Going Back to Cali

I miss living on the road. Life was much simpler back then. The only decisions I had to make each day were, "should I drink tea or coffee for breakfast?" and, "where are we going to go?" That was the life.

Now I have to figure out things like, "how do I pay for exorbitantly-priced health insurance that'll probably deny paying out if I ever actually even pull the card out from the recesses of my wallet?" as well as, you know, "what the hell am I going to do with my life." For the past few months, I've been toiling away here in the Marko Lab trying to polish off a project that's been 6 years in the making now. I took a personality test in Australia (the subject of a previous blog), the results of which have been doubly confirmed by similar tests since I've returned to the US. One of the more humorous and apt suggestions for my personality-type was to figure out how long something should take, then double it.

That couldnt be more true for me.

Meanwhile, I've been applying for jobs all summer, flirting with a number grand ideas along the way. I'd thought it'd be fun to work for a non-profit, like The Nature Conservancy or Environmental Defense; but my molecular ecology-steeped background, surprisingly enough, doesn't exactly scream "HIRE ME!" to such organizations. Not once, but twice I'd decided that moving to particular cities in pursuit of relationships was my best move. Nope. Both of those relationships fell apart.

Then one day I found in email in my inbox from one Stephen Palumbi, who apparently wanted to know a little more about me. It had been so long since I'd applied for a position in his lab that I'd forgotten about it. Anybody who knows anything about molecular ecology or marine biology would know Palumbi's name. I know a little about both fields, so I was pretty stoked to be receiving an email from him. A few email exchanges later, I was invited to visit him and his lab in Monterey, California, on his coin.

As an aside, my friend Phil Buiser (he of the Target commercial fame in my previous post) and I took a little (ie, a 12,000 mile loop around the contiguous US) roadtrip just after college. While visiting the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium on Cannery Row in Monterey, Phil and I were standing outside of the aquarium taking in the sights, the Pacific Ocean, the seals, and the giant kelp forest below. "We're at the center of some of most important marine sciences research there is out there," I told him. "I'm going to end up here."

Ha! I didn't actually believe it for a second. I was just an exuberant youth showing off. I'd been working in the Marine Sciences Department at UNC for several years now, but I was a nobody. I had yet to go further than doing grunt work on various projects, much less actually conduct any research myself. I hadn't even FLOWN yet, much less actually live outside of the state of North Carolina.

But here I am 7 years later, and I just accepted a job to work at Hopkins Marine Lab in Monterey, CA.

Life is a grand thing, isn't it? I have always wanted to live in California for at least a short period of time. I've always admired the persistent stream of high-level science that emanates from the Palumbi lab. Now, I'll have ample opportunity to both work in a prolific environment and be able to enjoy the many natural splendors of California in my down time.

Now, I'm faced with the prospect of actually finishing up the work I was hired for originally here at Clemson. Using the equation suggested by the personality test, I should have allotted myself 6 months. Now, I'll be departing about 3 weeks shy of that, and I suspect I'm going to be leaving work undone, or at least not very well done. That's the problem with science, there's always more one can do. The work that gets published rarely is the entirety of what was originally planned. Concurrently, I also have to pack up to move to the other coast, find an apartment (and hopefully an apartment-mate, because rent's going to suck out there), and attend as many college football games as I possibly can.

Okay, so that last item on the agenda isn't so stressful, but give me a break! I missed an entire year of sports last year and I'll soon be moving to a place that couldn't care less about football or basketball.

I should get back to work.