I Had to Write SOMETHING

It's Saturday, which has lately become a quite interesting day of the week for me.  In the past (first year), it would have revolved around getting to the lab early in order to attend our "Donut Class", in which we were informed of all of the different areas of the department worth noting.  While I didn't particularly get anything important out of the class (which, at one point, included a 20 minute build-up to how one works a Par Shaker that ended with "well, you can ask about it if you want" and no demonstration at all), it did get me to the lab early on that day.  This habit continued through several years of graduate school, but has lately dwindled with the knowledge that I don't have anyone hanging over my head, ready to strike if I don't check in promptly at 9 am on Saturday, coupled more recently with my desire to get out and go running on the weekends.  It is fairly nice out today, given the cold weather.

I had a conversation last night with my wife, whilst sipping on wine at our local wine/coffee shop (which I am in love with and would marry if I wasn't already happily married), about the state of affairs in the lab and my desire to push forward and finish up with my graduate work.  I complained that I felt scatterbrained as of late, to which she replied "well, you are working really hard".  When I countered by discussing our recent trend of turning on episodes of 30 Rock during the work day and the subsequent lack of focus on work because of said episodes, she replied that I didn't have that much time left before finishing my research, so therefore I must be working hard.  I love how she has this ability to be incredibly straightforward, opposite of my inability to get to the point when discussing a subject (as evidenced by my full paragraph to get to this point).  It's true, there really isn't an option to slack off anymore.  Not that I've really been slacking off (I offered my point to hers that I certainly have collected a lot of data/failed experiments), but it has felt lately that I haven't been on the ball, and her frank description that "this is how is has to be" made me realize that, yes, she's correct.  There isn't any room for slacking off anymore.  Any time I'm awake, I must be thinking about what needs to be done and then doing it, not allowing myself to take my eyes off of the prize.

It's been kind of interesting to see how my stress levels have affected other areas of my life.  In particular, I'm finding that my normal stress habit - eating excessively - has been complemented this go-round with excessive exercise.  I've been running pretty much every day since May, interspersed with occasional breaks, mostly due to travel.  Full days of driving, flights, and the occasional hangover (New Years Day had a combination of those activities), have been the only deterrents from increased mileage.  Overall, I actually feel pretty good about this, although it has made the eating habits a little more acceptable, which I'm not entirely okay with.  In any case, I'm in about as good of shape as I've been in graduate school, hovering below the 190 lbs mark since probably November and through the holidays.  Regardless of the stress level, I'd call that a win.

As our travel plans for this spring/summer have been derailed by potential graduation dates, along with my wife having to stay in town because other nurses will be on maternity leave (hooray), I re-evaluated my running plan for the spring.  I originally wanted to do the Illinois Marathon again, but I will be attending a conference over the same weekend, so instead I have homed in on the Green Bay Marathon.  I had actually thought about this one before, but now that my folks are living there... makes it a lot easier, doesn't it?  I will let you know how training goes.

That's about it for now.  I have many, many things to do, and as the wife says, I don't have a choice.

I have to be working hard.