It’s Sunday night, late
March, and it’s snowing. Work has two hour delayed opening tomorrow, so I am
staying up. And just like that, on a whim, I am resurrecting this blog. I have
had this nagging feeling lately to start blogging again, so I am giving in, in
hopes that it turns into something more substantial than a fleeting whim. To be
quite honest, it is somewhat a lunatic idea, given my current time constraints
and the fact that there are only finite hours in a week to deal with everything
that is and will remain on my plate for the foreseeable future. So
I am not sure how committed I will be to writing here regularly, but what the
hell...
I remember fondly the time
when I used to write here more or less regularly (relatively speaking, of course),
of the handful of comments that I would get from the people I grew quite fond of
without knowing them in real life (does being friends on Facebook count?). I
read back some of the entries I wrote in the past and they make me nostalgic…
As a side note – I truly miss Digest. T.S.T – I hope you’re reading this…
Anyway, last time I wrote
here, I was in a midst of a self-created existential crisis of a mess that, in
an attempt to rationalize, I had reduced to a two-dimensional choice dilemma. I
was ambivalent about my relationship, torn about future career paths, and in
general was having what in shrink-land is commonly refereed to as an
“adjustment reaction.” And yes, my
therapist told me so, but more on that later, perhaps. For now I will just
highlight some of the major things that have happened since them, although each
probably deserves a more detailed post of its own at some point.
Since you last heard from
me:
-
I finished my
Master’s program in Economics.
-
Got enrolled
(somewhat accidentally and half-heartedly) in a PhD program in Systems Modeling
and Analysis (a hybrid between Statistics, Applied Mathematics and Operations
Research).
-
Landed myself
an awesome (and hard to come by) research job at a place that I will refer to
as the Macroeconomic Mecca. While the job itself was temporary (2-3 years
tops), it put me on an excellent track in the event I decided to pursue a PhD
in Economics. I decided not to. Where is my “I am not an Economist and am Proud
of It” t-shirt? Since then, I switched departments within the Mecca and currently work
at a similarly awesome (albeit less glorified) research job.
-
The boy and I
got engaged.
-
I turned
thirty. The last two events happened all on the same day!
-
I became a
proud citizen of the United
States.
-
Three days
later, and somewhat accidentally, I signed the purchase agreement for the first
house that the boy and I bought together, and just like that, I became a
first-time home buyer. Remember the days when buying a couch would give me a
meltdown? It’s amazing how things can change…
-
The boy and I
got married.
-
And currently
(you know where I am going with this, don’t you?), with part reluctance, part
trepidation and all encompassing fear, I am contemplating the idea of having an
offspring. And of course, existential hang-ups abound. Things, after all, are
quite predictable with me.
So,
in a matter of three years, I went from being a wistful graduate student to
being (ahem)… a wistful graduate student, while moving up an age-box, getting a
“real” job, changing my marital status and becoming a homeowner. So
Day in the World will still be running under Graduate Edition for quite a while. Quite frankly, doing a PhD part time, while juggling a full time job
and a part time job on the side and simultaneously trying not to completely fail at being
a wife takes a lot of time (and not to mention the effort). Any advice on how
to maintain a semblance of sanity will be appreciated. But more on that later,
perhaps…
