Well the year is finally getting interesting: I applied to 4 top 10 PhD programs in my field and I scored visits/interviews at 3 of them! Woohooo! I had a 4th today, a phone interview to see if one likes me or not. I guess the graduate committee at this school didn't like the idea that I work in multiple fields, bridging disciplines and obliterating boundaries, and pissing off peer-reviewers. Anyhow, we'll see if that school invites me out but it's unlikely.
I am so charming in person, I'm told often, but for some reason I've never been a big phone person. I have a cell phone largely in case I were to break one of my bones and no one was around. Seriously. So... I have to impress this mathematician on the phone this morning, enough to have him go to in front of his department chair and say: "We need to get this guy out here." Not positive how it went, but it didn't seem to go so well.
Regardless, I will be in Phoenix visiting ASU's School of Life Sciences the 18th-21st and then I'll be in Lincoln, Nebraska from the 24th-27th, visiting the University of Nebraska's Department of Biology. Finally, March 11th-13th I'll be at the University of Washington, in Seattle! Very excited to do so much traveling in such a short time. If anyone knows any high-quality coffee shops, Eggs Benedict eateries, and cool bars with good import beers on tap, in any of those 3 areas, do let me know!