An Interview from Jen at Here We Go Again. I'll have my people contact your people. ;-) 1. You and your husband just picked up and moved to Florida. Explain yourself, missy. :) I mean, why did you choose to make this move? (Besides the fact that everyone up north is freezing and I was outside in bare feet today.) Good thing you took out the bare feet part because I was about to gloat.... No really. Hub and I were going nowhere fast in our little part of the northeastern rust belt. Though we loved a lot of things about the city near us, jobs were dwindling, and our opportunities were pretty poor. We both made a list of places we'd like to live. From that list, we chose the places that both of us could handle. Then we researched things like cost of living, proximity to friends or loved ones and job and schooling availabilities for BOTH of us. The only places that offered work AND school opportunities for both were Florida, California and Chicago. Florida was the infinitely cheaper of the group, and a place where I could still be near some of my family, which was way more important to me than it was to him. So Florida it was! Oh.. and I also already had some school and job leads in Florida.Good thing Jen, because it means I got to meet you - a great friend if I ever saw one. :) 2. I've had the pleasure of meeting your husband and the main factor that stands out is that he really loves you. You two have a better than average relationship, or so it appears to me as an outsider. How has the fact that you have struggled with infertility changed your relationship? Why thank you Jen. We are quite proud of our relationship, and I'm pleased that it appears to others the way it feels to us. In dealing with infertility, we have had some of the biggest fights and toughest times we've had as a couple. Most of it has had to do with not seeing eye to eye as a man and a woman about the issue, and with my artificial hormone induced crazies. But on the other hand, we've also connected on a deeper level and become each others' strength like never before. Despite the tough times, for the most part, infertility has made us realize the we and the pets really are each others' family. If you had asked us before all this whether we felt like family, we would have answered yes without hesitation. Now however, that feeling seems pale in comparison to this. Both of us feel like it's us against the world. Our little family is the most important thing in our lives, and we'd do anything to protect it. We've also reached a sweetness and honesty that I never knew existed. I feel like we know each other even more deeply into our souls than we already did, and support each others' needs with sincerity. It's sickening I know, but as I told a friend who thinks we're just too unbearably sappy, "That's just because it's something you don't know, and I can never explain it to you adequately. Thus it seems unreal and over the top." 3. Since I know you in real life, I know there are a lot of details about your actual daily life that you keep off your blog for identification purposes. Why did you chose to be this anonymous? Is it difficult to censor yourself this much? (Being that you have the coolest job in the world and two of the cutest pets I have ever seen?) The coolest job in the world I don't know about, but I like it. As for the pets - yes.. they are the cutest. No doubts. To answer your question: Yes sometimes it is difficult, but not too often. The main difficulty is with the pets. I love them so much, and they provide so much material that it's difficult to refrain. I also bemoan the loss of character driven story telling that would come with a little less anonymity. Characters are my favorite part of a story, and I always feel closest to bloggers who let us in to their lives more with family "characters." HOWEVER as for why I chose to censor myself- I'm choosy about telling too much about others on my blog. I'm so private in many ways that I hate to lessen the privacy of any others - including Hub (who is even more private than I am). But the main reason is because if I didn't censor myself to remain somewhat anonymous, then just because of who I am, I'd have to censor myself in the feelings I express on my blog. And that's the main reason for this blog. I NEED it as an outlet for this experience. I need the ideas bounced back and forth with blogging. I need the ALI community. If I wasn't anonymous, I'd have to go password protected for my own sanity, and then I'd feel stifled, just as I'd feel stifled by my own sense of propriety and decorum if I wasn't anonymous. A non-anonymous blog has an even higher chance of reaching people you hadn't intended to tell about it. I'm way too sensitive and anxiety ridden about some of this stuff and about myself to allow many of those in my daily life to see these thoughts. Even with those I know IRL who DO read this blog (JEN ;-), you'll note that I don't often address the things I've said in it when I'm speaking with you in person. It's just awkward for me. Obviously good question. Sorry for the verbosity. ;) 4. Why did you decide to go back to school? And why did you choose the major that you did? As I've said before (and recently), I can't deal with myself if I'm not achieving or making life or the world better in some way for someone or something. I don't know how it happened, but it fulfills me. I felt in a rut, and going back to school helped that. I also LOVE learning and know that eventually I'll have to make a bit of a career change anyway. As for the major - Conservation Biology - it falls right in line with all that other stuff I just said. I feel like of all our problems, managing the Earth and its resources is right on top, because without the Earth, really... does any of the rest of it matter? On top of that, wildlife is an absolute lifelong passion. And science is a GREAT cerebral draw to me as well as a big challenge. And I can never seem to back down from a challenge. 5. Am I as crazy in real life as I appear online? Wait, don't answer that. Something about books instead… Okay, I've got one. I've just absorbed you into Madeleine L'Engle. Do you think there are other galaxies out there with intelligent life? If you could visit another galaxy, what would you like it to be like? You are as delightfully silly, thought provokingly complex and charmingly talkative in person as you are in writing. Secondly - I have to think about this stuff as a scientist, but I'm not well read on the space aspect. So if I sound ignorant about it, that's because I am to an extent. That being said, if the universe really is infinite... something so mind bendingly incomprehensible it actually terrifies me.... then yes, by a sheer numbers game, there HAS to be other intelligent life in the universe. It doesn't make any sense other wise. But again, by a sheer numbers game, the likelihood of us ever MEETING anyone else we could even begin to communicate with is astronomically small. Another galaxy... hmm. I would like it to challenge my mind's ability to even conceive of it, which I imagine it would. I love things that bend my mind to a place I couldn't have gone on my own. Of course, I would also like it to be a PEACEFULLY mind bending place. ;) Thanks Jen! That was lots of fun! Am I supposed to offer to interview others now? I can, but my track record at being able to interact reliably due to time constraints is not the best. So if anyone wants to I can, but I'm placing my caveats on it! ;)