Planes, Trains, and Automobiles......and Moving Trucks!

Costa Rica's flag

Nate and I are officially moving back to Minnesota.......
at least temporarily.
haha...

I figured that at this point, that is my biggest, practical announcement. We are moving back to St. Paul to my grampa's (Arne's) old house off of WB Ave & Hwy 36, near the White Castle...whooo for sliders! We will be hauling the moving truck up next week on the 14th, in case any of you lucky readers are inclined to help us move in that day or the next. Any help would be greatly appreciated! (I am not going to be shy about asking for moving help, that's for sure). :)

Also, last week I had a job interview in Philadelphia, which went as well as I could have hoped. It is now up to the selection committee at the University Museum to determine whether I beat out their other candidates. I know I was the last to be interviewed, so selection, I was told, will take place this month. My fate now lies between my competitors and the Museum. I do really hope I get it, but at the same time I have been trying to convince myself that it would be "OK" if I didn't get it, too. I can live in the twin cities for a while and re-group with my family and friends whom I feel I've alienated to some extent over the last few years with all my schooling and traveling/living far away. For a while (or longer?), it would be nice to be around when people are getting married, or die, or have babies. You know, all those 'normal' aspects to living near family and close friends. We'll see. I'm not making any plans except getting married on September 27th!

Nate has been in charge of the honeymoon planning and has been diligently researching locations, prices, etc., literally, for MONTHS. I give him big props for continually adapting to changing/unknown moving plans. After my Philly interview, I was finally able to derive the flexiblitiy of start-date for that job, which is "very flexible." So, that was a BIG relief. We now know that we can even HAVE one at all! We were worried for a while that IF I got the job, and IF they weren't very flexible about start date or immediate time-off, that a honeymoon right after our wedding would be out the window. We would have been really bummed if we couldn't go right away, but accepted that we might have to go at the later date, which in my humble opinion, might never happen which would be even sadder. So, with under 2 months to go, Nate has finally found what looks like a great place: Costa Rica!!! For the geographically challenged, that's Central America, between Nicaragua and Panama. We would be going to a place on the Carribean coast (east side), which apparently rains least in September-October and rarely gets hurricanes because it is so far south from the hurricane pathways. Also, the crime rates are very low and the resort has security, as well as being much less commercialized that, say, Acupulco, Mexico. I.e. No McDonald's, BK, or KFC. You can't book it through Expedia (or the like), so prices stay low and booking late still works, as well as some other perks. Nate had looked at Trinidad and Tobago islands (off North coast of Venezuela), but apparently there is alot of drug traffic that goes through there with much less resort security, unless your're a celebrity with personal security. Not us. Anyway, Costa Rica looks really nice and we're in the process of booking that. YAY! Oh yeah, did I mention it is SOOOOOOOOOOOO cheap!! WAY cheaper than anywhere else (seriously) that we've looked at in Mexico and the Carribean so far-- and that's alot of places!!! The cheap also comes without losing quality, too, so again: YAY!!

I think I'll leave this post as is now. I've got so much to do before next week!
Also, feel free to leave msg's below so I can hear what YOU are up to! :)

-cmm

P.S. Nate has now booked our honeymoon to Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica! So excited! Never been to any of the central or south Americas before!

Job Seekers: Beware of Long Delays and the Inability to Plan Next to Nothing

Greetings from the anxious job seeker, bride-to-be, soon-to-be graduate, and soon-to-vacate.

I knew July-September 2008 for me was going to be a little crazy, but now that it is actually here I feel more overwhelmed by the day. I am ok day to day, but I definitely have moments where I space out for several seconds or even minutes thinking about all the stuff that is happening between now and October. Yes, October. Seems crazy, I know.

Well, bringing things down to present and near future time, I am working as steadfastly and diligently on my thesis as I can. In addition to that, I am trying to work as much as possible to make ends meet through the summer and fall. Nate does pick up quite a bit of the slack these days financially, but 'ol money-bags has a real job, unlike me at the moment. It is just a phase of graduate school poorness we will get beyond sometime soon. I knew I/we would be poor while I was in graduate school, but it DOES get old-- I promise you.

To remedy my poverty and push my life into its next stage I have applied for more than 2 dozen jobs already. Of course, I'm still pushing through the last of my graduate coursework (my thesis and one internship class with some odds and ends) which is rapidly coming to tight deadlines for completion. I'd like to be able to be completely done with everything before Nate and I get married, but reality tells me that I may very well be 'done', but my thesis may still need some revisions or formatting or something before the official publication/binding process. My defense, no doubt, will take place by this deadline, however. Thank god.

Anyhow, jobs. I cannot even remember all the places to which I have applied, but I finally got one good bite. I have an interview at the end of the month in Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology as a 'Keeper of the Near Eastern Section'. This is a Collections Management position, so for those of you not in the museum world, I would assist the curator and registrar in caring for and maintaining the everyday well-being of the museum's Near Eastern objects. If it works out, I can explain more, but... I am trying not to get my hopes up by hoping for the best, expecting the worst. Any of you who truly know me understand that I am a realist. I understand my odds are good at this point (I am probably in a veRRRy small pool of candidates, say 3-4), but it is still absolutely not a guarantee. This particular position would be a big step up for me and I would gladly accept it in an instant, especially since it is pretty much exactly what I want to do. So we'll see. This is all I know at this point, honestly, so that's that. As for all the logistics, hopefully the Museum would get back to me relatively soon so that Nate and I had at least a few days to figure out which direction our moving truck is going on August 14th. *Sigh*... So many questions, so few answers at this point.

If this job is a no-go, and I hear nothing else by that point (we must vacate our current place on August 14th and we're not staying in Columbia), our default plan is to move back to the Twin Cities and perhaps live at my grampa's old house until we have more definitive plans. Again, there is no way to tell.

Because of all the unanswered questions at this point, I am starting to feel very flakey towards people. It is not without good reasons, but that's how I feel. I don't like being flakey, either. I am really busy between work and working on my schoolwork, and wedding planning, and job searching (and now interviewing), and moving, and whatever else pops up. I always feel like I need to be doing something towards one of the aforementioned goals, so making plans is incredibly tough because I don't want to back out of things. I'd rather just not make plans and play things by ear these days. Some days I'm more stressed out than others and just want to be productive, whereas others I just want to rest. In any case, I hope people understand that I am thinking of them and I appreciate all the help and kindness I'm receiving (esp. towards wedding stuff), and things will calm down eventually. Really! <3

In other news, Nate and I will be traveling again back to MN for Nate's friend Chris's wedding. We're going to be in the cities for a few days at the end of the last full week/weekend of July. That last Sunday we'll travel back to Columbia, only for me to turn around and fly out to Philly that last Monday for a few days to interview and perhaps meet a good friend of mine (Maiden of Honour, fyi) currently living in Baltimore. I'll then come back to Columbia, again, and have 2 weeks to wrap up living here, literally.

That's the crazy update, if it does feel like I'm just posting my schedule in a way!

I just want to say thank you to everyone who is helping Nate and I with all of these activities in our lives. You mean alot to us and it is very much appreciated. :)

Take care,
c