September 2021

 The weather in the Fall is what one lives for in upstate New York, and we've certainly been enjoying it outside when we can. Here are few things we've been up to in the month of September. Click on the photos above for more photos and videos.

Visit to Arizona

After we all visited Utah at the end of August, Becky and Alex continued onward to visit her family in Sierra Vista and Tucson Arizona. Below are Becky's words about that trip and also their time in Utah:

Like many people, this summer was our first vacation in a while.  It was also our first vacation since Alex's diagnosis of Autism over a couple years ago.  Just like when he was a baby, he was a good traveler.  It was fun to see him get excited about airports.  He liked watching the planes and luggage cars come and go outside the terminals and he figured out pretty quickly how to get out of his stroller, grab his favorite things, and wait in line to get on the plane.  This was the first time he was old enough to realize he’s flying on an airplane and he loved it, as evidenced by the pictures.  Our trip to Utah went fast- Alex and I were there for 5 days and there were a lot of relatives to see in 5 days. He had a great time staying in grandma and grandpa Lawrence’s basement.  Grandpa brought out a lot of his gadgets and toys on the table upstairs.  Gadgets (like spinners and magnetic things) are some of Alex’s favorites.  He was also spoiled by the downstairs movie theater and a ride in grandpa’s old model T.  

One of Alex’s favorite days was hanging out in Jim and Mel’s (uncle and aunt) backyard.  Their backyard has all his favorite things:  water toys at the water table, random toys to explore in the sand, and lots of garden plants to pick the leaves off of (thanks for humoring him, Jim and Mel).  Also, Alex got to ride on a scooter, tricycle, toy car, and electric car- which given more time, he likely would’ve figured out how to drive.  It takes a while for Alex to warm up to new surroundings.  He gets more lively and excited the later and cooler in the day that it gets.  By the time we left, he was really enjoying the backyard.  I’m sure he wanted us to take him back there the next day, but we took him to a farm with a lot of old tractors instead, which was an acceptable trade off.  

Rob and I also took him to the children’s museum in Salt Lake City.  Same experience as at Jim and Mel’s- it took him half an hour or so to start to really explore, but there was plenty to keep his interest the whole time.  I would LOVE to have membership at a place like that so Alex could start to play with all of the toys and gadgets as intended and gain some good play and motor skills.  The Hudson Valley Children’s Museum is a bit of a drive, but we’re hoping to get membership there when it opens.  If it’s as cool as the museum in SLC, the repeated trips will be worth the money.

Basically, it takes Alex time to warm up to new people and places.  It may seem like he’s content to wander off by himself and just be alone, but given time, he becomes much more interactive.  I learned from our trip that he can warm up to relatives, but needs a couple days or more to get there and probably also needs some mediation by me or Rob to show people how to engage him and that he can say a lot of words.  Still, he was happy to be playing around his cousins and loved all the toys and fun stuff.  

We found the coolest park next to the pickle ball courts where we met our friend, Shane.  While we were catching up with Shane, Alex had a pretty good time running around a playground that looked a bit like a scene from Alice in Wonderland.  The takeaway, in addition to the relatives, Utah (around SLC) is a great place to take a 4 year old on vacation.  

Just have to add, we also enjoyed hanging out with all of the other relatives at Linda and Alan’s (Linda is Rob’s sister) house.  You’ll see from the picture, we got to catch up with EVERYONE there, which was great.  And got to hang out with Victoria (also Rob’s sister) at her place- Alex would have normally loved the toys and backyard at Victoria and Erik’s, too, but he passed out and we took him home😊.

As far as friends go, we had fun trying to play pickle ball with Shane.  We would LOVE to be able to play pickle ball in New York, but it’s much more of a Utah thing.  New York has a long way to go to catch up with Utah in building pickle ball courts.  We also got to see one of my favorite college roomates, Julianne, and her husband, Brenden.  We always love hanging out with those guys.  Fun and lively conversation with our friends all around.

Alex and I flew to Arizona for the next week to see my side of the family.  There aren’t as many of Nate’s (my little brother) toys around the house anymore so Grandma Burden bought Alex a fair few toys while he was there.  Sierra Vista, Arizona is not as vast as SLC, but we had a good ol’ time at Peter Piper Pizza, the library (which had cool toys, even during COVID times), the mall, the backyard, and Tombstone.  I hadn’t been to Tombstone in a long time.  Alex LOVES little things- trinkets and stuff- so we just wandered through the shops and made sure he didn’t break anything.  I always like the western streets there.  At the end of town are the Tombstone High tennis courts, where I played some close matches in high school.  We got some apple pie a la mode at a usual spot.  Just a nice day with me, mom/grandma and Alex.  

Another great part of the trip was Nate.  He just got home from his mission and is living with mom until school starts.  So I got to catch up with him.  I always loved coming home to see my parents and little brother, Nate, whose 22 years younger than me.  Now he’s all grown up- still adorable, but his adultness makes me realize I’m getting old.  Me, Nate, and mom all enjoyed watching/entertaining Alex for the duration of the stay.  Alex and I also went on long walks with my dad, who lives nearby.  Dad’s retired and just enjoying life so he took Nate and I to the movies and out to eat a couple times.  Glad I got to do a lot with him- he’s got the “I’m on an endless vacation” vibe down.  

We spent half a day in Tucson with Dave (brother), Stacey (sister-in-law) and the girls (my nieces).  Sean (brother) and Qito (nephew) were also there and came to see us in Sierra Vista.  Time flies when you’re just hanging out with family, catching up, and usually eating😊.  It was nice to remember what it’s like to be near family- lots of good times.  We really miss it.  

Alex is happy to be home, but seeing new places and being spoiled by relatives was a great break for him.  Can’t wait til next year.  I just wish I had taken some pictures.  I’m pretty bad about that.  I’ll try to round up some pics of my family and the friends we visited to include in this blog post or the next.  

Old Job / New Job

September 10 was my last day in the office as a Research Development Specialist at Binghamton University. I had a lot of remaining vacation time , so officially I'm still on the payroll until Oct. 14, which is a useful way of making sure there is no lapse in health coverage or paychecks. Almost 4 years prior to that date, I flew into Binghamton on a cold and gray day to interview for that position when I was basically unemployed after leaving a job with a toxic work environment, and I was looking to move on from doing lab work to something else related to research. Binghamton University, and my new boss Mary Beth, were the best next step I could have hoped for as they made it as easy and welcoming as possible for me to make the transition not only to a new state, but also to a new field of work. I would have been content to stay there in that job for much longer, but life had other plans. The people in my office were as gracious in saying goodbye  as they were when they welcomed me, and they understood my reasons for leaving. They had a little goodbye event with cake planned, and I was showered with many kind words and a few gifts as well. I now have more Binghamton University official apparel than I ever did while I worked there. There were a lot of mixed feelings this month as I said goodbye to a good job at a good school with a lot of good people working there.

September 13 was my first day working as a Senior Science Editor at Baylor College of Medicine. Being a fully remote position, there are a lot of things different about my day-to-day routines. For instance, it feels a lot more like I'm an independent contractor except that I get benefits (albeit mediocre benefits compared to the more generous union-negotiated offerings at Binghamton). But the work itself though aligns quite well with what I was doing at Binghamton U., and also what I was doing as a postdoc before that at ASU. I carved out a nice space in our otherwise gross basement with a nice big L-shaped desk that I bought used for $40 and a comfy chair, and I made some other small investments in office supplies. Whereas I worked for the whole university in my last position, in this role I am basically working for two researchers in the Department of Medicine and those who are in their labs. One researcher is in the section of infectious diseases, which overlaps with my postdoctoral research background in virology. The other researcher is an M.D./Ph.D who is in the section of gastroenteroogy. The two of them are married, and they are both new faculty at that university although they were quite well-established researchers at their prior institution with a lot of research funding (which is why they could afford to hire me). From day one, they have had plenty of work to keep me busy. I've hardly had time to do all the HR onboarding stuff. As with my last job, I work on grant proposals, doing writing or editing and anything in between. In addition, I am also working on writing and editing research publications, which I have experience with from my time as a grad student and postdoc. Right now I am editing a review article about COVID-19 as it relates to pregnancy and maternal/fetal/newborn health. When they hired me, they wanted me to not just provide editorial help with grammar, etc. but also technical input. This article is a good example of how I can do that - since I was a postdoc in a coronavirus lab I added many technical corrections about things like virus taxonomy, genomics, and protein function. In summary, the work is a lot less administrative and more technical, and I think I will enjoy it more because of that. But working by myself in the basement is also a lot less social and interactive, and that could wear on me over time. I had a few guys in my office that I worked closely with in my last job and we were always in touch (even through the pandemic), and I also had a podcast club I organized with some other people on campus and we would chat regularly. I'll have to find some way to replace those social connections that helped get me through the day.

Outings and Random Tidbits

Here is a link to a Google file with all photos from September (also linked in the photos above). We've enjoyed getting out to parks and such when we can as usual. There are photos of us at the Hudson Highlands Nature Preserve (no ticks observed after visiting there this time), the Orange County Arboretum (always a lovely display of flowers and gardens), indoor visits to the Mall, arcades, and Target (Alex is crazy about Target), the outdoor mall in Monroe, and the pumpkin patch at Dubois farms, among other parks as well. 

Alex got hit with a minor stomach infection that put him out for a few days. We've experience this a few times before, and he usually seems fine until he suddenly vomits everything - not fun for him or the parents who clean it up. 

Alex continues to surprise us using new words we didn't know he knew, and using them unprompted. These days he'll often play by himself, deep in his imagination, while babbling a constant stream of sounds mingled with a few recognizable words. How much meaning his minion-like language has to him is a mystery I wonder about often.

Now that I am working fully remote, we'll have to decide what to do with our house in Endwell. We'll continue renting it through AirBnB on weekends and such through the rest of the year so we can use it over the holidays. I'll probably try to see if there is interest in people renting it for longer terms up to a few months next year. Renting it on AirBnB doesn't generate that much profit at the end of the day (or year), but it does allow us to build some equity - at least I so hope anyway. 

There were lots of 9/11 memorials around NY for the 20th anniversary. It's not unusual for a small town like the one we live in to have a memorial for a few firefighters they lost because of that day.

We celebrated the new job by eating out at Texas Roadhouse (rather than moving to Texas), where Alex could have eaten every roll in that restaurant. 

We had a visit with a developmental/behavioral pediatrician at Upstate Medical U. in Syracuse who specializes in kids with autism, ADHD, etc., something we had scheduled months ago. We did it over the phone/video, and it was mostly just him asking us a lot of questions and seeing Alex. Mostly I guess, we just wanted to see if there was anything in terms of treatments that we aren't doing and should be aware of, such as prescriptions for ADD, which is definitely a component of Alex's behavior. That's something we may consider doing down the road with an experienced Dr. like this one. 

I added a few more photos from the month of August that I didn't have when I posted last month's update, including a few from Utah/Arizona. They are here, if you want to see them.