We increased the size of our family by one. Elizabeth had been slowly wearing me down on getting a kitten for the girls for some time. We kept putting it off with all the uncertainty concerning where we would be, as our career paths are wide open at this point. But, at the end of the day, waiting doesn't matter, and doesn't change anything. I left the decision to her, as I did not want the responsibility of saying "yes" or "no" to the girls. I got a call at work from Lily saying they had a kitten at the house. We decided to name him George, a joke that stems from Elizabeth and I decided to refer to all the girls as George to make it easier on us instead of remembering individual names. He has quite a bit of a different personality than our first cat; George doesn't mind the girls picking him and carrying him everywhere (even the baby, who is sometimes not as gentle as she should be), and absolutely hates being alone, needing to be in the same room with one of us at all times. It should be interesting.
On May 30th, My wife officially received her doctorate at the 225th Ecaencia ceremony at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton. I am very proud of her accomplishment. Very few PhD students would have gone through the personal difficulties she has had, and still complete her dissertation within a reasonable (4.5 years) timeframe. To recap: In March 2010 we lost my father after an 8 week battle with pancreatic cancer; in January 2011, Elizabeth's father passed away from complications relating to his diabetes; September 17, 2011, we welcomed daughter #3 into the world; June 25, 2012 we lost our 11 year old niece, Cynthia, to a rare form of cancer. On top of all of this, I have struggled with finding meaningful employment in my chosen field and haven't been employed year-round since mid-2011. She is an amazing woman to have dealt with all of these tragedies, difficulties, and responsibilities all while completing her PhD in a field that traditionally held very few women until recently. I don't know of any others who could have done what she has done. She has already had a few job interviews and has another coming up.
Both of our mother's were in attendance for the ceremony. My father was extremely proud of her, as was her own father, and I know there was a touch of sadness on my part that they were not able to see her graduate.
I am now officially off work, again. I was given less than 4 days notice. I have been miserable over the past 6 months. The job wore me down and likely aged me beyond my years. Never before have I been subjected to such outright lies, horrible management, and poor communication at a job. A near-constant belittlement of head office and of the individual who held the job prior to me (including gossip of a personal nature that had no business at a place of work) resulted in my having an unfair bias against these individuals for the majority of my employment tenure; only with time and discussions with current and former employees did I get the full and complete picture of what was going on. I am glad to be done but I wished I could have done it on my terms. I do miss the (meager) paycheck, and I absolutely hate not working. At times, I feel like a failure, as my university education, 8 years of strong work experience, and excellent work references have gained me diddly-squat up to this point. There is no logical reason for me to be off work, but it is what it is. I am not doing a very good job at being a provider for my family. I will likely be following Elizabeth's career and hoping I can find some meaningful and enjoyable work where ever we end up; her career is taking off while mine seems to be in a stalling pattern.
