2018 in Review

Jacob and Jessie on NYE

2018 was kind of a whirlwind. There were a lot of highs and lows, but mostly highs. I had some wonderful adventures this year. Here are some highlights.

January

Oberst with Taylor Hollingsworth of MVB

We kicked off the New Year in the best way possible: by seeing a Conor Oberst concert in a California. Jacob and I flew out to Los Angeles and met up with friends from all over the country to see Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band play their first show in years. We caught up in line all day in the gloriously warm (by comparison with Minnesota) weather. We ate amazing Mexican food. And the show was brilliant -- the new venue in Silverlake was really cool and made custom cockatils for the show. Miwi La Lupa played a fabulous solo acoustic set to open. At midnight, the band played "Auld Lang Syne". The New Year couldn't have begun in a better way. That day turned out to be the last time I hung out with my friend Christina outside a hospital, so I'm doubly grateful for the memory.

Christina and Jessie on NYE

On New Year's Day, we went to see my Oklahoma Sooners play in the Rose Bowl against Georgia. I relished the opportunity to see Baker Mayfield's last collegiate game, even though I would have preferred we survive to play the final. The
game came down to second overtime, and was as entertaining as you could hope for. It was also cool to spend time with my friends Sterling and Christal while we were in LA.

Over the next several days, Jacob and I road-tripped across the desert, visiting the Joshua Tree National Park and Mojave National Preserve before flying out of Las Vegas.

Jessie, Jacob, Sterling and Christal at the Rose Bowl

Cholla garden at sunset, Joshua Tree Nat'l Park

Desert cliff face

February

February in a nutshell

Geoff, Jess, Jessie, and Jacob at final trivia night

Jacob and Ender

By comparison, February was boring. It was extremely cold, and we mostly hunkered down indoors. I collected a lot of data as part of my push to graduate later in the year.

March

The "spring" began to feel like a slow unraveling of our life in Minnesota. In March, our friend Geoff moved away to take a job in New York, which effectively dissolved our regular Tuesday night trivia team. It snowed relentlessly. I continued to collect data. Jacob left again for his last field season with the company he'd been working for, way before it was anything like what might be called "spring" by a sane person.

 April

Mammal penis bones cake

April was more of the same. It snowed two feet while Jacob was out of town, and I snow-shoveled my way into an asthma attack and thought often of how I could find a job somewhere else. I applied for jobs in Nebraska and California but was turned down. And then I got the miraculous news that my
NSF post-doc was funded. I celebrated by having a figure featuring the penis bones (bacula) of various small mammals printed on a sheet cake.

Phoebe Bridgers, Turf Club, Saint Paul

April was additionally notable because I got to catch a Phoebe Bridgers show in Saint Paul. Since discovering her music in Omaha in November 2016, Phoebe has become one of my favorite musicians to see live. At this show, I was lucky to meet some new friends, Emily and Scott.

May 

This May was the first in a long time that was not a frog season for me. It felt strange.

Jessie, John, and Cliff at John and Alexa's wedding

I traveled to Oklahoma City to attend my friend John's wedding, and in addition to catching up with friends, saw the sights of OKC with my parents. We did all the touristy things I somehow never did when I lived in Norman. We visited the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. I had seen the reflecting pool but never gone inside the museum, which was much bigger and much more upsetting than I had imagined. My mom and I took a boat ride through Bricktown. We ate at a bunch of trendy new places, and met my grandparents for lunch at my favorite Campus Corner restaurant in Norman. I went flying with my dad, which is always an experience I look forward to.

Midwestern sunset from home in Saint Paul

Back home in Saint Paul, I tried to take advantage, too, of the high points of Minnesota summer life, which were often out of reach when I was running behavioral tests on treefrogs each summer.

June

June brought lots of thunderstorms -- this is one reason why it's my favorite month. My friend Max
adopted two kittens and I got to cat-sit them for a weekend. I went to see Okkervil River at the Turf Club.

I started applying for our Australian visa. I spent a lot of time assembling a photo album to illustrate my relationship with Jacob, which was an odd, if nostalgic, experience. I got fingerprinted by the Ramsey County Sheriff and requested background checks from the FBI.

I had a lovely birthday cookout at our place in Saint Paul and my amazing friend Jonathan made me a birthday cake.

I traveled to Palm Springs, California to attend the wedding of my friends Joe and Jeff. I rented a house with a group of high school friends and spent a glorious week catching up with them, seeing the sights of Palm Springs, and lounging in the swimming pool. We made a trip to Joshua Tree National Park, my second visit of the year.

And through all this, I wrote furiously on my dissertation.

The birthday cake Jonathan A. baked

Wade, Emily, Greg, Joe, Paige and Jessie at Joe's wedding cocktail hour

Katie and Jessie at Joe's wedding

Joe and Jeff's wedding!

Jonathan and Jessie by Grand Lak

July

I went home to Oklahoma for the 4th of July. My brother brought both of his kids down for the first time, and it was fun to splash around in the water with my younger nephew. My older nephew spent a lot of time fishing with his grandfather. It was a great visit. I spent a considerable amount of time on the porch, writing my dissertation and looking out over the creek.

The Walker Sculpture Garden on Ryan and Jenna's visit

Back home in Saint Paul, I spent a lot of time with friends in coffeeshops, writing papers. I watched France win the World Cup over crêpes with my friend Alison. I read a book about Australia, In a Sunburnt Country by Bill Bryson, that compared Perth to Minneapolis and I briefly despaired.

Courtney Barnett at Surly Brewing

Jacob's brother, Ryan, and his fiancée, Jenna, came to visit. The three of us hit some of the Minneapolis highlights I had been putting off for years. We had a nice time seeing the sights, though Jacob was away at work all weekend.

Finally, I caught Courtney Barnett with Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus at Surly Brewing, which was a magical show. Julien and Lucy went on to release an EP with Phoebe Bridgers under the name boygenius, which turned out to be one of my favorite releases of the year.

August

Jacob, Jessie, and Tristram immediately following Jessie's defense

Jessie with the Zuk lab at her defense celebration

August was an insanely big month for me. We were hurtling towards my graduation date. I attended the Animal Behavior Society meeting in Milwaukee, where I gave a talk, socialized with scientists, and furiously wrote. I visited my brother's family in Madison on the way home. I wrapped up writing, sent my dissertation to my committee, and prepared for both our big move and my defense.

I attended the International Society for Behavioral Ecology meeting in Minneapolis, which was organized by my PhD adviser and other members of our department. I was able to meet a few members of my soon-to-be lab in Perth, and celebrate my fellowship with them in Minneapolis.

I sold my car, as well as a bunch of our other belongings.

I defended on a Monday morning. My family came up to see my talk and celebrate with me -- they brought my older nephew, and all came directly from vacation in Florida. Jacob finally left his job the weekend before the defense. Together, we had several parties and celebratory meals, and packed everything that Jacob and I own into a storage unit. After my defense, I had to edit my dissertation and submit it for approval by the graduate school.

The last thing I did before leaving Minnesota was visit Christina at the U of M hospital. We left Minnesota for good on Saturday morning, driving southwest to Omaha with everything we planned to bring to Australia with us.

Dolores Diaz and the Standby Club

September

September was sort of a victory lap, in which I celebrated finishing the PhD I had spent six years working on and tried to get as much quality time with people in Nebraska and Oklahoma as I could.

I spent a week in Omaha, visiting my favorite establishments and spending some quality time with Omaha friends and Jacob's family. I was incredibly lucky to get to see Dolores Diaz and the Standby Club who, after their outdoor fundraiser show was rained out, heroically moved the gig to O'Leaver's. I also caught Matt Focht at Pageturners, my favorite bar.

Dolores Diaz and the Standby Club

Then I went to Oklahoma. I got to see the Mountain Goats play at Cain's Ballroom, probably my favorite venue in the world. Al Riggs played a fabulous set to open.

 I went to see OU play UCLA with my mom and my grandfather. I went flying with my dad, on a perfect scattered cumulus day, over the lakes of northeastern Oklahoma. I visited the Tulsa Air and Space Museum with my parents, toured Tulsa's massive new park complex, the Gathering Place, for its Grand Opening, and ate a lot of great southern food.

My friend Yvonne road-tripped up to Oklahoma from Texas to hang out with me for a weekend, and the weather cooperated with us, so we went on a float trip.

Dad and I flew up to Omaha to pick up Jacob, and brought him back to Tulsa.

Mom and Jessie in Norman, versus UCLA

Jessie and Frank, in Norman versus UCLA

Dan

Jacob en route from Omaha to Tulsa

We spent some time at the cabin. Finally, after an exhausting amount of packing and repacking our many suitcases to get everything under the weight limit, it was time to head to Australia.

Leaving for Australia

A few minutes after that photo was taken, I called the hospital to speak to my friend Christina and learned that she had died. I had met Christina on a plane, and processing this news on a plane was a little surreal.

We arrived jetlagged and disoriented, and set about exploring our new city, looking for an apartment, buying a houseful of furniture, and shopping for a car.

October

We somehow managed to take possession of our new apartment just in time for me to start my job on October 1. October is springtime in Australia and everything was blooming. Every plant and animal and restaurant and landmark was new. I'm not even sure where to start.

Kangaroo paw in bloom in King's Park

Jacob signing our lease

Mother of millions

At City Beach

On my first bicycle commute through the park

Wildflowers in bloom in King's Park

Crab spider in a wildflower at Serpentine National Park

November

One of the highlights of November was inviting some new friends over for Thanksgiving dinner, which turned into an exotic cultural event. Perspective is everything, I suppose. Making traditional family recipes on the other side of the world was weirdly satisfying.

Homemade egg noodles

Apple pie

Thanksgiving

Also, I continued to get to know the fauna of King's Park.

Stumpy-tailed blue tongue skink

December

In December, Jacob and I celebrated our eighth anniversary on the far side of the world from where we met. Jacob took up baking. We did some hiking. I continued to enjoy the Swan River next to the UWA campus. We visited Penguin Island where we looked at birds, snorkeled, and swam. We spent Christmas Eve on the beach, and had a lovely barbecue with friends for Christmas day. It was a little odd to celebrate the holidays and the summer at the same time, but very pleasant.

Anniversary photo

City Beach

The Swan River

Fledgling little penguin at Penguin Island

Penguin island

Blue-tongue skink on Penguin Island

We wrapped up the year at the beach, where we sat in the sand and watched the fireworks. There was a band. They played "Wonderwall". It was a far cry from the band that kicked off 2018, but it was a great evening nonetheless.

tl;dr: 2018 was a wild ride with a lot of high points and a huge number of changes. Best wishes to you and yours for 2019.