Can I come? I need coffee and friendly people too. :)

At least until I open the box, and collapse the wavefunction. I don't want to be responsible for that. ;)

I got pretty much the same schooling from a Catholic priest, in my college Old Testament class. My mentor at the school I work at now is a Bible professor, and she blows people's minds on a daily basis.

Yeah....that made me squirm a little bit too.

I'll second that as a Christian and as a scientist.

Thanks for this. Really. :) I'm a physicist and a college professor, at a religious school. And honestly, the Bible professors are the ones, shaking up people's religious beliefs, not the science professors.

Right, because people NEVER change their minds about anything, ever.

If I already have a reputation for being the crazy cat lady of the Physics Department, does that mean I win?

Oooh, I need to read that then. :)

I am laughing so hard right now. :D

Now I feel about a million years old. Thanks. ;)

Probably. Because it never freezes, there isn't that energy barrier to get over before it warms up. Freezing is why ice at 32 degrees has more ability to cool than water at the same temperature. (At the other end of the spectrum, this kind of thing is also why steam at 212 degrees will burn you far worse than…

Psychologists call the time between when you're presented with a complex problem and you arrive at its solution as incubation, which is cute and illustrative. Research has shown that if you're working on a simple task—something like brushing your teeth—letting your mind wander allows for connections to arise. But if…

We had a special slot in the filing cabinet. It's only now that I feel like I might be comfortable shredding some of that stuff, and my husband's been a Citizen since 2007.

Indeed. I'm feeling i the same boat here. I can't tell whether to laugh it off or just get more anxious than I already am. But it's been one of those days. ^_^;;

YES. You should have seen me when we came in for the interview to get the restrictions off his green card (The good old "Are you really married?" interview). On top of the inch-high stack we'd sent in with the application, I had this tabbed accordion folder full of bank statements, insurance documents, photographs,…

Sorry, at this point in my career, I have very little control over things. On the surface of it, you could say I do - I technically control my own working hours, within limits, I have creative control over the content in my classroom, I can do research when I want to.

You put your finger right on it. And it's rather hilarious, because I'm actually nothing if not a raging optimist. But that kind of optimism is only sustainable if you actually see the problems around you.

That is fast, wow. We were lucky, I guess, that we met in college, so he was already in the country when we had to start filing paperwork. But dear god, was the Adjustment of Status paperwork a bitch. And not just because my mother had to sign on as a financial co-sponsor because I had no money...

It's weird, I know. Go Iowa, I guess. :)