(for me) … in particular, two, to CV and to CA, specifically my beloved bay area, where I’ve now been for about a month. Although this blog is now embarrasingly populated with Californians, at least we all still travel enough to keep it interesting.
I found the whole job search and transition utterly distracting, not only from blogging here but also from spending my dreamy hours websurfing. But now that I have a new job, which is quite likely at least twice as demanding as my old job, I’m sure I’ll have more time for blogging. =) (Really, so far I haven’t figured out how people find the time to do anything once they become professors, and I’m not even teaching yet!) At the very least, I don’t think I’ll have to search for a job for at least 7 years, which is a very refreshing feeling.
In the case of the other return, to the bay area, so far it’s been wonderful. My stint in the midwest made me seriously crave some topography, so I’m living in one of San Francisco’s hilliest neighborhoods, just a couple of blocks from this lovely corner (top pic), with this view (bottom pic) from my home office/dining room. When you spend a decade thinking you won’t find a job in the city that you want to live in (as many of us in this line of work do, through 5+ years each of grad school and postdocs), it’s pretty fantastic when it actually works out.
More on life as a new professor soon.
October 11th, 2006 at 6:53 pm
Congratulations! Nice to see you back at CV.
October 11th, 2006 at 7:35 pm
Love the limo picture. Did you take it?
October 11th, 2006 at 7:57 pm
It’s brilliant, but no, I, didn’t take it. (see the “corner” link). My favorite part is that you can see in the pic the big “HILL” warning sign.
October 11th, 2006 at 8:01 pm
Hey, welcome to Stanford! We are all tickled pink to have you here. It will settle down (somewhat, but never like before) once you get settled in…promise.
October 11th, 2006 at 10:13 pm
San Francisco seems like an incredibly poor place to be driving a limo like that (not that they’re particularly practical elsewhere).
Congrats on moving and returning (hopefully regularly) to blogging.
October 12th, 2006 at 11:11 am
Congratulations!
Good to see you in The City last week.
Try to give it a couple of years before you start stressing about tenure. At least.
October 12th, 2006 at 12:06 pm
Thanks, all. Good to see you, too, Stein — cute little ones you got there. Definitely hope to give it a couple of years. JoAnne, thanks — nice to hear. I’m tickled pink to be here!
October 12th, 2006 at 3:21 pm
Hi! Welcome to SLAC/Stanford! Yes, this IS a busy place & there’s never enough time to do all the things you SHOULD be doing..but as JoA said it WILL calm down after a while…
October 12th, 2006 at 4:07 pm
Yo Risa! SO glad to see ya online. it was so awesome to meet you in your new home town. Hope it happens again soon!
October 12th, 2006 at 4:54 pm
Welcome back to the Bay! If you ever head north/eastish to Berkeley, let me know!
October 13th, 2006 at 11:58 am
Congrats. It looks all of the post-doc bloggers have now moved up in the food chain. As a physics grad student, I’d love to hear your commentary on the whole post-doc/finding a job in academia process.
October 16th, 2006 at 10:26 am
Great to meet you too, Lauren!
EDT — will definitely write about this soon, just didn’t want to jinx things while they were still in progress.
October 16th, 2006 at 2:34 pm
i live in Potrero – near the hospital. it’s not high up on the hill, but even on the not-so-high points, it’s still high. when i come out my door near kansas/23rd, i can look west over towards twin peaks and the big burning-man-like antennae dude/thing – and almost any time of day there’s a different scene going on. the best is any of several different types of cloud events – when they’re ripping over yet hugging the hills on their way to covering most of the city – potrero last.
now working in Mountain View, i’m trying to move down towards MV, closer to work, but i’ll be darned if i won’t miss the views. and the city itself. i have a feeling i’ll be back, but for now, i have to do my penance in the burbs. not sure if it’s punishment for something i’ve already done, or something i’ve yet to do.
i had no idea SF had topography b4 i got out here. sure – i heard about ‘hills in SF’, but I didn’t equate that with – ‘mountain-looking things’ all over the city – in every direction, and even outside the city – south, west, east, and even in north bay. the highways, the coast, the massive strawberry/other farm fields – it’s really unbelievable. this is definitely not America.
all that said, Californians continue to ruin the landscape out here, as I guess most Americans do in their own places – but it seems to me to be especially shameful out here because it seems to special/unique. houses covering everything – now creeping up unused-as-of-yet hills. at first, you’re taken aback at how insanely awesome the scenery is – the mystical hills and clouds and lights – and then you look again and you see what used to be – about a trillion less people and cars and houses and…