After months of pretty dismal job hunting, we just found out today that I've been accepted to Indiana University, Bloomington to do a PhD in Sociology! We are just thrilled to have this opportunity, and even more thrilled that I'm getting funding to do it! Now Paul just needs to find a job out there, so if you know of anywhere around Bloomington, Indiana that's hiring MBA's, let us know!
My focus is going to be in medical sociology, which probably a lot of you who follow our blog aren't all that familiar with. Some examples of the kinds of topics I want to research include issues surrounding how people access medical care (what makes someone decide to visit a doctor? would national health care change that?), what happens once someone is diagnosed with a disease or condition, and how policies affect access to medical care and treatment decisions - and probably lots of other topics. More specifically, I've been concerned about the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on treatment, especially with regard to mental health. After living in the UK for a year, where direct-to-consumer marketing of pharmaceuticals is prohibited, and moving back to the US, where every other commercial is for some drug, I was reminded of the great extent to which pharmaceutical marketing is a part of everyday life for Americans.
I am so excited and thankful to be given this opportunity, and I know it sounds trite, but I honestly do hope to make a difference in the world with my work and I think that will be possible with this experience.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Snowy Wintery Weather
I was going to write about the snowfalls we've been having by making a comparison to the Eskimos and their 9 words for snow, but apparently according to wikipedia.org and several other sources, that's not true. Either way, we've been having some interesting weather. Just before Christmas, we had nearly a foot of snow fall, which is when we made that cool snowman. Well, that snow melted away and then we got another snowstorm on New Year's eve, resulting in about 6 inches of snow. That snow started to melt, and then we got a nasty sleety rainy slushy storm that left a thick icy glaze over the remaining snow. So now we've got a crunchy, glossy layer of snow carpeting the area, so thick that I can actually walk across parts of it without leaving a footprint. It's actually kind of pretty when the sun is shining and it shimmers, or at night when the moon reflects off it. We're due for another 4-8 inches of snow tonight, so that will make things interesting - thick snow over an icy crust. Could be trouble!
But thinking about this, and getting back to the Eskimo thing, it would be neat if we had more words to describe the snow. I guess we call it "powder" when it's a dry snow, and maybe "packed powder" when it's a little squished on a ski slope. But then, I don't really have a word for the kind of snow that's perfect for making snowballs. Then there's the "dusting" you get sometimes that doesn't stay. And this icy snow with a glossy finish, I have no idea what to call that.
It's been a few years since Paul or I lived somewhere where it both snowed and we had a yard to look out onto. Sure, Chicago snowed, but in the city it quickly turns brown and slushy. And it snowed once during our time in England, but actually we were in Poland at the time so we missed it. Now we've got the time (LOTS of time!) to look out the window and see the pretty snow. And who knows, maybe tomorrow we'll get another shot at sledding!
But thinking about this, and getting back to the Eskimo thing, it would be neat if we had more words to describe the snow. I guess we call it "powder" when it's a dry snow, and maybe "packed powder" when it's a little squished on a ski slope. But then, I don't really have a word for the kind of snow that's perfect for making snowballs. Then there's the "dusting" you get sometimes that doesn't stay. And this icy snow with a glossy finish, I have no idea what to call that.
It's been a few years since Paul or I lived somewhere where it both snowed and we had a yard to look out onto. Sure, Chicago snowed, but in the city it quickly turns brown and slushy. And it snowed once during our time in England, but actually we were in Poland at the time so we missed it. Now we've got the time (LOTS of time!) to look out the window and see the pretty snow. And who knows, maybe tomorrow we'll get another shot at sledding!
Friday, December 26, 2008
Snow!
Last week we had a foot of snow fall, and Paul and I were sure to take advantage of it. It's been a few years since we've lived somewhere you could actually go play in the snow, so it was a real treat! We went sledding and built an awesome snowman!
Here we are in the snow storm
To give an idea of the size of our snowman, here he is before we totally decked him out:
And here he is with the finishing touches:
Here we are in the snow storm
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| From Winter 2008 |
To give an idea of the size of our snowman, here he is before we totally decked him out:
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| From Winter 2008 |
And here he is with the finishing touches:
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| From Winter 2008 |
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Thanksgiving take two
I realized I never updated about our second Thanksgiving. On the actual day, we went to my cousin Tara and Derell's house. It was so much fun because there were tons of people, including Tara's two adorable little boys and my cousin Ted and Liz's adorable little boy and little girl, and a bunch of us 'grown ups'. There's a big age gap between me and my cousins, so Katana, who's 5, told me that he was disappointed because he thought I was going to be a kid. haha. Paul had a blast playing with the boys; they were climbing all over him on some kind of pirate raid, and Emily drew me some nice pictures and gave me a foot massage (apparently Aunt Tara's influence - nice one!). Needless to say, it was tons of fun being around all the kids. We really haven't seen kids since we were living in Oxford and our neighbor's kids would play outside our window. It's even better when it's your own family, and it really made me appreciate being close to everyone.
Since we've got lots of time right now, Paul and I helped my mom make a bunch of goodies for the feast. We made olive and cream cheese penguins, deviled eggs, bacon-wrapped dates, corn bread pudding and "turkey" cupcakes. The cupcakes were so much fun to make -we saw a picture in a magazine and just had to do it.
Here's the finished product:
And I think this is a good place to plug the impressive pumpkin we carved for Halloween. We used a chisel to make the face on it - so much better than a knife!
So if you think we don't find good uses of our time, think again!
Since we've got lots of time right now, Paul and I helped my mom make a bunch of goodies for the feast. We made olive and cream cheese penguins, deviled eggs, bacon-wrapped dates, corn bread pudding and "turkey" cupcakes. The cupcakes were so much fun to make -we saw a picture in a magazine and just had to do it.
Here's the finished product:
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| From Fall2008 |
And I think this is a good place to plug the impressive pumpkin we carved for Halloween. We used a chisel to make the face on it - so much better than a knife!
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| From Fall2008 |
So if you think we don't find good uses of our time, think again!
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
The Job Search or Life as Retirees
While watching the Charlie Brown Christmas special tonight, one of the commercials really resonated with me. It was for the news, and the anchorwoman said "tonight on News Channel 6, we'll tell you about one company in the area that is actually hiring! Stay tuned." And to be honest, I think I read about it in the newspaper this morning - the discount grocer called Aldi is opening a new location in Framingham, MA and hiring 20 new full-time employees.
So I think that's a pretty good indication of the current job vacancy situation (RI has the highest unemployment rate in the country). But for us, it's not all that bad. We own nothing, no cars, no house, so that means no mortgage payments and no car payments. My parents are generous enough to let us stay with them and feed us, so really, we're living pretty well. We read the newspaper every day and do all kinds of research on things we'd like for the future, like cars, dogs, a home, etc. It's also nice for us to spend so much time together because when we are both working, we won't have that luxury.
Sometimes it's hard not to get discouraged when all you read or see on the news is that every company you're applying to is laying off a large proportion of their workforce or having a hiring freeze, but we do have a lot to be thankful for and we realize it could be a whole lot worse for us.
So I think that's a pretty good indication of the current job vacancy situation (RI has the highest unemployment rate in the country). But for us, it's not all that bad. We own nothing, no cars, no house, so that means no mortgage payments and no car payments. My parents are generous enough to let us stay with them and feed us, so really, we're living pretty well. We read the newspaper every day and do all kinds of research on things we'd like for the future, like cars, dogs, a home, etc. It's also nice for us to spend so much time together because when we are both working, we won't have that luxury.
Sometimes it's hard not to get discouraged when all you read or see on the news is that every company you're applying to is laying off a large proportion of their workforce or having a hiring freeze, but we do have a lot to be thankful for and we realize it could be a whole lot worse for us.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Las Vegas & Hoover Dam
As many of you may know, I had never been to Las Vegas, nor much of the Southwest for that matter. So, while we were in Arizona with not much to do, we decided to take advantage of those mid-week hotel deals in Las Vegas and make a road trip out of it.
We made our way the 300 or so miles from Phoenix north to the Grand Canyon, before heading another 300 or so miles west to Las Vegas. I took a whole bunch of pictures of our drive to show how the landscape changed over those vast expanses, and I won't post them all here, but if you want to see you can check them out here.
Here's some highlights from our road trip:
Paul's about to enjoy a Navajo taco at the Cameron Trading Post at the edge of the Navajo reservation:
Here we are at an overlook at the Grand Canyon - you can kind of get an idea of the size of the drop off the edge on this one:
Funny story about this spot...as we were walking around the little platform, a couple came down the steps to share in the breathtaking view. The woman walked down first, and then her boyfriend followed, got to the platform and announced in a thick Rhode Island accent "This is retahded" and ran back up the steps. His girlfriend then said "He's afraid 'a heights." Ahh, nothing like a reminder of the East Coast. At least after that I didn't feel so bad about being nervous about looking over the edge!
Another of my favorites is this picture of Paul at a gas station just outside the Grand Canyon en route to Las Vegas. As we pulled into the station, a herd of cattle were crossing it. If that wasn't enough to make you feel like you were in real rural America, they had this fantastic elk statue with an American flag, just as the moon was coming up. So I absolutely had to get a shot of Paul holding a sarsaparilla soda in front of the statue. Ahh, America. This is about as opposite from England as you can get!
We stayed at the New York New York hotel in Las Vegas, which I thought was pretty cool. We were up on the 36th floor in a corner room with a view of the strip. Here's the view from one of the windows:
Las Vegas is a place that tries to take your money any way it possibly can. How else could they afford to build these ridiculous buildings? So, with this in mind, we booked the $60/night rooms and held on tight to our wallets. There's not as much free stuff to do as I thought there would be, and the food was very expensive at the buffets, but we saw the free stuff and ate at Subway so it wasn't too bad.
One free thing is the water fountain show at the Bellagio. It goes every 15 minutes and there's music to accompany the streams of water.
Our hotel had a roller coaster on the 4th floor, and while it wasn't free, our room package came with a 2-for-1 deal on the roller coaster. So, of course we had to try it! It'd been a few years since I'd been on a roller coaster, and I used to absolutely love them, but I was little nervous and wound up screaming so much my voice was raspy for a couple days later. But it was worth it! Here we are in front of the hotel (no, we didn't buy the souvenir photo from the ride).
A lot of the hotels are actually pretty expensive to stay at, but you can walk through their casinos for free. We had one full day in the city, and we spent it walking up and down the strip. We didn't even see all of the casinos in that amount of time! The MGM Grand has a particularly impressive casino because they have REAL LIONS in it! I really don't know how they can do it without some major SPCA pressure, but on the other hand, it is a true reflection on the ethics of Las Vegas. So here's my lion picture.
The Flamingo hotel also has its own FREE animal display, but theirs is actually kind of pleasant. Here's Paul with the flamingos
It's also free to walk through the indoor canals at the Venetian, see the pirate ship at Treasure Island, and peek into the wedding chapels. But not much else is free.
A highlight of our exploration was finding a bit of Indiana in Las Vegas (kind of). Here's Paul posing in front of Kokomo's (also the name of his home town in Indiana). The food was beyond our budget, but the picture was free!
Rather than going to a $30 buffet, we did the $15 1/2lb crab leg and steak dinner at the hotel for our big splurge, and that's probably the last time we'll go to Vegas. We can get ripped off enough at home.
After we left, we stopped at the Hoover Dam on the way back to Phoenix. It was $30 for the tour, so we decided to park, skip the tour and enjoy the free view before heading on our way.
Here you can see the new bridge they're building to bypass having to drive over the actual dam.
Our next stop on the 300+ mile journey back to Phoenix was Chloride, Arizona. It is like a miniature version of Tombstone, with an old ghost town in the middle. Strangely enough, the man who worked at the general store/tourist information place used to live in Massachusetts! Here's Paul striking a cowboy pose in the old ghost town (note the experimentation with the camera 'colorize' feature)
We decided not to stop at the local saloon before heading onward
And unexpectedly, as we drove back toward Phoenix, we wound up going through a Joshua Tree Forest. I had no idea these things grew in such dense areas; normally they're more like scrubby bushes, but these were nearly 10 feet tall or more.
And that about sums up our trip. It will probably be a while before we go on another trip, so I'm glad we made the most of it!
We made our way the 300 or so miles from Phoenix north to the Grand Canyon, before heading another 300 or so miles west to Las Vegas. I took a whole bunch of pictures of our drive to show how the landscape changed over those vast expanses, and I won't post them all here, but if you want to see you can check them out here.
Here's some highlights from our road trip:
Paul's about to enjoy a Navajo taco at the Cameron Trading Post at the edge of the Navajo reservation:
 |
| From Phoenix, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon |
Here we are at an overlook at the Grand Canyon - you can kind of get an idea of the size of the drop off the edge on this one:
 |
| From Phoenix, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon |
Funny story about this spot...as we were walking around the little platform, a couple came down the steps to share in the breathtaking view. The woman walked down first, and then her boyfriend followed, got to the platform and announced in a thick Rhode Island accent "This is retahded" and ran back up the steps. His girlfriend then said "He's afraid 'a heights." Ahh, nothing like a reminder of the East Coast. At least after that I didn't feel so bad about being nervous about looking over the edge!
Another of my favorites is this picture of Paul at a gas station just outside the Grand Canyon en route to Las Vegas. As we pulled into the station, a herd of cattle were crossing it. If that wasn't enough to make you feel like you were in real rural America, they had this fantastic elk statue with an American flag, just as the moon was coming up. So I absolutely had to get a shot of Paul holding a sarsaparilla soda in front of the statue. Ahh, America. This is about as opposite from England as you can get!
 |
| From Phoenix, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon |
We stayed at the New York New York hotel in Las Vegas, which I thought was pretty cool. We were up on the 36th floor in a corner room with a view of the strip. Here's the view from one of the windows:
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| From Phoenix, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon |
Las Vegas is a place that tries to take your money any way it possibly can. How else could they afford to build these ridiculous buildings? So, with this in mind, we booked the $60/night rooms and held on tight to our wallets. There's not as much free stuff to do as I thought there would be, and the food was very expensive at the buffets, but we saw the free stuff and ate at Subway so it wasn't too bad.
One free thing is the water fountain show at the Bellagio. It goes every 15 minutes and there's music to accompany the streams of water.
 |
| From Phoenix, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon |
Our hotel had a roller coaster on the 4th floor, and while it wasn't free, our room package came with a 2-for-1 deal on the roller coaster. So, of course we had to try it! It'd been a few years since I'd been on a roller coaster, and I used to absolutely love them, but I was little nervous and wound up screaming so much my voice was raspy for a couple days later. But it was worth it! Here we are in front of the hotel (no, we didn't buy the souvenir photo from the ride).
 |
| From Phoenix, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon |
A lot of the hotels are actually pretty expensive to stay at, but you can walk through their casinos for free. We had one full day in the city, and we spent it walking up and down the strip. We didn't even see all of the casinos in that amount of time! The MGM Grand has a particularly impressive casino because they have REAL LIONS in it! I really don't know how they can do it without some major SPCA pressure, but on the other hand, it is a true reflection on the ethics of Las Vegas. So here's my lion picture.
 |
| From Phoenix, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon |
The Flamingo hotel also has its own FREE animal display, but theirs is actually kind of pleasant. Here's Paul with the flamingos
 |
| From Phoenix, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon |
It's also free to walk through the indoor canals at the Venetian, see the pirate ship at Treasure Island, and peek into the wedding chapels. But not much else is free.
A highlight of our exploration was finding a bit of Indiana in Las Vegas (kind of). Here's Paul posing in front of Kokomo's (also the name of his home town in Indiana). The food was beyond our budget, but the picture was free!
 |
| From Phoenix, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon |
Rather than going to a $30 buffet, we did the $15 1/2lb crab leg and steak dinner at the hotel for our big splurge, and that's probably the last time we'll go to Vegas. We can get ripped off enough at home.
After we left, we stopped at the Hoover Dam on the way back to Phoenix. It was $30 for the tour, so we decided to park, skip the tour and enjoy the free view before heading on our way.
 |
| From Phoenix, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon |
Here you can see the new bridge they're building to bypass having to drive over the actual dam.
 |
| From Phoenix, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon |
Our next stop on the 300+ mile journey back to Phoenix was Chloride, Arizona. It is like a miniature version of Tombstone, with an old ghost town in the middle. Strangely enough, the man who worked at the general store/tourist information place used to live in Massachusetts! Here's Paul striking a cowboy pose in the old ghost town (note the experimentation with the camera 'colorize' feature)
 |
| From Phoenix, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon |
We decided not to stop at the local saloon before heading onward
 |
| From Phoenix, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon |
And unexpectedly, as we drove back toward Phoenix, we wound up going through a Joshua Tree Forest. I had no idea these things grew in such dense areas; normally they're more like scrubby bushes, but these were nearly 10 feet tall or more.
 |
| From Phoenix, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon |
And that about sums up our trip. It will probably be a while before we go on another trip, so I'm glad we made the most of it!
Phoenix in November
Since we've got tons of time on our hands, being over-educated and unemployed at the moment, we used some of our time to make our way out to Phoenix to visit Paul's family. While it didn't result in any job opportunities, we did get to spend some quality time with the family and see some sights around Arizona in the two weeks we visited.
Since we wouldn't be together for Thanksgiving, we put on a full Thanksgiving dinner a couple weeks early. Anne came up from college so we could all be together.
Arizona is home to lots and lots of desert, and Phoenix is surrounded by vast expanses of desert dotted with saguaros - those cacti that look like they have arms sticking out. Here's a particularly photogenic one
We also took a drive down to see the St Xavier Mission outside of Tucson. It was built with help from local Native Americans from the Tohono O'Odham tribe, so it's got some unique wood carvings on the inside. They've never finished the second tower on the church, which some speculate may be an excuse to perpetually raise funds for the tower.
They also had the kind of cactus that attacked Paul as a child (you'll have to ask him for the full story).
Paul's dad took us on a day trip to see Tombstone and the Chiricahua National Monument. Unfortunately, we forgot to recharge the battery in our camera, so we don't have pictures of this (except one from my phone camera), but both are really fascinating places to see. Tombstone is neat for it's authentic old west feel, a nice change from the sometimes overwhelming big box feel of the city. Here's the one picture I got, at the Tombstone graveyard. You don't see this kind of thing every day!
Chiricahua, on the other hand, has some extraordinarily impressive "balancing" rock formations that are worth seeing in person. They're the kind of thing that you look up at and think "who put that there and why hasn't it fallen over?"
Most of the time we were in Phoenix, we were continuing our job search, or lounging about drinking lemonade we made from the lemon tree in the back yard. On my next post, I'll tell you about our little 1,000 mile road trip to the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas and the Hoover Dam.
Since we wouldn't be together for Thanksgiving, we put on a full Thanksgiving dinner a couple weeks early. Anne came up from college so we could all be together.
 |
| From Phoenix, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon |
Arizona is home to lots and lots of desert, and Phoenix is surrounded by vast expanses of desert dotted with saguaros - those cacti that look like they have arms sticking out. Here's a particularly photogenic one
 |
| From Phoenix, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon |
We also took a drive down to see the St Xavier Mission outside of Tucson. It was built with help from local Native Americans from the Tohono O'Odham tribe, so it's got some unique wood carvings on the inside. They've never finished the second tower on the church, which some speculate may be an excuse to perpetually raise funds for the tower.
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| From Phoenix, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon |
They also had the kind of cactus that attacked Paul as a child (you'll have to ask him for the full story).
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| From Phoenix, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon |
Paul's dad took us on a day trip to see Tombstone and the Chiricahua National Monument. Unfortunately, we forgot to recharge the battery in our camera, so we don't have pictures of this (except one from my phone camera), but both are really fascinating places to see. Tombstone is neat for it's authentic old west feel, a nice change from the sometimes overwhelming big box feel of the city. Here's the one picture I got, at the Tombstone graveyard. You don't see this kind of thing every day!
 |
| From Phoenix, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon |
Chiricahua, on the other hand, has some extraordinarily impressive "balancing" rock formations that are worth seeing in person. They're the kind of thing that you look up at and think "who put that there and why hasn't it fallen over?"
Most of the time we were in Phoenix, we were continuing our job search, or lounging about drinking lemonade we made from the lemon tree in the back yard. On my next post, I'll tell you about our little 1,000 mile road trip to the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas and the Hoover Dam.