Working Through the Holidays

It is very quiet here at work. Most people are away. This a very popular time to take vacation days and go home for both Hannukah and Christmas and stay through New Years Eve. Since my family lives near work there is no extensive travelling needed for me to visit them. More importantly I am going to be taking a large chunk of time off soon when I have the baby! So I have opted to keep working.

Graduate school ends when I have accumulated a decent enough amount of data to make a "significant contribution" to my field. I also have to display a mastery of knowledge in my field. So every day I work gets me that much closer to that goal. That is why I am here in a very quiet workspace. Where there are usually 20 of us, today there are 4-5. But I don't mind. I do not receive any flack about taking time for numerous religious holidays or leaving early on some summer days to travel to visit family for the weekend. Therefore I am happy to make up a little of that time now and take care of things that there is nobody else to care of. Remember, if you give back a little then people are much more willing to give you lenience later on down the road.

I am also using this time to take care of last minute baby prep. I finally got around to packing my bag for the hospital. In the U.S. you cannot take a baby home without a car seat so we knew we needed to buy one. This is even though we do not own a car and live down the block from the hospital. It is state law here, and I understand that it is needed to protect babies, even though in my case it seems  a little silly. Luckily, one of the Professors here had a baby last year and just upgraded to the next size car seat. He graciously offered us his car seat! This was a complete surprise and so nice of him to think of us. Generally I advise not using certain used baby products - like car seats and strollers - when they are past a certain age because straps loosen and these things do have an expiratin date. However this car seat is well within it's life span, has never been recalled and is in perfect condition. That's one expense spared and one thing off my mind.

We also finally put together our baby registry. We used Amazon because the selection was very good, they let you put on stuf from other websites too (although they had everything we could possibly want and more), I could read lots of reviews on products before deciding, and the prices were generally the best overall. Do I need every item on there? nope. And I am not commiting to buying them. They are there because they would be nice to have and if we decide we need it, then we have all ready done the work of picking out a brand and model. Plus if someone wants to give us a gift (some co-workers have asked) this makes it easier for them. Want to know what I selected? Let me know and I will post it for you with reasons why I thought that item was or was not necessary.

My apartment has transitioned from a complete tornado to a slightly crowded, but neat and clean domicile. My husband really helped with this and I am so grateful. Now we just have to keep it clean until the little one arrives.

So here's to getting things done over the holidays!