Conference-ing with a Toddler

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Conference-ing with a Toddler

This will be my last post about our recent San Francisco trip/conference, I promise! In general, I’m not a huge fan of large conferences. All of the socializing is exhausting and a lot of the networking that happens feels fake (unless you’re getting connecting through people you already know). I think the most valuable thing I got from this most recent conference was having the chance to catch up with friends and mentors from my grad school days. I hadn’t seen most of these people since I graduated and it felt like one big reunion. It seemed like every corner I turned I saw someone that I hadn’t seen in years. After 2.5 years of living across the country from everyone we know, it was nice to run into so many familiar faces.

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Weekly Update: 2/11 - 2/17

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Weekly Update: 2/11 - 2/17

Progress this week. I’m feeling more and more like a whole person again. A person who is more than just a professor. In addition to grading and course prep and office hours and writing papers and meetings (and all the other things that go along with academic life), I did puzzles with Ellie, I had pizza with friends, I worked out, I vegged in front of the TV with Mike, I wrote for the blog, I read a book for fun… and so many other things that often get pushed to the side when work gets hectic, but are all very necessary for my version of a sustainable life.

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Toddler Approved San Francisco Spots

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Toddler Approved San Francisco Spots

Before taking a trip with Ellie, Mike and I scour the internet for free/cheap kid friendly spots in our destination. I appreciate seeing what’s worked for other families, so... in this post I’m sharing Ellie’s top 10 San Francisco spots. I’ve been to SF twice before, but never with a kid and I will say that it is definitely a fun city to explore with a toddler. If I can manage any other work funded trips, we will definitely be back again!

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Traveling to San Francisco with a Toddler

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Traveling to San Francisco with a Toddler

In January we headed to San Francisco for 5 days/4 nights for a conference (for my work). We were able to find quick/reasonably priced flights for a little under 100/pp round-trip, so Mike and Ellie joined me. We bought the tickets awhile ago, before we had our serious finance conversation. I’m not sure we’d spend ~200 on flights at the present moment (my flight was covered with startup funds). It was our first plane trip that didn’t end with a visit to see family on the east coast (and with people who could provide us with a free car seat and a ride after getting off the plane!).

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The Master Plan vs. Reality

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The Master Plan vs. Reality

I posted two screenshots on instagram today. One of my grading plan for Tuesday and another of what actually happened. A fellow academic mama commented and asked if I edit my calendar as the day goes by to reflect what actually happens, noting that this would be a super helpful strategy for visualizing how much time things actually take vs. a potentially overly optimistic estimation of how long they will take! It’s funny, because I don’t know that I was even thinking of this as a strategy I use to help me plan, but it definitely is (and I did it without realizing it). So, thank you dontworryteach for making this explicit!

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Weekly Update: 2/4 - 2/10

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Weekly Update: 2/4 - 2/10

Blue skies outside right now and I can’t help but think of Pete the Cat… “The birds are singing. The sky is bright. The sun is shining. I’m feeling alright.” Not sure about birds chirping but I am feeling alright about this past week. Yes, there were long days but once I was done with work, I was done. I didn’t come back to it after Ellie went to bed or on the weekend or in the early hours of the morning.

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January 2019 Budget

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January 2019 Budget

If you want some background information about our budget, see my first budget post from December 2018.

I initially thought I was going to do some major revamping of the budget given our focus on paying down our student loans. However, when I took a look at the budget, I was happy with how things were set up. The only change is that instead of throwing extra money to savings, most of it (except for yearly bills and our small travel fund) will go to student loans. Also, the first time I posted our budget I rounded all of the %s and it drove me up the wall, so I’m introducing decimals this time around.

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Weekly Update: 1/28 - 2/3

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Weekly Update: 1/28 - 2/3

This week was better than last, but still not ideal. I went to bed at ~1:30am on Thursday night in an effort to finish course prep so that I could have all of Friday (for the most part) to work on my 3rd year review that is due on Monday. While I got course prep done and was able to have the day for third year review work (which included working until ~9:30pm), staying up late, skipping dinner with the fam, and sitting hunched over a computer all day is really no way to live. As I look at the coming week and my ever growing to-do list I’m struck by the fact that there is really no possible way to get everything done (which I have to remind myself time and time again) and that academic life is just a perpetual cycle of triage.

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