Lessons learned

I can admit now, in retrospect, that traveling for a conference in a different city at 8.5 months pregnant was kind of nutso. I know I’m not the only modern woman who refuses to entertain the idea that pregnancy and childbirth need interfere with career or life wants in any way. Amiright? I also think that I happened to start some exponential pregnancy growth right around the time my flight left.  

For reals, though, it was very hard to walk around Seattle whilst in the sweaty, swollen, breath-challenged, acid reflux, no-sleep pregnancy stage. Walking several blocks felt like an absolute chore. To reward myself for just making it to the conference every day (even if it was 10 am), I ate lots of crepes! I was on a one-a-day crepe binge (sometimes two!) and always Nutella/banana (for the health of the baby). It was marvelous, and I think I need to visit the creperie in downtown San Jose more often. 

The WA state convention center reminded me of a train station.

It did have dangling lights, which was nice.

One of the plenary lectures I heard was so up my alley, I could not contain myself—it started off with a discussion of whether the study of parallel universes should be relegated to philosophy or science and then proceeded to make the case for why it is firmly in the science category. He then blew my mind open with a reframing of unification (time before the universe expanded) and a comparison of the rate of inflation to the growth of a child (“if a baby had the same growth rate throughout gestation, birth would be an even more unpleasant experience”).

 Cosmic background radiation map of our universe with a smiley-face over it (!!!!!).  Also, Planck!

As an aside, I met another science teacher who majored in both science/philosophy. This is only the second one I’ve ever met (and both were physics majors), but I will say this—they are truly a more aristocratic breed (if I do say so myself), and different than the others. They also really take to me (duh, people of my flock) and are just about a million times more interesting to me than other people who have backgrounds in science. In fact, if I were ruler (dictator) of all science education initiatives, I would make it mandatory for science majors to take logic, and at least two other foundational philosophy courses (maybe the ancient Greeks and ethics?).

I took this picture after I sat through a talk that I did not understand at all (I just wrote down the title in my notes, with no notes after it!!).

On the third day, I decided to that I needed to at least walk to Pike Place Market, since it was six blocks away from the hotel. I did so, but neglected to calculate the round trip and associated walking around the market blockage and found myself saddled with intense uterine cramps after the ordeal (which took hours, as I move like a sloth). After that, I decided staying within a 3 block radius of my bed was about my limit. 

I returned late Thursday night and taught a very sleep deprived lesson on electron configuration on Friday, which was probably the most boring lesson I have ever in my life given--so boring that I just gave them a 10 minute break in the middle of it out of shame. They are such good sports about it all and they did learn how to do it (pretty basic and dry), but I was not on my A game. And with that, I have only SEVEN more working days until maternity leave! The purging of our house has already begun—this new baby might have no toys to play with when I’m through because we have so many stuffed animals (why?) and their uselessness is causing me to see every toy as equally pointless.

2015: International Year of Light

Well, I made it to Seattle, and my first ever astronomy meeting (the 225th AAS). I got four hours of sleep on Saturday night due to a plane delay and the effects reverberated until yesterday, when I decided to sleep most of the day with the Jersey Shore softly playing in the background. I had an intense all-day meeting on Sunday on very little sleep and then an evening meeting last night. The rest of the time, I've been trying to learn about black holes and space dust. One of the first things I learned at this meeting is that there is apparently a split in the astronomical community between those who study planets (and go to AGU every year) and those who study everything else, and come to the AAS. The AAS is considerably smaller than AGU, with only about 3,000 attendees, which feels strange. My entire working life in science was centered on such a huge meeting (AGU) that it is now normalized for me.

Another huge difference is that astronomy is studied through electromagnetic radiation, which basically means pictures of space. Working in earth science is very concrete—you just put a probe in the air, water or ground and it records direct measurements. In astronomy, pictures are analyzed, color schemes are devised and lots of math is done. It’s so very different. All of these astronomers use massive open source databases of telescope pictures to do their work. There is no such thing as a project collecting its own data because it’s so incredibly expensive. Astronomers just use what’s available and figure out novel ways to manipulate it.

Perhaps the biggest challenge, for me, has been accepting exploration for exploration sake, rather than some greater good. The study of the earth and its changes has clearly important connections to humanity. The study of space doesn't and everywhere I go there is talk of the importance of exploration--human endeavor for the sake of endeavor and not necessarily to help humanity. Going to the moon is heralded as the epitome of this philosophy. It’s weird because I keep trying to figure out why it’s important to understand how far different black holes are in a certain region of space. But I guess the idea is that it’s not—the pursuit exists as an outlet of human curiosity and that has value in and of itself.

The last thing that I have learned is that I really don’t like being apart from my family. It’s just not my thing—I don’t want to go on work trips or have a job that gets out any later than 5. I want earlier hours and as much time off as possible (probably the most important theme of this blog!). Natan sends me pics of Theo that I obsessively look at all day. It’s only five nights, but it is very hard for me to not be around my most precious things.

Here are two of them, which beg the important scientific question: How did Natan and I manage to produce such a beautiful and clever child?
 

Shot from the Christmas canon

Break started off fast and weird this year. It was raining during my work luncheon, which was awesome as I have come to despise consistently sunny and dry weather and think that I much prefer a Temperate Rainforest to a Chaparral biome. My parents arrived on day 1 and on day 2 I went to a funeral in the morning and heard a selection of baroque through modern Christmas carols sung by an all-male chorus in the evening. It was jarring, to say the least. Needless to say funerals are the worst, and unexpected ones absolutely devastating. The next day, we went to Blues and Biscuits, where I had the startling realization that the only time I like hearing songs about the sweet baby Jesus is when they have a jazzy and sultry edge to them (a sentiment Natan said was blasphemous).

After that, we sort of lounged and prepared for Christmas, which required a trip to the storage unit, where I have been keeping Theo’s Santa gift for a year. I am super proud to say that all of his gifts were either from a consignment store or craigslist, so I did not contribute to the story of stuff this year. The best thing about the bay area is all of the wealthy people who sell their nice, barely used stuff for great prices! Theo got around $700 worth of plan city stuff this year (for much less) and has been in heaven! I didn’t know if he’d like it a year ago, but I knew it was high quality and a bargain, so I bought it and have been pleasantly surprised as he’s become obsessed with trains, cars, lights and city infrastructure.

I know it looks like the total spoiling of a child, but it’s been a big hit.  We also got him some of those big cardboard bricks for building.  They took an hour for three people to put together and have the most ridiculous instruction pictures ever.

Here are some more pics of Christmas morning. Next year we are banning all presents, except for small children (there will be two!).

 

 Dad made paella again and we all fawned over Theo.

It wouldn't be a family get-together without mandatory porch pictures.

photo philosophy

As you know, I am very worried about the state of pictures in the modern world. I heard on NPR that we should basically just assume that everything that we save in the cloud is lost. LOST. We are too reliant on some server somewhere to save our most treasured memories! To help alleviate my anxiety over this issue, I have been printing hard copies of my favorite digital photos from each year and storing them in photo boxes in a closet. I am convinced that my family will, in the near future, be heralding me as a genius for all of this work that I’m doing (alternatively, I imagine myself cradling the picture box while keeping warm around a post-apocalyptic warmth/food fire). At first, I limited myself to only 100 pictures a year (that’s how many fit into the plastic photo boxes), but I just completed years 2013 and 2014 (I was behind!) and decided to eff it--I just can’t be bound by those numbers, especially since the year 2013 was the year of the best experience of my entire life—the MS Delta experience. I’ve been really thinking about it recently because one of my xmas presents to Natan was a trip to Blues and Biscuits, a SF club that plays blues nightly and serves Southern food (but not sweet tea, which baffles me, and makes me think less of it as an establishment). I bought tickets immediately upon learning about it in December, so excited to hear good music (we actually went to a gospel Christmas concert) and reminisce about our time in the Deep South.

I then got to thinking about how “best life experiences” naturally have to shift over time, due to the addition of so many more life experiences. I think that the Great Barrier Reef might have been the previous best, ousted now by Mississippi. I know it makes absolutely no sense that wonderful places in the world, like Vienna, Mexico, the interior of AK, are all second fiddle to what many consider an American wasteland, but there it is. In the words of the wizened and talented Selena Gomez, “the heart wants what it wants”. This heart is moved by American history, familial lore and regional fried foods. I think part of its specialness was because it involved learning and touring—two things that I love. Teaching is hard, way underpaid and a grind, but there are these opportunities that simply do not exist in other careers (excluding, of course, academics). I’m about to embark on another one tomorrow--to rainy Seattle to attend an astronomy conference (WHAT?! Dreams do come true) and begin a year-long research project on black holes (!) with two other teachers and an astronomer at CalTech. It is very exciting to be back on government per diem! There is no such thing as “teacher per diem”. If you work at a good school, such as mine, then perhaps you are thrown 30 clams/day to offset your food expenses, but it’s just a random and made up number, and it does not account for differences in expenses across the country. Government per diem is so much more generous. I think it’s around 80 bucks/day for Seattle, which will buy me a lot of Dungeness crab! My goal is to blog every day, both about 2014 xmas and the experience of an astronomy conference (how will it be different from an earth science one? Will there be free beer at 4 pm?).

Until then, I will leave you with some pics of Blues and Biscuits (the second holiday concert we went to over this break. The first was Chanticleer, the all-male chorus that Natan requested again this year after mocking my penchant for idiosyncratic gifts last year. He knows what’s up with awesome Christmas experience-gifts).

 In line outside.

There were three panels--MS Delta, Chicago and Memphis.  We've been to most of the places depicted on all three.

Dockery farms--the birthplace of the father of the blues (and forerunner in name choice for new baby)!

The Checkerboard lounge on the south side of Chicago--my recollections of it are that it was very smokey.  I'm really glad that I went in college.  I heard it's moved locations.

 Descending.

SF building decorated for xmas!  Blues and Biscuits is very close to the tenderloin.