A disturbing trend I've been noticing since starting grad school is the misuse of my personal time. I work at lab, I socialize, but when I get home, my discipline falls apart. It's awkward to use the word discipline in that context, because the things I intend to do are, well, things I want to do. But almost inevitably, I wind up frittering away every last minute of my spare time on the internet, and going to bed far too late as a result.
I want to read more. I have books picked out. I used to love reading. I don't know why it's so hard to pick up a book anymore.
I want to finish my Afghan.
I want to incorporate cleaning into my day, so the house isn't a pit by Friday.
I want to write Christmas cards and make packages of caramels for friends and family.
But the call of Reddit and Facebook are just too great, even if there's absolutely nothing interesting to look at. The loss of control irritates me, even infuriates me at times. But like the sweets, my good intentions fail to stick. My willpower is too limited. My standards for myself are NOT too high.
Frustrating. I remember my priorities and values, but I fail to act accordingly. I'm not sure how to overcome the gap between intent and action. It's a struggle that's starting to really wear on my nerves.
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
A week in grad school
Tempeh bacon and warmed chunks of frozen mango with cinnamon. Jogging to the lab at 7 AM to start an incubation.
Too much butter, too much sugar. 7 or 8 dozen bowls, dishes, plates, mugs, teapots, butter dishes, and salt/pepper shakers that used to belong to my maternal grandmother, brought to Madison by my aunt and uncle. A half a loaf of lemon pound cake in one day. Boredom, tears, stress. RuPaul's drag race.
Trying to go vegan for a week or two in order to clean my system, whatever that means. Gardein entrees. Odwalla bars surprisingly don't taste like sawdust. Feeling pretty good. Less of a sacrifice than I imagined.
Intaglio playing Halo 4. His birthday is coming up soon. I should organize some sort of celebration.
Stat exam today. Eh. Mounds of eraser shards after totally overthinking one problem. Got it in the end.
Dermatology screen last week. Diagnosed with a dysplastic nevus, to be removed at the end of November. A little unnerving. Note that it's not a typical dysplastic nevus: it doesn't fit the A/B/C/D/E's. The woman doing the screen noted that it's better to think about moles as a gestalt--instead of fretting about large, funny-looking moles, try to notice moles that don't fit the pattern. My dysplastic nevus is very small and dark, while most of my moles are large and light brown. Trying not to worry. When it metastasizes, melanoma goes straight to the brain. It hasn't changed much that I can tell. It's probably okay. I'm still nervous.
Apartment is neater. Kitchen is still a mess. Laundry needs to be done.
Lab work. Flow cytometer is being unnervingly cloggable. It took one grad student and a postdoc most of today to fix it, which is how I wound up running samples until 7 PM. I really need to figure out how to unclog the machine on my own. (Better to not to clog it in the first place, but it's not like I'm running chunky samples.)
Can't tell if some cultures got contaminated or the cells all just died. Lab meeting tomorrow at 10 AM. Will likely be 11 AM or later. Need to analyze two experiments before that. I'm hoping to salvage something meaningful.
So yeah. No real complaints. I am grateful, life is good.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
2 down!
Ran the Tyranena beer run yesterday. It went pretty well--I cramped up around mile 3 and 12, something that's never happened before, but I was able to tough it out.
Came home, took a shower (I was FREEZING: comfortable during the run, but for various reasons our group wound up milling around outside for 2 or 3 hours, and I had nothing warmer than a running jacket and a Mylar blanket), and then Intaglio tackled the stained carpets with a rug-cleaner he had borrowed from work. The apartment's looking much better now.
Feeling pretty optimistic that today won't be a repeat of last Sunday. I just need to keep active.
This week is going to be a whirlwind: Election, blood donation, something like 90 flow tubes to run tomorrow morning, Stats exam next Tuesday, review paper, skin cancer screening, meeting with a committee member. Among other things. I need to summon the latent powers of time management I developed in M2...hopefully they haven't atrophied completely.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Transition
So, today I ate a cheeseburger, as per my 101/1001. And I ate a ton of sweets. It hasn't been the best of days. Tears, screaming, kicking (of furniture), all before 9 AM, followed by a meeting with my PI and a combined total of 5 hours of seminars. Willpower being a finite resource, I was pretty well screwed (or so I justified eating dinner at the Great Dane with Intaglio: we split sustain-a-burger and a chocolate-nut torte, among other delicious but awful foods.)
The truth is: Grad school has been rough. In medical school, my goal was to get As. After I finished medical school, my goal was to get a great score on the boards. All of my energy was focused toward each single goal; it required a lot of work and tedium, but I was capable of it.
Now, my time is split between lab and work, at minimum 50-50. On top of that, I'm supposed to be writing a review article, and, at the risk of sounding like Teen Talk Barbie, immunology is hard. Which is why I'm reading papers and writing this review article, but right now it just feels like one more thing to tick off my list. One more thing preventing me from doing research, which reminds me--the controls have been fuzzy, the cells aren't growing as fast as they should be, and no one has worked with viral particles before in our lab. Coming home each night, my goal is always to work, or at least read, but realistically I just wash dishes, do laundry, tidy up, or wind up poking around reddit. And then I go to sleep. And then I get up and run, and then the day begins.
Intaglio is in the same position as me; he's gone from working on his prints full time to less than 50% of the time, as he now works in the frame shop and teaches classes on the weekend. So at the end of the day, we're tired, we're dispirited, and we're not really in the mood to feel sympathy for anyone but ourselves. We haven't been gentle with each other. We haven't really been interested in each other's struggles.
We made up, but the damage to my diet was done. Nothing to do but start fresh tomorrow (and have Intaglio take the remaining Ghirardelli squares to work). When I disappoint myself like I have today, I often feel like that's the only thing to say. Tomorrow I'll be closer to the person I want to be. Just because it didn't happen today doesn't mean I can't make it happen tomorrow. True, I suppose, but today it just feels false. That's why there's tomorrow.
The truth is: Grad school has been rough. In medical school, my goal was to get As. After I finished medical school, my goal was to get a great score on the boards. All of my energy was focused toward each single goal; it required a lot of work and tedium, but I was capable of it.
Now, my time is split between lab and work, at minimum 50-50. On top of that, I'm supposed to be writing a review article, and, at the risk of sounding like Teen Talk Barbie, immunology is hard. Which is why I'm reading papers and writing this review article, but right now it just feels like one more thing to tick off my list. One more thing preventing me from doing research, which reminds me--the controls have been fuzzy, the cells aren't growing as fast as they should be, and no one has worked with viral particles before in our lab. Coming home each night, my goal is always to work, or at least read, but realistically I just wash dishes, do laundry, tidy up, or wind up poking around reddit. And then I go to sleep. And then I get up and run, and then the day begins.
Intaglio is in the same position as me; he's gone from working on his prints full time to less than 50% of the time, as he now works in the frame shop and teaches classes on the weekend. So at the end of the day, we're tired, we're dispirited, and we're not really in the mood to feel sympathy for anyone but ourselves. We haven't been gentle with each other. We haven't really been interested in each other's struggles.
We made up, but the damage to my diet was done. Nothing to do but start fresh tomorrow (and have Intaglio take the remaining Ghirardelli squares to work). When I disappoint myself like I have today, I often feel like that's the only thing to say. Tomorrow I'll be closer to the person I want to be. Just because it didn't happen today doesn't mean I can't make it happen tomorrow. True, I suppose, but today it just feels false. That's why there's tomorrow.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Birthday
Today began with a 10.44 mile run, carried on to a quiet day in lab and class (mostly spent doing homework, the machine I needed to separate out cells for an experiment was being cleaned), and finished with dinner on the east side. Went home, and then made a trek to the east side for dinner. I started out with a bbq jackfruit sandwich, while Intaglio had a vegan "crabby-cake" po' boy. We swapped two bites in upon realizing that the other had the better dish. Dessert was this monster:
(That is a drumstick pie slice from Monty's Blue Plate Diner. Peanut butter silk, whipped cream, and a layer of chocolate ganache. It was, as you can probably tell, HUGE. We split it. It was still far too much, but we polished it off regardless.)
Today was also my first day of 101 in 1001. Much to my surprise, I was already able to tick one item off my list, as Intaglio gave me a snuggly flannel robe for my birthday. It's going...reasonably well. I dutifully recycled all my recyclables and tracked my spending (1.35-yogurt, .9-banana, 1.25-plain popcorn, 6-bus). As it was my birthday, I didn't stick with the one sweet per week rule (my mom sent some Ghirardelli squares and speculoos spread in a care package...you can probably guess what happened next), but such was the plan.
How am I feeling? Pretty good. I'm 25, I weigh 136.8 lbs, I can run 10 miles, I can grow cells. Not too shabby.
I'm still quite nervous about emailing my potential thesis committee (I've been psyching myself up to do it for two days now), marginally nervous about the two midterms next Tuesday, and kind of wary about the food challenges ahead of me. My goal is to eat no more desserts/sweets until next Tuesday, but this weekend is stuffed with food-laden activities. Parties and gallery openings tend to be diet kryptonite for me: I get nervous, and I eat; I get distracted, and I eat; I prepare food, and I eat. In the past, I've seen no other solution than to skip the party (or to go and resign myelf to gaining weight). But now this conundrum just strikes me as tiresome. I'm hoping that posting in this blog will keep me honest and provide me with motivation as I hack my way through the requisite 66 days it takes to change a habit.
But as I said, I'm feeling good. Lucky to be 25, lucky to be a part of an amazing training program, unbelievably lucky to have a wonderful family, a great partner, and awesome friends. This year will be a great one.
Today was also my first day of 101 in 1001. Much to my surprise, I was already able to tick one item off my list, as Intaglio gave me a snuggly flannel robe for my birthday. It's going...reasonably well. I dutifully recycled all my recyclables and tracked my spending (1.35-yogurt, .9-banana, 1.25-plain popcorn, 6-bus). As it was my birthday, I didn't stick with the one sweet per week rule (my mom sent some Ghirardelli squares and speculoos spread in a care package...you can probably guess what happened next), but such was the plan.
How am I feeling? Pretty good. I'm 25, I weigh 136.8 lbs, I can run 10 miles, I can grow cells. Not too shabby.
I'm still quite nervous about emailing my potential thesis committee (I've been psyching myself up to do it for two days now), marginally nervous about the two midterms next Tuesday, and kind of wary about the food challenges ahead of me. My goal is to eat no more desserts/sweets until next Tuesday, but this weekend is stuffed with food-laden activities. Parties and gallery openings tend to be diet kryptonite for me: I get nervous, and I eat; I get distracted, and I eat; I prepare food, and I eat. In the past, I've seen no other solution than to skip the party (or to go and resign myelf to gaining weight). But now this conundrum just strikes me as tiresome. I'm hoping that posting in this blog will keep me honest and provide me with motivation as I hack my way through the requisite 66 days it takes to change a habit.
But as I said, I'm feeling good. Lucky to be 25, lucky to be a part of an amazing training program, unbelievably lucky to have a wonderful family, a great partner, and awesome friends. This year will be a great one.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
The List
Here is my 101 Things in 1001 list. I start October 2nd, my 25th birthday.
Competent adult activities (8)
-Recycle all recyclables for 1001 days
-Finish and organize my disaster/pandemic kit
-Finish my Afghan
-Knit another blanket
-Organize my recipe box
-Organize my important documents
-Find my social security card (see above); procur another should it prove to be AWOL.
Turns out it was back in Maryland all along!
-For 30 days in a row, wash all dishes at night so as to wake up to a clean sink.
Food activities (14)
-Make baklava
-Make cheese
-Make sourdough from a starter
-Harvest black walnuts
-Make nocino (green walnut liquor)
-Try Calliope ice cream
-Try a Humble Pie pie
-Try oxtail
-Make two new kinds of preserves
1) Apple butter: the secret appears to be apple cider vinegar and apple cider liquor
-Cook 8 kinds of vegetables I've never cooked before
1) Turnips: In chicken braised with Fall vetables, 10/11/12. Not offensive at all, but not tremendously flavorful.
-Bake a really, really fancy cake
-Go vegan for two weeks (for my own sanity, they do not have to be back-to-back weeks).
-Eat a cheeseburger. Sustain-a-burger (grass-fed patty) at the Great Dane, 10/3/12
-Have a brunch party
Health (16)
-Run a half-marathon
11/3/12: Tyranena 1/2 Barrel run
-Run a full marathon
-Go to an actual GP; discuss concerns with said actual GP openly without fear of looking like a hypochondriac
-Floss teeth 1001 times
-Write out my living will and POA
-Limit sweet consumption to one (epic, memorable) dessert per week. Take picture of said dessert.
-Do at least one pull-up. (This may be next to impossible--should this prove futile, I would like at least to do more than hang there and kick.)
-See a dermatologist, get them to identify and treat problematic moles (as opposed to the current plan, which is to freak out about any mole looking unusually moley.)
11/7/12: Diagnosed with a dysplastic nevus, scheduled to be removed 11/28/12.
-Record what I eat for a month
-Take a picture of everything I eat for a week
-Get glasses with my new prescription (if only so I can walk through the HSLC atrium without squinting warily and hoping I'm not unintentially ignoring anyone).
-Take 1001 vitamins and 1001 caltrate pills.
-Get a fasting lipid panel done.
-Try meditation
-Try yoga
1/23/13: PowerFlow
-Get my weight to below 135 lbs; never let it get above 135.
Fun stuff at home (11)
-Play a game of pub trivia (10/8/12, postdoc's farewell dinner at Capitol Tap House)
-Try to cross-country ski or snowshoe
-Do karaoke (and keep a list of acceptible songs somewhere, so I don't blank out and forget what I'm capable of singing.)
-Try paddleboarding
-Go berry-picking twice
-Visit a comedy club
-Go on a day-long biking adventure with Intaglio
-Tour a brewery
-Go downhill skiing. Try not to break anything.
-Go to a concert
-Go swimming in a lake. Or a cold, fast-moving river (damn you, Naegleria fowleri)
Travel (8)
-Go to Chicago
-Go to Milwaukee
-Go to New York City
-Go to the West Coast
-Go on at least 3 full-day hikes
-See the ocean. Ideally, tide pools.
-Visit a state I've never been to before
-Climb a mountain. (Are there any WI mountains?)
Money (6)
-Keep track of all my income and expenditures (do not give up halfway through the month because it's depressing).
-Save $3000 per year
-Figure out exactly what my savings accounts are and where I should be putting my money.
-Spend one month figuring out exactly how much I spend on food at work, and, following that:
-Go one month without buying any snacks or meals at work
-Fill up each of our 3 piggy banks: cash the coins and go do something AWESOME.
Career/School (12)
-Find a good preceptor for 903; meet with them faithfully 10 times per semester.
-Keep grad school GPA as close to a 4.0 as possible (yes, it doesn't matter, yes, research is more important, yes, anything less than an A has and always will irk me.)
Fall 2012: 4.0!
-Write one review paper
-Write (and publish) two scientific papers
-Write (and do everything in my power to get) an F30 grant
-Pass my prelim with flying colors
-Give a talk.
-Devote two hours a week to reviewing First Aid/BRS/notes
-Organize my current lab notebook
-When the time comes to start a new notebook, keep it spic and span
-Learn how to use a citation manager
Mendeley...it's a work in progress...
-No facebook for 2 weeks (my productivity will skyrocket, right? Right?).
Silly personal goals/Satisfying my 13-year-old self (9)
-Write that novel. Even if it's a half a page a day and it sucks. It probably will suck. Write it regardless
-Get inked
-Read at least 30 books of fiction
1) The Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood, finished 10/31/12
2) Beatrice and Virgil, Yann Martel, finished 11/20/12
3) The Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut, finished 12/28/12
4) John Dies at the End, David Wong, finished 12/29/12
5) Someone Will Be With You Shortly, Lisa Kogan, finished 1/17/13, technically not fiction but this is my goddurned blog!
6) God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, Kurt Vonnegut, finished 1/17/13
7) Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout, by Lauren Redniss. Finished 2/5/13. Also non-fiction.
-Dye my hair
-Get that "Now Panic and Freak Out" t-shirt I have privately coveted for months.
-Ditto an "Innsmouth Swim Team" t-shirt. Even if I have to get it printed myself, dammit!
-Watch the Spongebob Squarepants movie
-Read 5 books that I have, for one reason or another, been terminally reluctant to read.
-Go to an amusement park or water park
Interpersonal (10)
-Send Christmas cards
-Send Christmas cookies
We did Christmas caramels with attached Christmas cards 2012 (flavors: vanilla, espresso-orange, sesame-ginger, maple-walnut)
-Help out/volunteer at 10 university/MSTP events
1) 10/12/12: Morning escort for MD/PhD candidates
2) 10/12/12: Chaperone for bowling and pizza night for MD/PhD candidates
3) 10/13/12: State street tour and lunch for MD/PhD candidates
4) 11/8/12: Volunteered at the Salvation Army Dental clinic
5) 11/30/12: Morning escort for MD/PhD candidates
6) 11/30/12: Bowling/pizza chaperone for candidates
7) 12/1/12: Lunch at Sunroom cafe, cheese tour (eg, Fromagination), impromptu capitol tour to touch the lucky badger's nose (yes, I pretty much did the same thing with the second set of candidates that I did with the first!)
8) 1/18/13: Afternoon escort for MD/PhD candidate
9) 1/19/13: State street tour for MD/PhD candidates: Lunch at Mia Za's, cheese/ice cream tour
-Donate blood
1/23/13
-Send Valentines
-Send 10 care packages/gifts unaffiliated with a major life event
-Write a thank-you card for Every. Single. Favor/Present/Gift. No exceptions.
-Go on a trip with my family
-Cut out discretionary spending for a month or two, and then buy someone a really, really nice gift.
-Bake 6 birthday cakes
1) Intaglio's birthday, 11/28/12: Lemon poppy-seed cake, lemon curd mousse filling, lemon cream-cheese frosting...the cake layers were soaked in lemon syrup, too. Intaglio really likes lemon. Covered with almond flavored fondant to look like a popcorn box.
2) Zen's birthday cake, 12/14/12: English toffee cheesecake, consisting of a graham cracker crust with plain toffee bits, a layer of brown sugar cheesecake flavored with almond, a layer of chocolate toffee pieces, another layer of cheesecake, and a sour cream top. Decorated with red and green sugar.
Miscellaneous (7)
-Get a new bathrobe Completed 10/2/12 thanks to Intaglio!
-Get the carpets steam-cleaned
Completed 11/3/12, also thanks to Intaglio
-Organize the top of the closet
-Throw out all socks that no longer have their mates.
Done. I'm pretty sure I never, ever need to buy socks again.
-Procur 7 new pairs of earrings
1) Red glass engagement earrings from Intaglio, 12/25/12
3 pairs of earrings from my family (also Christmas 2012)
2) Yellow single gemstone
3) Pearl with spangly metal bits
4) Steampunk flower (made of copper wire and gears)
-Organize the cabinets
-Get a new TV
HAH! Finally. 11/29/12, Intaglio's 29th birthday present.
Competent adult activities (8)
-Recycle all recyclables for 1001 days
-Finish and organize my disaster/pandemic kit
-Finish my Afghan
-Knit another blanket
-Organize my recipe box
-Organize my important documents
Turns out it was back in Maryland all along!
-For 30 days in a row, wash all dishes at night so as to wake up to a clean sink.
Food activities (14)
-Make baklava
-Make cheese
-Make sourdough from a starter
-Harvest black walnuts
-Make nocino (green walnut liquor)
-Try Calliope ice cream
-Try a Humble Pie pie
-Try oxtail
-Make two new kinds of preserves
1) Apple butter: the secret appears to be apple cider vinegar and apple cider liquor
-Cook 8 kinds of vegetables I've never cooked before
1) Turnips: In chicken braised with Fall vetables, 10/11/12. Not offensive at all, but not tremendously flavorful.
-Bake a really, really fancy cake
-Go vegan for two weeks (for my own sanity, they do not have to be back-to-back weeks).
-
-Have a brunch party
Health (16)
11/3/12: Tyranena 1/2 Barrel run
-Run a full marathon
-Go to an actual GP; discuss concerns with said actual GP openly without fear of looking like a hypochondriac
-Floss teeth 1001 times
-Write out my living will and POA
-Limit sweet consumption to one (epic, memorable) dessert per week. Take picture of said dessert.
-Do at least one pull-up. (This may be next to impossible--should this prove futile, I would like at least to do more than hang there and kick.)
11/7/12: Diagnosed with a dysplastic nevus, scheduled to be removed 11/28/12.
-Record what I eat for a month
-Take a picture of everything I eat for a week
-Get glasses with my new prescription (if only so I can walk through the HSLC atrium without squinting warily and hoping I'm not unintentially ignoring anyone).
-Take 1001 vitamins and 1001 caltrate pills.
-Get a fasting lipid panel done.
-Try meditation
1/23/13: PowerFlow
-Get my weight to below 135 lbs; never let it get above 135.
Fun stuff at home (11)
-
-Try to cross-country ski or snowshoe
-Do karaoke (and keep a list of acceptible songs somewhere, so I don't blank out and forget what I'm capable of singing.)
-Try paddleboarding
-Go berry-picking twice
-Visit a comedy club
-Go on a day-long biking adventure with Intaglio
-Tour a brewery
-Go downhill skiing. Try not to break anything.
-Go to a concert
-Go swimming in a lake. Or a cold, fast-moving river (damn you, Naegleria fowleri)
Travel (8)
-Go to Chicago
-Go to Milwaukee
-Go to New York City
-Go to the West Coast
-Go on at least 3 full-day hikes
-See the ocean. Ideally, tide pools.
-Visit a state I've never been to before
-Climb a mountain. (Are there any WI mountains?)
Money (6)
-Keep track of all my income and expenditures (do not give up halfway through the month because it's depressing).
-Save $3000 per year
-Figure out exactly what my savings accounts are and where I should be putting my money.
-Spend one month figuring out exactly how much I spend on food at work, and, following that:
-Go one month without buying any snacks or meals at work
-Fill up each of our 3 piggy banks: cash the coins and go do something AWESOME.
Career/School (12)
-Find a good preceptor for 903; meet with them faithfully 10 times per semester.
-Keep grad school GPA as close to a 4.0 as possible (yes, it doesn't matter, yes, research is more important, yes, anything less than an A has and always will irk me.)
Fall 2012: 4.0!
-Write one review paper
-Write (and publish) two scientific papers
-Write (and do everything in my power to get) an F30 grant
-Pass my prelim with flying colors
-Give a talk.
-Devote two hours a week to reviewing First Aid/BRS/notes
-When the time comes to start a new notebook, keep it spic and span
Mendeley...it's a work in progress...
-No facebook for 2 weeks (my productivity will skyrocket, right? Right?).
Silly personal goals/Satisfying my 13-year-old self (9)
-Write that novel. Even if it's a half a page a day and it sucks. It probably will suck. Write it regardless
-Get inked
-Read at least 30 books of fiction
1) The Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood, finished 10/31/12
2) Beatrice and Virgil, Yann Martel, finished 11/20/12
3) The Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut, finished 12/28/12
4) John Dies at the End, David Wong, finished 12/29/12
5) Someone Will Be With You Shortly, Lisa Kogan, finished 1/17/13, technically not fiction but this is my goddurned blog!
6) God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, Kurt Vonnegut, finished 1/17/13
7) Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout, by Lauren Redniss. Finished 2/5/13. Also non-fiction.
-Dye my hair
-Get that "Now Panic and Freak Out" t-shirt I have privately coveted for months.
-Ditto an "Innsmouth Swim Team" t-shirt. Even if I have to get it printed myself, dammit!
-Watch the Spongebob Squarepants movie
-Read 5 books that I have, for one reason or another, been terminally reluctant to read.
-Go to an amusement park or water park
Interpersonal (10)
-Send Christmas cards
-Send Christmas cookies
We did Christmas caramels with attached Christmas cards 2012 (flavors: vanilla, espresso-orange, sesame-ginger, maple-walnut)
-Help out/volunteer at 10 university/MSTP events
1) 10/12/12: Morning escort for MD/PhD candidates
2) 10/12/12: Chaperone for bowling and pizza night for MD/PhD candidates
3) 10/13/12: State street tour and lunch for MD/PhD candidates
4) 11/8/12: Volunteered at the Salvation Army Dental clinic
5) 11/30/12: Morning escort for MD/PhD candidates
6) 11/30/12: Bowling/pizza chaperone for candidates
7) 12/1/12: Lunch at Sunroom cafe, cheese tour (eg, Fromagination), impromptu capitol tour to touch the lucky badger's nose (yes, I pretty much did the same thing with the second set of candidates that I did with the first!)
8) 1/18/13: Afternoon escort for MD/PhD candidate
9) 1/19/13: State street tour for MD/PhD candidates: Lunch at Mia Za's, cheese/ice cream tour
1/23/13
-Send Valentines
-Send 10 care packages/gifts unaffiliated with a major life event
-Write a thank-you card for Every. Single. Favor/Present/Gift. No exceptions.
-Go on a trip with my family
-Cut out discretionary spending for a month or two, and then buy someone a really, really nice gift.
-Bake 6 birthday cakes
1) Intaglio's birthday, 11/28/12: Lemon poppy-seed cake, lemon curd mousse filling, lemon cream-cheese frosting...the cake layers were soaked in lemon syrup, too. Intaglio really likes lemon. Covered with almond flavored fondant to look like a popcorn box.
2) Zen's birthday cake, 12/14/12: English toffee cheesecake, consisting of a graham cracker crust with plain toffee bits, a layer of brown sugar cheesecake flavored with almond, a layer of chocolate toffee pieces, another layer of cheesecake, and a sour cream top. Decorated with red and green sugar.
Miscellaneous (7)
-
-
Completed 11/3/12, also thanks to Intaglio
-Organize the top of the closet
Done. I'm pretty sure I never, ever need to buy socks again.
-Procur 7 new pairs of earrings
1) Red glass engagement earrings from Intaglio, 12/25/12
3 pairs of earrings from my family (also Christmas 2012)
2) Yellow single gemstone
3) Pearl with spangly metal bits
4) Steampunk flower (made of copper wire and gears)
-Organize the cabinets
HAH! Finally. 11/29/12, Intaglio's 29th birthday present.
25, 25, 101
I haven't blogged since last winter. Let's see: Finished M2, took Step 1 of the boards, passed Step 1 of the boards, Intaglio moved in, did a preliminary rotation in internal medicine, started in the lab, started grad school in earnest. Life update complete!
It's been a strange transition. I've never been one to handle life changes with what one might call exceptional grace. There are no clear answers in the lab. Did that assay work well enough? Are these controls good enough? Am I doing enough work? Am I doing the right experiments? Are my priorities straight? Who's to say? My PI seems okay with my performance, is that enough? Am I spending enough time on my classes, or should I throw those to the wind and focus more on research?
25% of the way through grad school, turning 25 in two days, and in many ways I feel more tentative and wide-eyed than I did when I first started med school. Maybe even more so than when I started college. It's somewhat disheartening. And, when I get disheartened, I tend to respond in the same way I have since I was in middle school: grouchiness, elevated sugar consumption, foot-dragging on intimidating tasks, generally teetering on the verge of being unbearable to others.
In the interest of getting it together, accomplishing things, and generally acting like a 25-year-old and not like a freshman overwhelmed by OChem, I started to set goals for myself, some more ambitious than others ("Jog 6 days a week", "Send that damn email to your PI about your thesis committee already", et al). Coincidentally, a friend in my cohort started the 101 Things in 1001 Days challenge. I read her list, and poked about online looking for examples of this challenge. Some seemed like fun, some seemed a bit trite (Collect 10 colors of nailpolish? Why?), and some seemed worth doing.
With that in mind, I put together my own list: some meaningful, some fun, some trite. I'm planning on using my own 101 as a sort of compass, a way to track achievement outside the lab. I'm also planning on posting here more; there's a lot I like about grad school, but the relative isolation and shrinking of my day-to-day social circle was a bit of a shock. My hope is that by making it a habit of posting here (with pictures! I found my memory card for my camera), it will both draw me out of my shell and, well, encourage me to do things that are worth writing about.
It's been a strange transition. I've never been one to handle life changes with what one might call exceptional grace. There are no clear answers in the lab. Did that assay work well enough? Are these controls good enough? Am I doing enough work? Am I doing the right experiments? Are my priorities straight? Who's to say? My PI seems okay with my performance, is that enough? Am I spending enough time on my classes, or should I throw those to the wind and focus more on research?
25% of the way through grad school, turning 25 in two days, and in many ways I feel more tentative and wide-eyed than I did when I first started med school. Maybe even more so than when I started college. It's somewhat disheartening. And, when I get disheartened, I tend to respond in the same way I have since I was in middle school: grouchiness, elevated sugar consumption, foot-dragging on intimidating tasks, generally teetering on the verge of being unbearable to others.
In the interest of getting it together, accomplishing things, and generally acting like a 25-year-old and not like a freshman overwhelmed by OChem, I started to set goals for myself, some more ambitious than others ("Jog 6 days a week", "Send that damn email to your PI about your thesis committee already", et al). Coincidentally, a friend in my cohort started the 101 Things in 1001 Days challenge. I read her list, and poked about online looking for examples of this challenge. Some seemed like fun, some seemed a bit trite (Collect 10 colors of nailpolish? Why?), and some seemed worth doing.
With that in mind, I put together my own list: some meaningful, some fun, some trite. I'm planning on using my own 101 as a sort of compass, a way to track achievement outside the lab. I'm also planning on posting here more; there's a lot I like about grad school, but the relative isolation and shrinking of my day-to-day social circle was a bit of a shock. My hope is that by making it a habit of posting here (with pictures! I found my memory card for my camera), it will both draw me out of my shell and, well, encourage me to do things that are worth writing about.
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