Catch Up

Even though I haven't posted in almost week, nor have I posted regularly for several weeks, I do spend a relatively large sum of time staring at my blog page. No. It is not a vanity thing -- waiting for the next person to comment on an old post. If this were the case, I'd be a very sad man. I haven't felt inspired to post much. There hasn't been anything glaringly important in the news (at least not that has absorbed my attention). My life hasn't taken a major, life-altering step. It continues on, day-to-day, much the same as it always does. Well maybe that's not true. Looking back, there might have been a major change, it just happened so slowly I didn't notice.

Let me give you a quick run down of some major milestones in the last few weeks:

1) I gave my first "big" talk about my work to the department last Tuesday. I felt really good, and I went in feeling calm, cool and collected. And happily for me, many of the comments I received were extremely favorable. People liked my work. They liked the way I presented it. Some even found it exciting -- so in all I came away unscathed and moving forward.

2) This led to a moment, experienced Wednesday evening of last week, where I looked up from a scientific paper I was reading and announced to no one in particular, that I LOVE what I am doing right now. I have been super busy and super absorbed in my work and microbiology, as a whole -- this is a monumental change. I find myself asking, "when did I become a grad student?" I have been putting a much larger number of hours into grad work than ever before. And it's great.

3) Much to my dismay (and others) I have been thinking about Bombshell too much and too often.

4) I attended a weekend long retreat with the department. And had a great time with everyone. It was amazing. It was fun. It was productive. It was a great retreat. It was estimated that the students were intoxicated 50-75% of the time. While the faculty was intoxicated 35-50% of the time. Definitely a great retreat.

5) I have finally finished grading lab report, which have been the bane of my existence for 3 weeks. I feel bad because I looks like I gave the smack down, while other TAs might have been more forgiving. I guess my policy is -- if you can't write English, minus points. If you can't follow directions, minus points. And if you have yet to grasp scientific writing, minus points. They are all seniors. They should know better. Or at least I think they should.

6) My car suffered a catastrophic tire failure on the way home from work Tuesday night. It has been replaced along with another tire to the tune of $320. HURRAY!

7) Did I mention I've been thinking about Bombshell too much? Need to make it stop. It's just getting frustrating/annoying now.

More to come soon. I promise. Please keep reading!! :)