would have found very amusing. I suspect it took hold after the birth of our little one (oh yes, a lot has happened since I last posted). The upshot is, I like cartoon drawings of fuzzy animals. I really dig the drawer pulls at <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/ebonypaws?ref=l2-shop-info-name">Ebonypaws </a>. They are adorable without being cutesie, simple but not dull, sweet but not saccharin. I have a particular soft spot for this sleeping fox pull below<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkCHZ2R9Y4t2IcAbcnrYFY_-DePaVGs_zEjOrsyKV4lFDUlBB99G_GyviS0IA7cFKHbN12CsJnoBtR8O4QFRzpftML4Cb2SUcd1XqDWKZ75q8ekE2e_8s9AxNpdKdeRz1uOlX4fI13gH0h/s1600/il_570xN.254396299.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkCHZ2R9Y4t2IcAbcnrYFY_-DePaVGs_zEjOrsyKV4lFDUlBB99G_GyviS0IA7cFKHbN12CsJnoBtR8O4QFRzpftML4Cb2SUcd1XqDWKZ75q8ekE2e_8s9AxNpdKdeRz1uOlX4fI13gH0h/s320/il_570xN.254396299.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo credit: EbonyPaws</td></tr>
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La Petite Coquettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08207138777454168455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4201278977878649747.post-65570431125720098212012-02-16T06:30:00.000-05:002012-02-16T06:30:04.145-05:00Back FridayTaking a little break today. Back on Friday.La Petite Coquettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08207138777454168455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4201278977878649747.post-38189614606031206942012-02-15T06:30:00.000-05:002012-02-15T06:30:01.486-05:00Happy deskware: Scout Creative's free pop up calendars<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiCTV9BmZnET8TMDtDw2K79yy7mCxk3razEoujraT_d7pAP0aLI03y2-EkCuvGfg-9Lk3Z39o-w2jQHQfAMowAkofG15pp0HKJtsm4IbnUk7_3OLcaI9pI1zfa8v1vC3nyyEPqOolSYzuc/s1600/Scout_February.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 182px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiCTV9BmZnET8TMDtDw2K79yy7mCxk3razEoujraT_d7pAP0aLI03y2-EkCuvGfg-9Lk3Z39o-w2jQHQfAMowAkofG15pp0HKJtsm4IbnUk7_3OLcaI9pI1zfa8v1vC3nyyEPqOolSYzuc/s400/Scout_February.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708278397258254178" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i>Scout Creative makes my desk a happier place to wor</i></b>k</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I have completely fallen in love with these papercraft monthly desktop calendars designed by <a href="http://www.goscoutcreative.com/">Scout Creative</a>. They are super fun, very cute and, best of all, utterly free :) You can collect your free calendar on their site on the first of every month, or you can subscribe to their email service and they will deliver it right to your inbox. Either way, you are supporting a nifty company and making your desk a more liveable place to work :) This month's calendar is a<a href="http://www.goscoutcreative.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/FebCalendar.pdf"> chicken coop </a>:)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Scout Creative is a content marketing firm that specifically designs papercraft promotional items. They make all sorts of cut out and papercraft toy designs that are designed to promote, say, movies, printers, company entities..etc. They have even made little stand alone paper toy patterns for Disney. Very, very cool. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">For the last year-ish, the company has designed a <a href="http://www.goscoutcreative.com/calendarofthemonth/">free paper craft monthly desktop calendar</a>. My favorite in their archives is the <a href="http://www.goscoutcreative.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/07_July_papercraft1.pdf">July campfire scene</a>, but the <a href="http://www.goscoutcreative.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Curiosity_april_cal_jazz_final.pdf">April record collection</a> is pretty cool too. Browse their archive. The designs are clever, little color bursts that are a little tongue and cheek. They've already made my month...and I finished a PhD in the last 30 days. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Silly thing - it never occurred to me before finding these calendars that there are companies out there that produce papercraft promotional items. When I was a kid I loved, loved, loved cutting these sorts of patterns out of cereal boxes, folding and pasting. When I was doing my Masters, I even went so far as to buy a really complicated cuckoo clock pattern from a store, and assemble it. It took months, but it supposedly worked when assembled. I wouldn't know. I got the whole thing assembled, but couldn't afford the $20 of pennies that I would have had to put into the weights to get the clock started. The paper clock hung on the wall, and the weights sort of hung around my apartment. Still, that experience did not take away from my love of these little patterns. Can you imagine how much fun designing these crafts? If this science thing does not work out, maybe I'll do this for living :)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>La Petite Coquettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08207138777454168455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4201278977878649747.post-31474363222575115322012-02-14T06:30:00.001-05:002012-02-14T06:30:01.236-05:00Valentine's Day: gifts for your sweetie when you are completely broke<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjncLOSEvM2lRgemVQy_FVihKNZePJDWTuFe4FE9e6lAzlIPqokbflhXJJWR_E6NLYbh90rcJjKxmeXYa2FxRkQ3DXBxfEB5nzIiJRlT2qGAjLTtQEtl6nKoIVLC1mBeyRVGWVovCogT_fR/s1600/IMG_1997.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD35_3LkYiVdb675t8N9jTKBBbvS08qO1ErlLkOWErBAjyUxoPK1I06Vb_Hw0bHV2GG_q4jjl9IZLV5R3nA7aqbZ7Fj6Zpg5P9whSSDwPUSRa2e5DNiqBRWnfP4qGzhu0JmxL5aQmdl3dy/s1600/nyc-valentines-day.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD35_3LkYiVdb675t8N9jTKBBbvS08qO1ErlLkOWErBAjyUxoPK1I06Vb_Hw0bHV2GG_q4jjl9IZLV5R3nA7aqbZ7Fj6Zpg5P9whSSDwPUSRa2e5DNiqBRWnfP4qGzhu0JmxL5aQmdl3dy/s400/nyc-valentines-day.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708289142228903714" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i>PC hearts H </i></b></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Photo credit: hard to tell. Found on http://www.laughingriveryoga.com</i></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Did I mention that H and I are on a $10 a day food budget right now? Just the luck of the draw, really. While I'm in forced unemployment, the running of the household is highly dependent on H's ability to snag overtime hours at the office. Due to how his office bills clients, he has to work additional hours to be eligible for overtime pay if he takes a paid vacation day. The the poor guy has to work like a demon all the time while my income has been reduced to very little. <div><br /></div><div>We are very broke. While I'm not one for Valentine's day romance (blech...I really dislike canned romance of heart shaped boxes, red roses and prix fixe), we do like to spend a little extra time with one another the day before (NYC is a hot mess on Feb 14th) and we did get married this year. I'm still filled with fond, goofy, post-wedding feelings for H and I would like to give him a little gift, despite our very limited means. </div></div><div><br /></div><div>So, I've decided to take a note from <a href="http://www.jennysteffens.com/index.html">Jenny Steffens Hobick's Everyday Occasions</a> and make him a little bag of sugar cookies, with royal icing designs. I'm going to print her adorable and happily <a href="http://jennysteffens.blogspot.com/2012/01/be-mine-free-printable-tags-for.html">free "Be Mine" tags</a>, and affix them to a little bag of personalized cookies. I think I will make my cookies a little bit more psychedelic and little less rosebud-oriented. Her site has lots of other really cute V-day ideas worth checking out, if you want to do something a little extra special for your sweetie. </div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjncLOSEvM2lRgemVQy_FVihKNZePJDWTuFe4FE9e6lAzlIPqokbflhXJJWR_E6NLYbh90rcJjKxmeXYa2FxRkQ3DXBxfEB5nzIiJRlT2qGAjLTtQEtl6nKoIVLC1mBeyRVGWVovCogT_fR/s400/IMG_1997.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5708291527483471554" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 301px; height: 400px; " /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><b>PC hearts H and H hearts cookies</b></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><b>Photo credit: <a href="http://www.jennysteffens.com/index.html">Jenny Steffens Hobick's Everyday Occasions</a></b></i></div><div><br /></div><div>Just in case you are interested in doing the same, here is the recipe I use for iced sugar cookies below. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Sugar cookies (for shaped cookies)</b></div><div>2 cups sifted flour</div><div>1/4 tsp salt</div><div>1/2 tsp baking powder</div><div>1/2 cup of butter (1 stick), room temperature</div><div>1 cup of granulated sugar</div><div>1 large egg</div><div>1 tsp vanilla extract</div><div><br /></div><div>Sift together flour, salt, baking powder. In a separate bowl cream sugar and butter until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add the the flour mixture to the creamed mixture. Stir until combined (do not over stir). Chill the dough until firm (about an hour). Roll, cut out shapes and rechill. Bake cold cookies at 325, for about 10 minutes or until the edges start to brown. </div><div><br /></div><div>When the cookies have cooled completely, you can then ice them with royal icing. Royal icing will start to harden quickly, and should be completely hard in 20 to 30 minutes. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Royal icing</b></div><div>2 large egg whites (or 4 Tbsp of meringue powder and 3 Tbsp of water)</div><div>1 pound icing/confectioner's sugar</div><div>juice of 1/2 a lemon</div><div>food coloring. </div><div><br /></div><div>Pretty straightforward - combine until smooth. I usually split it into a few batches to add coloring. </div><div><br /></div><div>If you want the effect of a full, smooth coat of icing, like in the pictures above, outline the cookie in a slightly thicker icing using an icing bag or a little plastic bag with the tip cut off. Then take the same icing and thin it slightly with water - so that it is just a little, tiny bit runnier than the outline icing and gently pipe it into the space left by the outline. It should smooth itself out, and harden in 20 minutes. Before then, though, you can throw in thinned icing in other colours and make little designs. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>La Petite Coquettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08207138777454168455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4201278977878649747.post-48365646999402006002012-02-13T06:30:00.002-05:002012-02-14T12:21:38.666-05:00Long for the gritty New York of old days? Volunteer<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYLP0Rfb9VLHkt9h6008M-6zkiNTcuiaikQ-R_f9j1sc9Rs23K5OTzIv1t1EfvWzbI3OU_BF3qywLWvl8SZVzI09CQ4qbBfEuXH57SdIpDghhZJbGzvFCTiaquTiM3Lcem-5FbknaPLy6Q/s1600/IMG_0694_edited+copy.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYLP0Rfb9VLHkt9h6008M-6zkiNTcuiaikQ-R_f9j1sc9Rs23K5OTzIv1t1EfvWzbI3OU_BF3qywLWvl8SZVzI09CQ4qbBfEuXH57SdIpDghhZJbGzvFCTiaquTiM3Lcem-5FbknaPLy6Q/s400/IMG_0694_edited+copy.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5707884660513427730" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><i><b>"New York used to be real, man....</b></i>"</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Photo credit: me</i></div><div><br /></div><div>Occasionally, I let the bitter rantings of 45+ year old aging hipsters that spent their 20s getting mugged on the Lower East Side and reading White Noise like it was the Tamud convince me that I have led a fluffy, simple life in NYC and haven't the slightest idea what it's like to live in the "real" New York.</div><br />..and then, always, something <a href="http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/06/48-nyc-shootings-in-a-weekend-trend-or-random-tragedy/?hpt=hp_t2">like</a> this happens to remind me that they can f#$( themselves.<div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/09/ramarley-graham-new-york-police-_n_1266715.html">Most recently</a>, an NYPD officer kicked open a door in Bronx apartment, entered without a warrant and shot an unarmed 18 year old, who was flushing marijanua down the drain, in the chest.<br /><br /></div><div>When these flashes of serious violence and corruption happen, I inevitably get angry. I'm not just angry about the circumstances that lead to these events. I get angry at the aforementioned 45+ crowd who lament that New York is no longer "real" or "gritty". </div><div><br /></div><div>To those people I always want to scream that I actually commute through and work in these neighbourhoods. I pay 4 times the rent that they did when they were my age - controlling for inflation. I've spent my prime earning years earning a low wage in the most expensive city in the Western world during a decade that has not seen an increase in the mean income of people in my tax bracket. I'm experiencing the down sides of NYC full frontal, without the benefit of dancing in underground clubs in junkie neighbourhoods until dawn and capitalizing on vague connections to Keith Haring. I live as a pi$$ poor scientist in a city that has a Alicia Silverstone-sized crush on artists. I have shared zip codes with some of the wealthiest people in the U.S., yet I can't count the number of times I've had to negotiate late rent with my landlord or argue for lower fees with doctors because I was starting out with an employer that commonly has 13 week delays in payment. I traverse some pretty low down neighbourhoods. I've had hard financial times here. </div><div><br /></div><div>I've seen some real desperation and not one bad thing has happened to me because despite my tough time starting out, I always had the opportunity to live happy and safely....as most middle-class people do. I suspect that some of the longing for "gritty New York" is actually a longing for past youth on the part of my aging hipster friends. There is nothing romantic about a Time Square filled with prostitutes, or living here during City's peak murder rate years. Nothing. I can't imagine why anyone would wistfully long for those tough times. </div><div><br /></div><div>To my aging friends, longing for the "real" New York. Don't worry, you are here. Unfortunately, the terrible things that happen to others point us to where the gritty still lives. If you really long for the gritty old days, you don't have to travel far. I suggest that you take that energy and volunteer to help out neighbourhoods like QueensBridge and the South Bronx. </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.newyorkcares.org/volunteer/volunteer_opportunities/search_projects/">New York Cares</a> is a volunteer organization that runs projects in such neighbourhoods every week. Put your cynicism to use and head out to Bed-Stuy to assist in an arts program, or volunteer to tutor in Manhattan. Paint a school. Do something....no one is interested in hearing you wax poetic about the former filthiness of East 10th street, but someone out there is interested in what you might be able to bring to an after school sports program. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>La Petite Coquettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08207138777454168455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4201278977878649747.post-48487169140535750282012-02-11T06:30:00.000-05:002012-02-11T06:30:02.124-05:00Tada!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQpBnasYrR4ydLjdHvPJKJTfBcmbZ3M7kw4w33y_4bHtNJlGjLzde-Zb5XCaukA4CJtdRjIDY855bzs59PBcxYOa8YMGhEW-yvDkRpzgjLOZ8n5z1z1PmyfLZcaGw4oaUYtjWWW_JGQ2m3/s1600/IMG_7779_2.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQpBnasYrR4ydLjdHvPJKJTfBcmbZ3M7kw4w33y_4bHtNJlGjLzde-Zb5XCaukA4CJtdRjIDY855bzs59PBcxYOa8YMGhEW-yvDkRpzgjLOZ8n5z1z1PmyfLZcaGw4oaUYtjWWW_JGQ2m3/s400/IMG_7779_2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5707665126852128594" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><i><b>Ph.D</b></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It has been a long time coming, but the day arrived. I am a Ph.D. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It's a strange feeling, knowing that my graduate school days are over. I've done all the graduate school I can do. I don't think I've ever really gotten to the end of anything before. Certainly nothing that, I hate to say it, feels this profound. It's a stage of my life that is simply done and I'm so happy that it is.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I've spend the last 8 years chipping away at a degree that should have been much easier than it was. I had three completely different sets of dissertation advisors while here. There have been lab shut downs and abuse and mess. There have been fantastic times too - new loves, friends and interests and games. I do wish that the science side had been more fulfilling, but I do have a career ahead of me. There will be plenty of time for good science from here on. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I've spent years away from the people that mattered - missed birthdays, Christmases, weddings and funerals. I racked up debt, and lived miserly to pay it off. I tried my best to take advantage of New York City, and spent months at a time locked up writing and struggling to complete a dissertation I'm not really satisfied with. Still, the best dissertation is a completed dissertation. I am happy to have finished it. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I had a chance meeting in a Far Eastern country last year. A very powerful researcher noticed a question I asked at conference. He followed me out of the room and offered me an interview. Around this time last year, I flew to his lab, here in the U.S., and met a really fantastic group of people. I was offered a great job - a career making job...cover of Nature and Science job. A few months later, it fell apart.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Since that time, I have been completing my dissertation, papers/publications, giving talks at conferences and labs, submitting grants and fellowships, and interviewing left and right. No offer has really matched this offer, except one. While it may work out, my completion of this degree is tempered, somewhat, by the uncertainty of what is next. I am unemployed, a PhD, 15 pounds heavier (dissertation weight), publishing off my work and desperate to work on something new and exciting. I'm trying to celebrate every day with little breaks I cut myself. For example, I no longer sit in front of this computer until the wee hours. I close it down and give myself an hour of no work before bed......baby steps back to normalcy :) </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So, while I am no longer in grad school, I am still here, on a budget and making the best of it. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">..now I just have to think up a new tag line "graduate student" no longer applies.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Little things :)</div>La Petite Coquettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08207138777454168455noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4201278977878649747.post-15478548675195694142011-12-06T10:08:00.007-05:002011-12-06T11:03:28.837-05:00Super cheap post-Christmas vacation - finding a room<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSeQ28m7pTBDmSHihoYQwGR66vbk_pwexiIPL31cLGtt7mANDUYaLF3e6_N2e2jYdFcDTDxmQW9vWoX0NlqeD6fIwAUFFVe6XJS86ps-2CoRXH60NChEPCFNzaana5KvmB2NmGSD8fQ2Av/s1600/AirBnB.tiff" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSeQ28m7pTBDmSHihoYQwGR66vbk_pwexiIPL31cLGtt7mANDUYaLF3e6_N2e2jYdFcDTDxmQW9vWoX0NlqeD6fIwAUFFVe6XJS86ps-2CoRXH60NChEPCFNzaana5KvmB2NmGSD8fQ2Av/s1600/AirBnB.tiff" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="text-align: center;display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 324px; " src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSeQ28m7pTBDmSHihoYQwGR66vbk_pwexiIPL31cLGtt7mANDUYaLF3e6_N2e2jYdFcDTDxmQW9vWoX0NlqeD6fIwAUFFVe6XJS86ps-2CoRXH60NChEPCFNzaana5KvmB2NmGSD8fQ2Av/s400/AirBnB.tiff" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5683045248206460482" /></a><i><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div></i><div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">AirBnB - if I want to spend Christmas in Amsterdam, I could stay here for $89/night</span></b></i></div><div><div><br /></div>Due to a number of reasons, I can't leave NYC over Christmas. H and I are spending Christmas entirely alone, and it's too bad. This is a big Christmas for my family as my brother and my sister-in-law have had the first grandchild. Money is insanely tight in every quarter of the fam as I am unemployed and living in the most expensive city in the Western world, my parents are building a house and my brother just gutted his home. Still, I imagined to convince my brother that we should celebrate Christmas well after Christmas this year. While his family will meet up with my parents in December, we will all meet up in some central location and exchange presents etc. in February.<div><br /></div><div>Now, we have to decide where to meet. We are limited to the continental U.S. and my budget. One thing I have worked out is where to stay. A few of my friends have used Air BnB in the past and have really enjoyed it. </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.airbnb.com/">Air BnB </a>is an online service where people post cottages, rooms, apartments they have available to let. The company lists housing all over the world, and manages the exchange of payment. My perusal of the site this week has revealed some amazing housing in some pretty cool places, at low prices. </div><div><br /></div><div>When I say low, I mean low. Most of the listings I found asked for a flat fee for rental, with little or no price increase to include additional people. I found a beautiful house in a historic Southern city for $167 a night for eight people. That's not $167 per person. That's $167 for all eight. I wish I had known about this service when I was planning my wedding, as it would have been a nice recommendation for guests. </div><div><br /></div><div>It would seem that with Air BnB I can tie up my housing situation fairly quickly. Now I just have to choose a city that is easily accessible and hospitable in February.<br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div></div></div>La Petite Coquettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08207138777454168455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4201278977878649747.post-44802595609524721222011-11-12T11:16:00.006-05:002011-11-12T11:45:07.914-05:00Countdown<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0y_O3CfoU8izqLUMLJebvr5Nbl_4gRvuJN2v5Sc7Qf5UyQbWD02yGzWrixlfKQGVeKKiw34qlzbowk2FrM9jC-LTz6FpexNawFEMm6VNZGMr69aFhoFvvqbNsTrtwU_HMg_aHWntlU2aO/s1600/IMG_0790.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 285px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0y_O3CfoU8izqLUMLJebvr5Nbl_4gRvuJN2v5Sc7Qf5UyQbWD02yGzWrixlfKQGVeKKiw34qlzbowk2FrM9jC-LTz6FpexNawFEMm6VNZGMr69aFhoFvvqbNsTrtwU_HMg_aHWntlU2aO/s400/IMG_0790.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5674148414784376578" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><i><b>My defense date has been set. Now the research clock is ticking....</b></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><br /></div>The dissertation is in review. I'm defending in a few weeks. This raises all sorts of anxiety, in part, because I am out of publishable data and I remain unemployed. I've written a few postdoctoral fellowships, but I don't have much hope that I will land them...in part, because my publication record is wanting. This is partially my fault and partially the fault of my graduate program, which sells itself on a strong research component but, in practice, prefers that students teach 12-20 hours a week to earn their "fellowship". I've spent much of the last year asking myself why I didn't jump ship in those first 6 months and join a program where students were encouraged to do research. <div><br /></div><div> As I finish up these two papers to be submitted to journals, and make the revisions my committee requests of my thesis, I finally have the time to really search for a job. H and I have decided to cast the net far and wide for a bench position. At this moment, I really don't know what two months from now will look like. Our new strategy to reduce college debt, have kids etc are all in flux. While I'm trying very hard to regain some semblance of normal work hours, my validity as a potential researcher has an expiration date. I'm aware that the day after my defense, the clock starts ticking. While my P.I.s would like me to searching various published data to find potentially interesting areas to study, I've decided that I would rather get ahead on a few publishing projects, find another lab to work in and maybe finally get to the top of the Empire State Building. Whatever I do, it can't cost much because my bank balance is pretty low.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's a strange time. I'm wishing days away and begging for more time simultaneously. I've found myself considering volunteering as a postdoc just to get ahead on projects - a situation that would almost certainly leave me broke and as well as not valued in a lab. I'm a mass of contradictions this month :) Ah well. </div><div><br /></div><div>Stay tuned. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>La Petite Coquettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08207138777454168455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4201278977878649747.post-77110436726330425122011-09-02T06:30:00.000-04:002011-09-02T06:30:01.614-04:00Friends and money: surviving the dinner out when you are broke<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKJipfyqdN7kxV5QvhskgO0quq2meqY2mK-IHQrBwYlljjbsfa5pIwvdooe0OMKjedX-RQj6uWltQf_c-tvMHM6-UB_58BsnzanYaL91Q5ADGRfEPby8vwcBIFR5nsVunmPfdsTz0eErj7/s1600/IMG_5426_2.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKJipfyqdN7kxV5QvhskgO0quq2meqY2mK-IHQrBwYlljjbsfa5pIwvdooe0OMKjedX-RQj6uWltQf_c-tvMHM6-UB_58BsnzanYaL91Q5ADGRfEPby8vwcBIFR5nsVunmPfdsTz0eErj7/s400/IMG_5426_2.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5647612819730288946" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><i>You don't have to eat meals alone just to stay on budget</i></div><div>
<br /></div>I am now indeterminately broke. My contract just ended. I am not eligible for unemployment and I'm not sure when I will land a post doc. I will now be perpetually surrounded by people who make more money than I do. Every opportunity to socialize will be laden with possible over-expenditures. I am not, however, about to live in a hole - so how to handle nights out and no income?<div>
<br /></div><div>Well, here are a few things I have tried in the past that seem to work. Remember, I'm not a financial planner. I'm telling you what I have done to stay on budget.
<br /><div>
<br /></div><div><b>I plan splurges</b></div><div>
<br /></div><div>I actually stole this cash budgeting idea from the old school Weight Watchers Points plan (I lost 20 pounds 14 years ago and haven't gained it back, so this idea works). On the points plan a person has so many caloric points a day/week to spend. They have to hit a minimum number of calories everyday, but they can't exceed a maximum. If they have a special event coming up, they can eat the minimum points (or just above it) and bank the remaining available points for another day. The only rule is that all of the banked points have to be consumed by week's end. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>Being on a budget means planning weekly and monthly expenses just like planning caloric points. I plan "excessive" days, set a fixed amount that I will spend and then stay under budget "banking" the surplus money for that special "excessive" day. Friend wants to go to dinner this Friday? Great! If it's Tuesday, and I have a few days to underspend so that I can afford dinner on Friday. If my friend calls Friday and I don't have "points" to spare? I decline and suggest I'll meet them later for something lower cost (i.e. post dinner drink) or I invite them to my apartment (I do this most frequently). I can always bank for dinner out with my friend the next week. </div><div><b>
<br /></b></div><div><b>Make back up plans for splurges</b></div><div>
<br /></div><div>I can't emphasize this enough. It makes sense to have some "points" in pocket just in case. I often underspend during the week, anticipating weekend nights out. On the weekends where I do little, I figure out what to do with the excess. Sometimes I put the money on debt, sometimes I buy much needed clothes or order food in. It's my "excess" and I use it by the end of the week. </div><div>
<br /></div><div><b>I am up front about what I am willing to spend</b></div><div>
<br /></div><div>When I meet with a group of friends I am very up front about what I can afford. The earlier my budget is introduced into the planning conversation, the better. I have had to skip a few 30th birthdays and nights out because I've been on a strict budget. I usually make plans to meet up with my friends at a cheaper location after they have enjoyed the place I can't afford. I don't mind missing the experience, because the expense will stress me out and they don't mind because we get to spend some time together. </div><div>
<br /></div><div><b>Don't let shame get in the way of your financial happiness</b></div><div>
<br /></div><div>I am never ashamed of being budgeted. I am budgeted because I am a graduate student. I have worked very hard to finish this degree and part of that means working long hours without compensation. Anyone who would make me feel bad about that is not worth my time. When a friend tells me that everyone is going to the Landmarc and I can't afford it, I wish them well and tell them I'll meet them later. </div><div>
<br /></div><div><b>I don't share food or buy rounds</b></div><div>
<br /></div><div>This is a killer. Shared bills rack up charged very quickly, especially when drinks are involved. When I am strictly budgeted, I simply don't do it. When there is a group of people rotating in and out of a waitressed, seated area a bar I either ask for a separate cheque, close out a tab immediately or I get my drink at the bar and come back. </div><div>
<br /></div><div><b>I alternate water with drinks</b></div><div>
<br /></div><div>This slows the drinking, keeps me from being hungover and leaves my wallet intact. Usually have a club soda, which can be easily disguised as a vodka soda-like drink if I am pressured to have a drink in front of me. </div><div>
<br /></div><div><b>If all else fails, I leave</b></div></div><div>
<br /></div><div>If I am already out with friends and my attempts to keep the evening low cost are unheeded, I simply step out. The bar hours in this city run until 4:30...and then there are after clubs and diners. A 7 pm after work drink can turn into my key slipping into my front door at 8:30 am the next day. It has happened before - so if my friends really want to go someplace very expensive, and I can't negotiate another location, I let them go without me. My friends are pretty awesome though, so this rarely happens. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>
<br /></div><div>Any other tips that might be helpful?</div>La Petite Coquettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08207138777454168455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4201278977878649747.post-26260199377564921232011-09-01T06:30:00.001-04:002011-09-01T06:30:02.143-04:00One income - let the challenge begin<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4BeuTHL2_2dBy906GmzOoWQQS5nm0zYa9DXEd5KN2WUg1EdNJsLlJ6dvQUJqPCFvPrHPvki0TtP9mNd-O2PLD8-HwTehprmbJFSxbo5HFEQhTTY_Yh1_joQjl3Zzv7Cs1Hm1KdxK3AP9r/s1600/IMG_7002_2.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4BeuTHL2_2dBy906GmzOoWQQS5nm0zYa9DXEd5KN2WUg1EdNJsLlJ6dvQUJqPCFvPrHPvki0TtP9mNd-O2PLD8-HwTehprmbJFSxbo5HFEQhTTY_Yh1_joQjl3Zzv7Cs1Hm1KdxK3AP9r/s400/IMG_7002_2.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5646860697313838290" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><i>The sun goes down on my income generating years, for now</i></div><div>
<br /></div><div>We are now officially down to one income. I am, of course, extremely nervous. I have been employed since the age of 13. I have my own money my entire teen and adult life. Now, I have to rely on someone else to parcel out cash to me. Given that I spent most of my last pay cheque preparing Go bags and an emergency pantry, H will be rolling out money to me faster than he might think. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>This period is supposed to be temporary for us. I am defending soon and desperately searching for a post-doctoral position. If all goes well, I will have landed a job by January. Still, I've been on 4 interviews already and nothing has stuck. I keep getting offers and new potential employers contact me almost every day, but none of the positions are the right ones. The P.I.s are unfocused, or are looking for someone who can pipette without thinking. While most grad students work for their advisors for a few months after they graduate, this is not an option for me. My bosses are abusive, unproductive and have gotten a taste for free labour. I might feel better about it if my bosses could get off their butts and respond to any of my emails about finishing the paper. That is a drama for another day. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>I would be lying if I told you that the thought of me never finding a postdoc position had not occurred to me. My anxiety about this is such that I have started dreaming about P.I.s that have rejected me hugging me. That's messed up, right? </div><div>
<br /></div><div>In anycase, whether I am ready or not, whether I want to or not, I am now completely at the mercy of someone else's income and job performance. H is great at what he does, but I've never been in this position before. I bought some almonds and dried mango on the way home today. It occurred to me that I will have rethink every little pit stop like that. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>So onward and upward. I planned on this day, but have decided to make the following immediate emergency measures to make life easier. From now until January I will</div><div>
<br /></div><div>a) limit restaurant visits</div><div>b) enjoy a drink or food when I go out with my friends, but not both</div><div>c) I will eat before going over to a friend's, running errands, or attending meetings so as to not have a painful discussion about why I can't get a bite to eat</div><div>d) I will not split courses at a restaurant with anyone other than H</div><div>e) shop grocery sales</div><div>f) be more vigilant about power usage</div><div>g) use Skype more often to speak to family and complete post-doc interviews</div><div>h) limit the purchase of special drinks i.e. coconut water, skinny water etc.</div><div>i) set a budget and list of new clothing items for the Fall/Winter and not stray from it </div><div>j) make more $5 meals</div><div>k) limit house parties to a single small one in four months</div><div>l) still put 10% of whatever H gives me each month into savings :)</div><div>
<br /></div><div>Any other ideas? I still have this last semester of tuition to pay :(</div><div>
<br /></div>La Petite Coquettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08207138777454168455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4201278977878649747.post-78375900264816913072011-08-27T09:44:00.004-04:002011-08-27T09:51:29.601-04:00I'll be back Sept 1, 11<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCtb7G40od81hcg-oClUUCzf-_pPNtDSq7CZ7SzGrG0mSlbOuQZWYKtJfHk8tNIr7-CQwK0Er7Lm8mE_qe9PvC_6RsCgzMmhlWGDCrGC0kddobFZJ6DJw0R0x-V3ec2woy5ZpVmDb6l1rx/s1600/image.wide.1304972352271.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 292px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCtb7G40od81hcg-oClUUCzf-_pPNtDSq7CZ7SzGrG0mSlbOuQZWYKtJfHk8tNIr7-CQwK0Er7Lm8mE_qe9PvC_6RsCgzMmhlWGDCrGC0kddobFZJ6DJw0R0x-V3ec2woy5ZpVmDb6l1rx/s400/image.wide.1304972352271.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5645532564566777426" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Hurricane Gilbert, 1988 Landscaping and lawn decor</span>
<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Photo credit: Newscom</span>
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />It's looking like NYC will be out of power for a few days. H and I are making a few preparations and then will be hunkering down to hang out in our hallway until the storm passes. As a last post, I thought I'd feature my favourite hurricane photo. I know that sounds grim - who has a favourite photo of a mass disaster? Well, people about to undergo a mass disaster I suppose. This particular shot is brilliant, if not just because it looks like a giant hand picked up a boat and dropped it on this guy's front yard.
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<br />In anycase, all the best to you. H, I'll see you in a few minutes.
<br />
<br />LPC
<br />La Petite Coquettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08207138777454168455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4201278977878649747.post-865845072618015992011-08-26T07:41:00.005-04:002011-08-26T17:21:49.699-04:00Natural disasters<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3BIxlqUZWlLxI3vZ814UJEJ0_Mp0Kpf5ap3w-CDEI7oYD0HO5OEXq8dX3P5IqHALje6ElzY5s7f1cP7gfAllApQ0yucww0CmGvNVDTwW9OTq_Eti5Pmt-kE4tKZDTCeSWNUTObDLXHwL_/s1600/bob-walker-image-325x220.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 325px; height: 220px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3BIxlqUZWlLxI3vZ814UJEJ0_Mp0Kpf5ap3w-CDEI7oYD0HO5OEXq8dX3P5IqHALje6ElzY5s7f1cP7gfAllApQ0yucww0CmGvNVDTwW9OTq_Eti5Pmt-kE4tKZDTCeSWNUTObDLXHwL_/s400/bob-walker-image-325x220.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5645149823153678386" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Irene, extraordinary, expensive - high maintenance lady</span>
<br /></div>
<br />As anyone has likely heard, hurricane Irene is on its way. It will hit the coast of North Carolina today as a category 2 hurricane - but, will pretty itself up for a trip to Manhattan, where it will pull out all of the stops as at least a category 1, possibly a category 3 storm.
<br />
<br />Why is this a problem? Well, New York is low lying, and in the Northern end of a well traveled storm path known as the Gulf stream. We are particularly susceptible to storm surges - which are arguably the most dangerous part of a hurricane. Thing is, we get tropical depressions and Nor'Easters, but we haven't seen a landfall hurricane possibly ever...and certainly not one close enough to do serious, serious damage since 1938....and that was a glancing blow.
<br />
<br />Irene promises to be different. It is a very large and slow moving storm that will move over, what I now understand, to be unusually warm water surrounding the city. As you likely know, warm water = hurricane speed up.
<br />
<br />Irene is special for another reason. New York is in the direct path of her crapness. What does this mean? It means the stuff you saw in the ill thought out godzilla remake in the mid-90s is actually happening. The city is simultaneously shutting down mass transit and ordering mandatory evacuations AT THE SAME TIME. I'm not sure if you will see people running back and forth around a big green foot, but the situation is serious enough that we've had to do three I didn't think I would have to do.
<br />
<br />We had to make a "Go bag", an evacuation plan and an emergency connection plan
<br />
<br />H and I are still working on the evacuation plan. His employers and I are in disagreement about the risk of this hurricane. Right now, they want him to report to work. If he insists on being there, maybe we will hole up in that building.
<br />
<br />We made an emergency connection plan - if we are separated, we will meet at specific, public location.
<br />
<br />The Go bag - unexpected expense - we dropped about $80 on it yesterday. I'm budgeting it into "household expenses". Our go bag contains
<br />
<br />a) all important ID
<br />b) water
<br />c) first aid kit
<br />d) all portable hard drives
<br />e) toothbrush, toothpaste
<br />f) energy/granola bars and tin goods
<br />g) pet food
<br />h) cash
<br />i) my laptop = my dissertation
<br />j) underwear
<br />k) flashlight, spare batteries
<br />l) medications
<br />
<br />Beside that, we stocked up on food and water, and have a blanket and pillows ready for an evacuation.
<br />
<br />Now we just need to settle that evacuation plan. So far, leaving the city and living this out in inland Connecticut is very appealing, but will cost a pretty penny.
<br />La Petite Coquettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08207138777454168455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4201278977878649747.post-24105223035259690632011-08-25T06:30:00.002-04:002011-08-25T09:34:33.836-04:00Short post today - Thank you Steve Jobs<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3TJ0ZtDafdfB3Zt4OYLg66pEe4wtOzoRsB1mWYFYJC3dbQi_7Ivc6fFuKUmrFHYT7bMcrm7pxK_tORRx9Cf3v4Rq1rKbHUyprA5MQU3xJJCmL157wPF2F5u69pW-aD7B0nZAMctaOwjHY/s1600/steve-jobs-resigns.gi.top.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 259px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3TJ0ZtDafdfB3Zt4OYLg66pEe4wtOzoRsB1mWYFYJC3dbQi_7Ivc6fFuKUmrFHYT7bMcrm7pxK_tORRx9Cf3v4Rq1rKbHUyprA5MQU3xJJCmL157wPF2F5u69pW-aD7B0nZAMctaOwjHY/s400/steve-jobs-resigns.gi.top.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5644654479736768370" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Steve Jobs will stay on as Apple's Chairma</i>n</div><div>
<br /></div><div>...but alas has given the CEO seat to someone else. I do feel bad for Jobs and his family - particularly since I can see his clavicle under his sweater in this photo. I deeply suspect, like many others, that he is stepping into the chairman position because he will soon be too ill to continue as any executive. An intermediate move to chairman will help keep the company stable during what will be a very rocky end of week and months for the market. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>He has been lucky. While most patients with a pancreatic cancer diagnosis get a few weeks, he has been very fortunate to have nearly a decade. I didn't think I would feel like this, because, well, I don't know him. I do genuinely feel remorse for Jobs and his family. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>While Mr. Jobs and his family and company are preparing for his move to the backseat, I can't help but wonder what this will do to the markets Thursday and Friday. Apple is a cornerstone of the American markets right now (more money than the U.S. Treasury apparently). Thursday was predicted to be a swell of trading and setting up positions ahead of Bernanke's speech Friday. The Jobs resignation might change that - hasten it, introduce additional instability. It's odd to think that such a horrible event for one person and their family could actually affect what the exchange rate will be....how much money I will be able to put aside...what my retirement savings will be worth next month. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>I'm not very consumerist, but I do enjoy having a stable and speedy laptop, a simple and tiny machine that carries my music, an apple store that I can walk into 24/7 to fix my computer problems no questions asked. My work life is easier because of simple perceptions of ease and subsequent alterations to personal electronics. It's kind of sad to see the master of taking the complex and sophisticated and making simple and accessible, step away from the helm. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>Dear Mr. Jobs - my best wishes to you. In the last ten years, you have changed my life for the better. Thank you, and Mr. Wozniak and Wayne. </div>La Petite Coquettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08207138777454168455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4201278977878649747.post-81631348897489156052011-08-24T06:30:00.006-04:002011-09-02T00:54:47.814-04:00Breaking up on a really, really small budget<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyDJGdNbDzYgifJeES1A8xngVpEePro5kcDQKorGZle2acmg4xiRD5o4iyiFjwZHodhKnk4WDeEGl9ttAZSl-W4xVYN0AWqSWdPWEyU6pM_0hQcBBsAGX5GDcE0J7bNZqrwykFT_PlV9DL/s1600/break-up.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 350px; height: 270px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyDJGdNbDzYgifJeES1A8xngVpEePro5kcDQKorGZle2acmg4xiRD5o4iyiFjwZHodhKnk4WDeEGl9ttAZSl-W4xVYN0AWqSWdPWEyU6pM_0hQcBBsAGX5GDcE0J7bNZqrwykFT_PlV9DL/s400/break-up.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5644257256133048930" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">"<i>You won't be needing that</i>"</div><div>
<br /></div><div>
<br /></div><div>I've spent a lot of time writing about food and weddings on this blog. H and I are pretty tight with a couple who broke up a little while ago. The break up deeply shocked at least one member of the couple. I reminded me that I once broke up with someone I lived with in this city....and that, that break up almost financially ruined me. </div><div>
<br /></div><div><b>Renting in NYC is damn pricey</b></div><div>
<br /></div><div>It's no surprise that living in NYC costs a pretty penny. Rent is especially high, and tends to dictate a person's monthly allowance for "luxuries" like gym memberships and cable. I spend more in my rent monthly than my sibling spends in mortgage payments and insurance every month. Why would anyone ever do that?</div><div>
<br /></div><div>Well, 55% of all New Yorkers rent their apartments. I would buy my apartment if I could, but alas a mere 350 sq feet in the cheapest neighbourhood South of 96th street will cost a body at least $200 000. Those 350 sq feet will cost you a lot more if you plan on living in any neighbourhood you heard about on Sex and the City or any other number of fluffy, syrupy television shows about New York. It costs a lot to buy here, about as much to rent. If you are low to middle income, it can be very difficult to gain financial ground. Many people live hand to mouth just to put aside an emergency fund, let alone a down payment. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>Add to that the cost of moving - a minimum $500 for movers to schlep your stuff from 5th floor of the walk-up you can afford to the top for floor of the next walk-up you can afford, along with basic moving supplies, and the dreaded first and sometimes last and sometimes even an additional month's rent as security for the new apartment and a traditional move in New York for the lowest end studio or 1 bedroom apartment costs at least $2.5K, usually more.....definitely more if you include a broker's fee.</div><div>
<br /></div><div><b>High rent +break ups = more to worry about than who is keeping the apartment</b></div><div>
<br /></div><div>It's very hard to find affordable housing here. Until the 2008 market crash, most apartment dwellers earned their apartment by being taken to town by countless real estate brokers (15% broker's fees for low end apartments). It's even harder to find an apartment with a few desirable features like a partial kitchen, southern exposure or on site laundry. When you find that big apartment, with the echoey kitchen, short number of flights, southern exposure and maybe even a closet you can convert into an office, and slam down those broker's fees and down payments well...you'll fight to keep that apartment.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>Most articles about apartments and breaking up in New York focus on exactly that - who gets the apartment? Such articles gloss over the harsh reality of live-in couple break ups - that is the end of a long term relationship can be financially devastating, even if you don't share any assets. </div><div>
<br /></div><div><b>High rent + sudden break up = WTF do I do now?</b></div><div>
<br /></div><div>What do you do when the break up is sudden? In the case of our friends, one simply left the other with literally minutes worth of notice. Moreover, the one that left makes many fold the income of the other and had been paying the majority of the rent. What do you do when you are mid-lease and caught completely unawares? What do you do when you don't have an emergency fund?</div><div>
<br /></div><div>I found myself in very similar circumstances 6 years ago. In my case, my ex and I were olympian credit card users as well. For me, the problem became managing consumer and student debt on 1/3 of my previous year's income AND keeping the apartment. My solution was pretty simple - pack and move to cheaper digs until things emotionally and financially settled down. </div><div>
<br /></div><div><b>How I broke up on a budget in NYC</b></div><div>
<br /></div><div>For me (and I'm not a financial advisor) the best approach was to cut losses and cut losses fast. How do you do that? I took a long hard honest look at my money and fought to preserve it. Here is what I did that first week.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>1) <b><i>Listed all of my basic costs</i></b></div><div>It was painful, but I sat down and listed out every monthly expense I had</div><div>
<br /></div><div>2) <b><i>Listed all debts and assets - shared or otherwise</i></b></div><div>This was a really awful but necessary experience. I owed well ~100K on my own. He owed money as well. If I intended to financially survive after this hiccup, I needed to know what debts were due right now and how much I owed for the remainder</div><div>
<br /></div><div>3) <b><i>Listed all of my income coming in.</i></b></div><div>I listed all income actually coming in..not income I thought might come into my hands</div><div>
<br /></div><div>4) <b><i>Basic costs + debt payments - income = could I financially get by without him?</i></b></div><div>Nope. I very quickly realized that I couldn't financially survive for very long without some support.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>and then over the 1-2 months I...</div><div>
<br /></div><div>5) <b><i>spoke to my landlord about breaking my lease </i></b></div><div>I told my landlord what had happened and offered to help find a new tenant for a few months down the road. They were very understanding and I was spared the cost of my security deposit. </div><div>
<br /></div><div><div>6) <i><b>foun</b></i><b style="font-style: italic; ">d a considerably cheaper apartment - without a broker</b></div><div>This is important - I skipped using a broker. That meant a lot more footwork for me. In the post-2008 real estate market, many management companies are simply renting directly to the consumer - no fees attached. I stayed in the new digs for about 6 months while I got back on track. The switch to a cheaper place made a big difference in my ability to financially recover. Had I been really been with it, I would have found someone looking for a roommate - still, my new digs were cheap enough to let me pay the immediately bills and get my footing. </div></div><div>
<br /></div><div>7) <b><i>did not use a mover</i></b></div><div>I needed that $500. Are you kidding me? I borrowed and rent vehicles and enlisted friends to help move what remained of my destuffed stuff. On the odd chance that my friends could not help me, I threw out or sold well over half of what I owned. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>8) <b><i>cut unnecessary costs</i></b></div><div>I dumped gym memberships, stopped eating out and (after a brief spurt of insane consumerism) I stopped shopping. It was time to gird the wallet</div><div>
<br /></div><div>9)<b><i> did not ask my ex for specific property...in the beginning</i></b></div><div>I did not want to have to hire and pay a lawyer to fight my ex for my property, so I made the property a non-issue. I was not, afterall, fighting for the custody of a child or a major asset. I temporarily adopted the view that most everything could be replaced. Everything was packed up in storage and when we calmed down a few months later, we methodically went through shared property and decided who would get what.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>10)<b><i> sold and destuffed as much of my property as possible</i></b></div><div>Apart from being immensely therapeutic, selling some of the items that were just mine lessened the cost of my move (supplies, gas, vehicle rentals).</div><div>
<br /></div><div>11) <b><i>separated all bank accounts</i></b></div><div>I actually didn't do this right away. Perhaps I should have. It was done eventually though. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>12) <b><i>made a list of I owed him, and what he owed me</i></b></div><div>We were both very poor and very much in debt at the time, but we had both paid 1000s of dollars to each other for various expenses over the years. I had paid more to him than he to me. I knew that I needed to be repaid to settle some of the debt I still held from the relationship, so I made a list. When things calmed down a little between us I spoke to him about the debts and we set a repayment plan in place. This plan was only possible because our break up stayed above board - and very friendly. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>13) <b><i>increased my income</i></b></div><div>I quickly took on additional jobs so that I could repair the financial damage of my relationship and our break up. I searched craigslist, asked my current employers and aggressively put my name in at every place I could think of that offered pay and flexible hours. I took on odd jobs, contract work...you name it, I did it. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>14) <b><i>s</i></b><i><b>tarted my emergency fund</b></i></div><div>Yup, it took nearly being homeless and bankrupted by a relationship gone wrong for me to do - but that's when I start paying myself that 10% a pay cheque.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>And eventually, I....</div><div>
<br /></div><div>15) <b><i>read up on personal finance - specifically for single ladies</i></b></div><div>Along with various "For Dummies" books about stock investing and value investing, I read "The Everything Guide to Personal Finance for Single Mothers". I am not a single mother, but it was the only version of the "Everything" personal finance series that I could get as an ebook from the New York Public Library. It might be the best thing I ever did. I had been given most of the financial advice made in the book at other times. I can't say I followed all the advice the book gave. What really change my life was the book's bottom line descriptions of poverty stats - that most desperately poor people are women (often widowed women). It is worth reading just for the wake up call. It also contains descriptions of how wealthy people manage their own finances (i.e. buy used, not new etc.). </div><div>
<br /></div><div>16) <b><i>started aggressively decreasing my debt and conservatively investing</i></b></div><div>This took a little longer for me to get rolling on that I thought it would. Eventually, I started taking a more active hand in lowering my debt and preparing for retirement. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>How did I break up on a budget? In short, I ditched the apartment, cut costs and increased income as quickly as possible. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>Have I recovered? Emotionally - yes....years ago. Financially - almost. It took me about 6 weeks to recover from the immediate costs of a the break up (moving, the many phone bills etc), in part because I immediately moved to reduce day to day and break up costs. It has taken me a few more years to recover from the debt acquired during the relationship...but that's a story for another time. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>
<br /></div>La Petite Coquettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08207138777454168455noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4201278977878649747.post-65821225788051186292011-08-23T06:30:00.000-04:002011-08-23T06:30:02.481-04:00The Metropolitan Museum of Art Rooftop bar<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicBAMmzV7NS1hHckVlTJEs52a1dhnV65la4iSoL2D_wkAmj6jLAEHv6eL-VjZWt4IIo_rEtQ04uGNAz6ZZ_346oQHnz-PnLXVLj9jd_2PmskTj_Uu8vUfPX4eGfSWNKhjFniHKMckelmMV/s1600/IMG_7306.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicBAMmzV7NS1hHckVlTJEs52a1dhnV65la4iSoL2D_wkAmj6jLAEHv6eL-VjZWt4IIo_rEtQ04uGNAz6ZZ_346oQHnz-PnLXVLj9jd_2PmskTj_Uu8vUfPX4eGfSWNKhjFniHKMckelmMV/s400/IMG_7306.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5643536269626757074" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><i>I heart art museums and rooftop bars, together at las</i>t</div><div>
<br />As you know, my cash and my time budgets are pretty limited these days. Occasionally, my bosses and the last heaves of my dissertation drive me so nuts, I actually leave my dissertation behind and enjoy a few hours out. I try to make those hours count, because, well they and my dollars are few and far between. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>This past week I made those hours and bucks count by visiting the rooftop bar on the top of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Yup, the museum has a bar...on the roof. It has been there for many, many years and attracts a fair crowd. I was pleasantly surprised, however, to find it was not crowded - just happily full. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>As you might expect, the drinks are pricey ($8.50 a beer - hardly a bargain), if you aren't a member you need to donate some amount of the recommended donation to enter. I happen to be a member, but if I wasn't I think I could justify $1 towards entry. The Met, after all, holds huge galas and gets big pay cheques for them...so..I'd be okay with letting Hearst publications and the like pay my remaining $13 donation.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>So the drinks are a little pricey, but the view is amazing - Park-wide, 5th avenue - and because the hours are 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm, beautiful sunset views to boot. The Met frequently features an outdoor sculpture exhibit on the roof as well.
<br /></div><div>
<br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzAyql9whg_q5_D3uYUUYOiO-ZEMCBYEkaJ1LZhW4yGc-Nr1wv12kHweaM1cFPbK9JKUeCE1B-5qXTGcDBzVlMn2kZTxVwhzCtonHXKIhSrvwncubbk1bYNQ-u_IZoos0Bs5wCoScvDMvd/s1600/IMG_7325.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="text-align: left;display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; cursor: pointer; width: 286px; height: 400px; " src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzAyql9whg_q5_D3uYUUYOiO-ZEMCBYEkaJ1LZhW4yGc-Nr1wv12kHweaM1cFPbK9JKUeCE1B-5qXTGcDBzVlMn2kZTxVwhzCtonHXKIhSrvwncubbk1bYNQ-u_IZoos0Bs5wCoScvDMvd/s400/IMG_7325.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5643539616465580114" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Tasty drinks and views</i></div><div>
<br /></div><div>I don't know why I expected the patrons to have attitude or be of the beer pong, blue shirt, black backpack, young trader ilk - but I was pleasantly surprised to find a really friendly and sweet mix of people. No shots, or giggling girls re-enacting Sex in the City, just groups of friends, all ages enjoying the sunset on their way to some other location. The bar had a really nice vibe. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>Here how is how you get there. Pay your donation at the main entrance of the Met. Ask a security guard to guide you to the elevators to the bar (hang a left in the main lobby, walk behind the security desk and take an immediate left through two or three galleries and you will reach the elevator bank in about 2 minutes). The bar is open from about April to October, depending on the year - so the Summer offers the longest sunsets, and the Fall offers sparkly city views. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>Be forewarned - it is a simple set up. The bar is set up like a backyard wedding bar. There is no food, and it's a $11.50 for a glass of basic red wine. My advice is to sip that wine slowly and wander the perimeter of the roof and wait for the sun to set. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>In anycase, it's a lovely location for anyone craving a low key rooftop on which to spend a sunset. You get the same sunset as someone living on 5th avenue, for $1 + the price of a drink, if you are so inclined. It's a lovely way to grab a little piece of fancy schmancy NYC while on a budget. </div><div>
<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidRdJLntYat3-AS-YlLvXohGbajx4RGvqryGPHu_UcV_AiZcMuaxoUNncAN1Xkrg7IUbDnKL0Vidwme8Rszt4Q3WIzyQwHIHPfe56eUg1MeLogymTXYUmryQg6Q6mugXpPuS0XZzNZvnjQ/s1600/IMG_7314.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidRdJLntYat3-AS-YlLvXohGbajx4RGvqryGPHu_UcV_AiZcMuaxoUNncAN1Xkrg7IUbDnKL0Vidwme8Rszt4Q3WIzyQwHIHPfe56eUg1MeLogymTXYUmryQg6Q6mugXpPuS0XZzNZvnjQ/s400/IMG_7314.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5643542447019378210" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Awwww shine on little sun. I'll see you tomorrow</i></div></div>La Petite Coquettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08207138777454168455noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4201278977878649747.post-3246377349777787482011-08-22T06:30:00.002-04:002011-08-22T06:30:02.022-04:00If I were postdoctoral funding..........where would I be?<div>
<br /></div><div>Short musing today on the decision all doctoral candidates have to make at some point.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>How many more years can you stand to be someone else's b#$%^ for very little money. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>There are three options for any graduating doctoral student in the sciences</div><div>
<br /></div><div>1) quit academia for the lush life of cube sitting at an NGO/gov office/corporation and using that statistics course you had to take first year</div><div>
<br /></div><div>2) quit research and go for a lectureship or company-based R&D</div><div>
<br /></div><div>3) go into research as a post-doc in someone else's lab. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>Number 3 can further be broken down into </div><div>
<br /></div><div>i) interview for positions where you will be paid ~37K annually out of someone else's grant or start up funds and spend the next 2-3 years completing that research relatively hassle-free (extremely rare). </div><div>
<br /></div><div>ii) interview for positions where you will be paid ~37K annually out of someone else's grant or start up funds and spend the next 3-10 years desperately trying to meet the requirements of someone else's research program......someone getting paid much more than you, to go home at night, see their spouse and read to their children while you, underling-being-paid-annually-approximately-$3000-for-every-year-of-your-post-secondary-education, sleep with your head on a bench and are subjected to lectures about how only very special scientists can manage a career and a life/kids and that you are clearly not one of those scientists (very, very common).</div><div>
<br /></div><div>iii) interview with P.I.s with explicit interest of bringing your own research money to their lab, thus granting yourself some research autonomy by at least providing for your own wage slightly above 37K (rare). </div><div>
<br /></div><div>Option 3-iii is the ideal. If I'm going to spend another 2-4 years in graduate-style poverty, I might as well being doing research that I want to do. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>First, I must find the grants. </div>La Petite Coquettehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08207138777454168455noreply@blogger.com0