Maximizer vs. Suficiser

I was listening to NPR on my way home from school today, and I found out that this man, Barry Schwartz, has figured out why us Calders are happier than other people. He did a study of college graduates (summarized here) where he found that people who feel it necessary to maximize their choices, as in seek out and evaluate every possible choice and choose the best one, are far less satisfied than the people who follow the Calder motto of "seek, find, select, purchase," as in those that look until they find a choice that they are reasonably satisfied with, choose, and don't look back.

As I was listening, he talked about his theory that the reason people are so dissatisfied with their marriages is that people tend to be more satisfied with non-reversible decisions. Sad huh?

His research did find that the "Maximizers" made 20% more money but were "more pessimistic, stressed, tired, anxious, worried, overwhelmed and depressed."

Graduation

I'm officially done with the academic part of school. Woo Hoo! Graduation was last Friday (I didn't go), but it feels so good to be done. And, to answer the question that I get asked most often, no, we don't nursing hats anymore.

All this week, I have a review class through a private company for the state boards. I didn't realize until I was scheduling Lillian's day care that it's from 9-5. That's a long time.

Other than that, plans are moving forward for our move to Tucson. Allison wondered why I wasn't more excited, and it's mostly due to the fact that any move is stressful, especially moves out of state. We have so much to get done before it all happens that I'm freaking out a little bit, but I know it will all work out.

Tyler's Job and other updates

So, we've pretty much decided that we're going to move to Tucson. Tyler has an offer from a company named Paragon (featured in Popular Science, above). The company specializes in environmental systems, namely, helping people breathe in places where people usually have trouble breathing like, in space or underwater. The article is about this diving suit they created to be able to dive into chemical spills or other hostile environments. Tyler would be working on the environmental system for the new Orion space shuttle. Tyler just told me he'd be working on the Orion mission. I said what's that and he said it's like Gemini. I said what's that and he asked if I'd heard of NASA. I thought that was a bit much.

He told them he could start the second week in July, which seems really soon. I'm done with school, at least the school part. I have to take (and pass) the NCLEX, which is the state nursing license exam. This should happen sometime in the next three weeks (hopefully). I'm not terribly worried because I'm good at taking tests and have been scoring fairly well on the practice exams. And for only $200 dollars a try, you can take it as many times as you want. I applied to some jobs in Tucson, but I'm not pursuing anything very aggressively. I want to work a little, maybe one shift a week, but I don't want to push anything what with the move and the new baby coming.

On that note, everyone asks me how I'm feeling. My book on surviving hard pregnancies tells me that I should remain optimistic, so let's just say after throwing up eight times before 10:00 yesterday while at work, I paid a little trip to the OB unit and looked at all the little babies to remind me that this is really what I wanted and that this too will pass.

Our party is still on for June 21st. We're going to have a corn feed at Port San Luis and last night, I had a dream that we played Bocce ball, and it was fun, so we'll probably do that too. Tyler is worried that there won't be enough chairs for everyone, so I'm letting you know early that it's BYOC.

Angry Bathroom?

As we wake up this morning, Tyler says to me, "What did you say to me last night?" "When?" I ask. "When you were wandering around aimlessly looking for the bathroom" (Side note: when I woke up this morning, I took mental stock of the night and congratulated myself for spending the whole night in bed.)
"When did this happen?"
"Around midnight, when I was getting ready to go to bed. You walked out and looked like you were confused. I asked if you were alright and you said you were looking for the bathroom. I said that you missed it. You turned around and went back into the bedroom. I said you missed it again and you turned around and gestured with your hand and mumbled something about an angry bathroom, went into the bathroom, used it, and then went to bed."
By this point I'm laughing really hard.
"You were asleep within two seconds."

Yeah, I have no memory of that.

Tucson: not pictured

This past weekend, Tyler and I went to Tucson so Tyler could interview at a company called Paragon. We forgot our camera, so I don't have any pictures of our trip. As far as prospects go, Tucson looks really good for us. Tyler has had some other offers (See Ridgecrest) but also in places like El Segundo where the cost of living is really high, unless you want to live in Inglewood. As with moving anywhere, there are pros and cons, but I think the pro of living in a nice 4 bedroom, 2 bath house in a nice area from $278,000 outweighs the con of living in a desert that isn't as bad as the Mojave desert (because nothing could be that bad.)

We left Lillian with Allison for the 36 hours we were gone. I think at first, she really dug being in someplace different and chilling with her cousins. But after a while, even the motorcycles (mocicle) lost their luster. We had called Allison when we got off the plane and told her we'd be there soon. When we pulled up, I jumped out of the car and ran to Lillian who looked at me and said, "Daddy?" Such is life.