Inhale... Exhale... Repeat

I'm not exactly sure where this is going to go, so bear with me.

This week I've declared it to be "Reading and Writing Week".  This is primarily because I'm spending a majority of the week traveling.  Thus, I don't have a lot of time to sit down and run reactions like a normal graduate student.  I'm actually finding that I'm out and about a lot lately, making it much more difficult to get into a normal routine for more than about a week.  Every time I settle down, I have to get up and go somewhere else again.  It's annoying, not only because I can't really get into a rhythm, but because I have to let go of any thoughts of work while I'm away because I'm usually off doing something fun.  Hence, the reading part of the week, which should hopefully help me get back on track with figuring out why the heck I'm doing this in the first place.

A friend of ours (my wife and me) recently asked "are you buying wine?" while we were over at her house with our dog visiting.  I had to think for a second, primarily because yes, we do buy wine from time to time.  In fact, I had made it a point a few months ago of regularly stocking up the wine rack so we had something to imbibe whilst watching the sunset at our country villa... no, wait, I should say, so we have something to drink while watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer on Netflix.  We actually did do a good amount of wine tasting in the late spring and early fall, a combination of going to the vast wine country of northern Wisconsin and doing our best to be supportive at our favorite wine shop, Wines at the Pines.  Lately, however, we really haven't been doing that much wine drinking, making it a lot more difficult to justify buying more wine.  The other reason for this is because we simply don't have the space for new bottles.  I was saying to my wife that we should get some sort of wine rack or cabinet for the house other than the one on our fridge, but was informed that a) that costs money, and b) that would take up space that we don't currently have.  My interest in the idea resurfaced recently after hearing about Laura's bar, when I realized I could also use a wine/liquor cabinet as a piece of furniture.  The quest is ongoing...

Science news... did you read about the Nobel prizes for this year?  Some of them were quite interesting, with the Physics prize about the expansion of the universe and the Chemistry prize going to quasicrystals (which I understand are pretty fascinating, but, as an organic chemist/chemical biologist/physician-in-training, don't find particularly exciting).  I myself was happy about the Physiology/Medicine prize, which went to 3 scientists who made important discoveries about the innate and adaptive immune systems.  We often take for granted that our immune systems work quite well to keep us from getting sick, but from their work one can see how complex a dance it really is to keep us going.  Having spent last year learning about immunology (and the microbes that the immune system is constantly fighting off) I can really appreciate that this prize awarded to these folks.  And, of course, RIP to Ralph Steinman, who passed away before receiving the prize.  The Nobel Foundation did the classy thing in still awarding it to him, despite the fact that they normally wouldn't award it posthumously.

Random question having to do with reading and writing week - do you find yourself falling asleep while reading papers?  It feels like my body is trying to stop me from learning by making me start to doze whenever I work on getting through a scientific paper.  Perhaps I need to begin napping on a regular basis?

On the shoe front, the latest news is that my next attempt at purchasing a shoe without trying it on should be arriving by Wednesday.  If you haven't heard, I spent some time trying out the Puma Faas 500 shoes a few weeks ago, after reading through a number of positive reviews and finding that I could get them at a good discount at Running Warehouse.  Unfortunately, they were too narrow and actually made my legs and feet sore while just standing and walking, so they had to go back to the store.  I did some more searching/analysis/narrowing down by price, and decided to pay an extra $9 to get the Asics Gel Speedstar 5, another lightweight trainer that looks pretty interesting.  I'm somewhat worried about the fact that I read on several different places that it may run narrow, which was the problem with the other shoe, but I know now to just try it on and if it doesn't fit well, just send it back.  Thank goodness for free return shipping.  I will let you know how it goes. 

I think that's all I've got for now.  Thank you for indulging me.

I'm Adam L.
Thanks for listening. :/-