Notes from Rochester

Hi all! It’s been a while since I posted, so I thought I’d write a bit about how things are going on my side.

I've moved into an apartment now. It isn't an apartment in the usual sense: the building is an old home converted into 7 independent units, each with a living room, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom. Because the place is old, there’s a lot of creaking and groaning in different parts of the building, but the furniture is nice and the utilities and heating are covered in the rent. The place is close to work; I have to walk about two blocks before I get into the Mayo walkway or subway system. It is starting to get cold here: the bad days have highs in the 30s and the lows in the 20s with the wind making it seem worse; normal days are about ten degrees warmer but still mostly cloudy. There was a bit of snow as well last week: just some flurries, pretty to look at and nothing serious. The trees are almost bare, and the yards of some homes are still full of the crisp, dead leaves that had fallen a few weeks ago.

So you can picture me well dressed – a winter jacket over a charcoal grey suit and tie, beige shirt, shining black shoes, gloves and winter hat in my red bag, the same red bag that I used at ASU – walking to work in the bleakness of early morning, and then returning back in the evening. With the time change coming up sometime soon – god knows how that works :) – my co-workers say that it will be dark when you walk to work and dark when you return. That, it seems, is when things get really depressing.

The new office I've been assigned (I was in a makeshift office before) is a large room; it is such an upgrade from what I’ve been used to as a student that I don’t know what to do with all the shelf and desk space. There’s a fast desktop computer with two large monitors, so you can work on many different things at the same time.

If you have a doctorate degree, Mayo will always remind you of it at every opportunity: your name tag and name plate, your email address, and postal mail that comes from Mayo will have a very flattering “Ph.D.,” after your name, making you feel like royalty – and I guess the suit, and the sparkle that goes with it, heightens this feeling.

I am looking for a car right now. This, I am discovering, isn’t an easy process. I’ve got to buy it soon, before it becomes impossible to walk and buy groceries. And I should preferably buy something that will give me good traction. But I think I might just settle for a 4 or 5 year old Honda or Toyota with a front wheel drive.

The twin cities (Minneapolis and St Paul) are just an hour and fifteen minutes away. I was there for the last two weekends: for a friend’s wedding two weeks ago, and to attend a book festival last weekend. The drive is through a landscape of gently rolling hills, acres and acres of planted corn, distinctive farm houses (I don’t have the words yet to describe them), and the occasional small town. The twin cities area is remarkably active culturally and is known for being a haven for artists of all sorts; it is probably one of best large cities in the United States.

With no television or cable – that’s been a deliberate decision – and the weather being cold, there’s been plenty of time during the evenings and weekends to get some reading and writing done. The Rochester public library screens some very nice documentary and independent movies. Here are some links on my blog (1,2 and 3)about some of the other things I’ve been doing.

I should probably stop here now; this post has gotten long :). I am looking forward to meeting at least some of you at INFORMS. Regards to everyone!