The Talk

Senior Jefe and I had a long talk about his orders, my education and the deadlines that the Navy and my school are imposing on both of us. I am going to continue to work toward getting finished, so I can join him, but he understands that that might not be for a year after he arrives (depending on how fast or slow my experiments go). Neither one of us is thrilled with this, but I am unwilling to tank a 3 yr investment on both our parts when he is going to be out to sea most of the time.
This inserts complications. I will probably have to store our household goods here when I move, because the Navy won't pay for them to be transported if I don't move within 90d of his planned report date (which I can't do; best case scenario was 6-9mo after him). It's not the first time I will have moved with just the clothes on my back. It also means that despite the fact I am not moving this spring, I still have to go to Japan with him and get my visa, so that if he is underway when I come back I can get into the country.
I am still going to look into postdocs in Japan for that time frame when I will be able to get there and if I can get a postdoc, that will be great. We talked about the fact that if that doesn't happen, I may have to take a postdoc here, because I really am at a point where my career just can't be pulled over to the side of the road and left to idle while he romps around the world.
So I guess we will see what happens. There are too many undefined variables for me to predict the outcome right now.