Westward
Ho! 2002
Well, believe it or not, Matt actually, finally, officially
completed graduate school! Yeah!
The dissertation was deposited with the university just before we left
for a short respite in Florida at the condo.
That elusive Ph.D. had been granted.
The timing worked out well; we had a strong desire to finish the
dissertation before leaving Champaign. Some
start their jobs before wrapping it up, but then it can be really hard to
finish. Of course, these things
always take up all available time, so he pushed the changes and new experiments
until the last minute.
In March and April, Matt interviewed with a number of
companies and universities. After
much debate and uncertainty for both of us, Matt accepted a job with the Intel
Pentium CPU Architecture Group. This
group is responsible for the feature set and organization of all Pentium-based
microprocessors and is truly an elite group in the computer industry.
He is involved in a “skunkworks” project (one that is secret to most,
even within Intel) that will hopefully be included in a Pentium processor in
four or five years. He was also
fortunate to travel to Istanbul, Turkey, for six days to attend a research
conference. He was safe; no
problems. He bought a 2x3 meter
genuine Turkish carpet for our living room, skillfully adding to our collection
of meaningful travel souvenirs.
The new job came with relocation to Hillsboro, Oregon, a
suburb of Portland. We left
Champaign with sad hearts, already missing our friends.
We moved away almost exactly ten years to the day from when Matt moved to
Champaign as a freshman, right at the self-imposed decade deadline.
There are a number of aspects of Oregon that we particularly enjoy:
mountains (Mt. Hood), the ocean beaches (Cannon Beach; Astoria), ski resorts
(Mt. Bachelor), and many hiking trails (Mt. Neahkahnie, for one).
The eight months of rain are supposed to be rather rough (no snow here in
the Tualatin Valley), but the weather this winter has been exceptional with
plenty of sunny days – so far.
Substitute teaching this fall has brought many blessings for
Polly. A lighter and more flexible
workload has given her time to organize our new home and become familiar with
our new surroundings. She is
learning a lot about the various schools in nearby districts and enjoys working
with a diverse group of students. Polly
hopes to begin work on a Masters in Special Education, possibly in the fall,
after researching several local programs.
Spring and early summer brought the arrival of two new
nephews. Grant was born on May 27
to Polly’s brother Peter and his wife Kelly, while Marcus was born on June 15
to Polly’s sister Penny and her husband Dave.
The two cousins could not be more different in personality, but they are
both healthy and well loved. Distance
prevents us from seeing these precious ones often, but frequent story telling
and photos help keep us up-to-date.
At the end of May, Matt traveled north to Anchorage, Alaska,
for another research conference. Since
school ended that same week, Polly joined him for a week of vacation after the
conference. We traveled from
Anchorage to Denali National Park where we viewed Mt. McKinley, saw various
types of wildlife (sometimes up close), and hiked through amazingly beautiful
landscape including Alaskan tundra. Next
time, maybe we’ll see a bear or a moose (hopefully not too up close)!
Mid-summer found us facing the death of Polly’s
grandfather. He had endured some
difficult months this year fighting the effects of cancer.
With God’s grace, he lived long enough to celebrate his 80th
birthday, rejoice in the birth of three great grandsons, and hear of our plans
to move west. He has left behind a
legacy of integrity, perseverance, and faith, that with God’s help, we
endeavor to imitate.
Christmas will find us reflecting on our Savior’s birth,
remembering his faithfulness, and rejoicing in his abundant blessings.
We hope it is the same for you.
The Year in Pictures can be found at http://merten.us/events/christmas02.html
Love, Matt and Polly Merten
503-846-0885, matthew@merten.us, polly@merten.us
Page created by Matthew Merten.
All photos copyright © 2002 Matthew C. Merten. All rights reserved.