The 2-body problem, Post Doc edition

      Man, I am bad at keeping a blog, but who knows, maybe I'll get better in the new year.   Right now Sean is waiting to hear back from post doc offers, he'll hear about them in the next 2-3weeks probably.  I'm a bit nervous waiting to find out, but I've resigned myself to the fact that there isn't really anyway of avoided being apart for part of the next stage in our academic careers, which means also, for the first few years of our married life together. 

      I've met many academic who are separated from their partners since I've been in grad school, but I guess I always naively assumed this was something they chose, or accepted because they cared more about their careers than about their family.  Now, I realize, no one would chose to live like this, but it's just inevitable sometimes unless someone is willing to make a big sacrifice, a sacrifice which doesn't seem worth it for a few years.  Giving up the tenure track because you can't handle being apart from your spouse for 2-3 years just seems silly at this point.  Sean and I also have the experience of being with each other for 9 years now, so we don't have to worry about questioning our relationship because of the distance.

       Anyway, as soon as we know what Sean's plans are for post-graduation in June, we'll let you know.  My plan is to graduate as soon as possible which will probably be between Dec.'09 and June '10.  Because physicists usually do 2, 2-3 yr post doc positions versus Biologists doing 1, 5-7 yr. post doc. it doesn't make sense for me to follow Sean to the geographical place of his first post doc when he may be leaving 1-2 yrs after I would get there.  I think the best senario would be if Sean gets a post doc offer locally, like at UCLA, and then applies again next year and gets a more prestigious post doc, at somewhere like CERN (Geneva), where I could find a post doc I'd enjoy somewhere in Geneva, elsewhere in Germany or Switzerland.

        So, hopefully we'll start hearing about Sean's offers the first or second week in Jan!