Wednesday 6 June 2012

Got my paper in! Only four-ish days after we were aiming for. Not bad considering. Fingers crossed for kind reviewers! I could use a little CV boost...

In other news my brain is in lockdown mode. I've got this weird hyperfocus on work stuff going on right now (which is quite useful for getting things done) but everything else is falling by the wayside because in true focus-of-attention style, it doesn't exist for me right now. (Also I've been having trouble with time lately, where I keep getting confused about how much time has passed... days seem weeks long but the month is racing by). I assume most of this is a byproduct of the weird situation I find myself in. Hopefully I don't drop too many balls while trying to get through. It's really odd how everything seems out of focus except my immediate work goals though.

In other news, off to Kingston tomorrow to a conference. I hear it's a nice town and the food is great. The postdoc has friends for us to crash with and some sort of master plan involving a beach, so that is exciting. A bit nervous about the talk, but it's a really cool project (an internship project and an Honours thesis that sort of interlock theoretically, both supervised by me) so it will be fun to disseminate it.

Anyway, we are leaving tomorrow morning and I haven't packed... argh, better get on that.

Sunday 3 June 2012

Things are busy busy. This month is going to be insane.

I am going to write another list: everything has changed since last post, and anyway I find it sort of calming.

1. Get paper submitted (tomorrow)
2. Kingston for 4 days to give a talk at a conference (June 7-11)
3. Kinda sorta triple booked (Stag and Doe {weird Ontario thing to make your friends pay for your wedding}, gig in Toronto, beach with Sandeep and Christine... not sure how that will all pan out) (June 16)
4. Defend :/ (June 22) (Date got changed due to committee availability)
5. Post-defense party! (ditto)
6. Immediately leave for portaging trip (June 24-28)
7. somehow get moved out (stuff shipped or stored) (June 30)
8. Melissa's birthday party in TO (June 30)
9. Canada Day Hip/New Pornographers gig (July 1)
10. Interview (July 2)
11. Leave for UK (July 7)

I also have to get everything sorted for leaving, get a few more manuscripts on their way, get a bit more data collected, make sure my projects are finished or someone else can keep them going.... it will probably all work out fine but right now it is looking pretty scary.

That said, my supervisor suddenly has nothing but time for me and is prioritizing submitting all my stuff that's been languishing forever (!) so I will take it! It would be great to have a couple more things on my CV for postdoc application purposes. Extra effort now will hopefully pay big dividends.

HOWEVER, I did get to go to Alberta for a week after a very burnout-inducing few months and it was awesome!! Lovely Lana and Paul wedding, saw lots of people I haven't seen for ages (even if half of them didn't recognize me until I started laughing), hung out with Steph and the Remkes Family and spent a couple of days in Rocky. It was extremely hard to drag myself away. Good thing dad drove me to the airport or I might have "accidentally" missed the bus.

BUT, for the first time ever, I had someone to pick me up from the airport at the other end! Sandeep not only came to pick me up but then brought me back to their place for dinner and booze. It is the first time I have ever returned to Guelph and not been 100% depressed for at least a week. Having a friend or two makes a huge difference. I don't know why it was practically nothing but toads for the first three years (with a few notable exceptions) but now the awesome people are coming out of the woodwork, but I will certainly take it.

Oooh, also - got my knee MRI. It was at 9pm at night and was kinda weird. A). I had to stick the wrong end in the scanner! Never had a scan that didn't involve my brain. B). They made me undress! Had to wear an open-backed hospital gown. WEIRD. But anyway, I guess the results take about a week so hopefully I will soon have some idea what the problem is. Unfortunately the outcome will likely be that nothing much will help, but I just want to know what is going on.