Assprof, Part VIII: The four body problem, or some creativity required

Four people with PhDs in biosciences need jobs, preferably not too far away so a little Goose can have both of her parents around. Not easy. One already has a lectureship in the UK and the rest of us do not really picture ourselves going there permanently. So for me there will always be some kind of commute going on. Pair-bonding is difficult. There will always be important decisions that I will need to make alone. Busy schedules need to be matched and visions about the future doesn't always concur.

As I have written about earlier I got a fellowhip to stay a year as a guest reseacher at Hypoglycemiadude's university. After some negotiations with my current employer we seem to have agreed that as soon as I show my face at the department regularly, I can use parts of or even all of the fellowship. So as of February 2009 I will start a year of fairly regular SE - UK commute. From the point of view of getting to know my new department it's obviously not great. After I got the job I didn't really need the fellowship to survive as a scientist, and my career and productivity would probably be better if I stayed in one place. I will again sacrifice some to gain some. From a relationship point of view it will hopefully pay off. At least it will be a compatibility test.


What about the other half of the four body problem? Ms J's postdoc started in September with a six-month stay in the US south. She left end of September. After some time of unemployment after his PhD defence and some short term jobs, The Trønder has worked on a temporary teaching contract at a univeristy college a bit north of MySwedishTown for a year. But now he takes his six months share of the parental leave for Fireworks and follows his wife to the US. After he had single-parented two kids for two weeks after Ms J left I brought him and Fireworks to the airport Tuesday earlier this week. Then I moved into their house to take care of the Goose until Christmas. Great for the Goose and I'm OK with it. No problem to stay in their house per se but I don't like the 100 + km car commute every day. Especially since I have a flat 10-15 min walk from my workplace. But it's temporary and I'll see my kid every day for several weeks for the first time in many years.

Mid-January I'll bring her over to the US south so she can stay there for a couple of months. Just in time for me to start the UK commute. When they return from the US, Ms J will commute to Norway and The Trønder will start another temporary teaching contract for his previous employer and stay in Sweden with the kids. And yes, they just bought the next door farm so I think they plan to stick around for a while.

It's a fucking mess, but we're getting pretty good at finding creative solutions.