Update
Some things I've been up to since the last time I posted:
* My brother's wedding, which had all the associated parties: bridal shower, bachelorette party, rehearsal dinner, and, oh yeah, the actual wedding part. We had a lot of family in town for the wedding, and I enjoyed hanging out with them and with my brother's friends. He's a year younger than me, and our friend groups in high school overlapped at least somewhat, so it was fun to see his friends, and meet the ones I didn't really know before. The actual wedding was one of the most enjoyable I've been to, and I'm very happy for my brother and my new sister-in-law.
* Classes ended, and I passed. My class this semester was the last for my degree. I still have to take a couple more seminars for the biophysics certificate I'll end up with, but they should be a bit more low-key. It was a bit of a struggle to keep enough focus on class, especially with people in town and the fun of the wedding. I was concerned when I picked up my final exam, because the score was much lower than I thought it would be, but I didn't even get a B- (the lowest passing grade); it was a solid B.
* We're planning a two-week trip to Europe soon. I keep trying to describe what this means and can only come up with things that sound like sports statistics: the first vacation longer than a long weekend since 2007, the longest vacation since 2005, the first together (except for 3-day weekends) not involving either of our families since 2002, the first time leaving the country since 2002, and so on. I can't complain, since I chose to spend that time, energy, and money on other meaningful things. I sometimes get envious of those of you with a lot of vacation, but on the whole I have a very rich and full life, and I wouldn't want to trade. I will say that it was a mistake not to take a real vacation last year. Anyway, because this trip is so monumental, it's been a real trick trying to figure out how to meet both of our expectations in only two weeks, but I think we have a plan we both like.
* And speaking of the other things I spend my effort on, everything is moving along in the lab. I still feel that I haven't fallen into a no-classes rhythm, and it feels kind of hard without a good pattern, but I'm getting work done. We have a summer student (undergraduate) on our project who only started last week, but who is already making a contribution, my software doesn't have too many bugs left in it, we have a good protocol for sample preparation, we chased down some noise sources, and so on. Tomorrow I'm giving a status update to my faculty committee, and I feel good about the progress I have to report.
* Plus a whole lot of other things: the garden is coming up nicely; I had a nice visit with Cos and others when he was in town; I had lunch with some faculty candidates as part of their interviews and learned a lot from that; I won an award from the graduate school, and my grandma got to come to the award ceremony because she was in town for my brother's wedding; we celebrated my birthday with my parents, then later by having fondue with friends; I did art with my mom on mothers' day; I helped my advisor put on a science show for kids on microscopy.
Life is good and interesting and challenging and fun and busy.
* My brother's wedding, which had all the associated parties: bridal shower, bachelorette party, rehearsal dinner, and, oh yeah, the actual wedding part. We had a lot of family in town for the wedding, and I enjoyed hanging out with them and with my brother's friends. He's a year younger than me, and our friend groups in high school overlapped at least somewhat, so it was fun to see his friends, and meet the ones I didn't really know before. The actual wedding was one of the most enjoyable I've been to, and I'm very happy for my brother and my new sister-in-law.
* Classes ended, and I passed. My class this semester was the last for my degree. I still have to take a couple more seminars for the biophysics certificate I'll end up with, but they should be a bit more low-key. It was a bit of a struggle to keep enough focus on class, especially with people in town and the fun of the wedding. I was concerned when I picked up my final exam, because the score was much lower than I thought it would be, but I didn't even get a B- (the lowest passing grade); it was a solid B.
* We're planning a two-week trip to Europe soon. I keep trying to describe what this means and can only come up with things that sound like sports statistics: the first vacation longer than a long weekend since 2007, the longest vacation since 2005, the first together (except for 3-day weekends) not involving either of our families since 2002, the first time leaving the country since 2002, and so on. I can't complain, since I chose to spend that time, energy, and money on other meaningful things. I sometimes get envious of those of you with a lot of vacation, but on the whole I have a very rich and full life, and I wouldn't want to trade. I will say that it was a mistake not to take a real vacation last year. Anyway, because this trip is so monumental, it's been a real trick trying to figure out how to meet both of our expectations in only two weeks, but I think we have a plan we both like.
* And speaking of the other things I spend my effort on, everything is moving along in the lab. I still feel that I haven't fallen into a no-classes rhythm, and it feels kind of hard without a good pattern, but I'm getting work done. We have a summer student (undergraduate) on our project who only started last week, but who is already making a contribution, my software doesn't have too many bugs left in it, we have a good protocol for sample preparation, we chased down some noise sources, and so on. Tomorrow I'm giving a status update to my faculty committee, and I feel good about the progress I have to report.
* Plus a whole lot of other things: the garden is coming up nicely; I had a nice visit with Cos and others when he was in town; I had lunch with some faculty candidates as part of their interviews and learned a lot from that; I won an award from the graduate school, and my grandma got to come to the award ceremony because she was in town for my brother's wedding; we celebrated my birthday with my parents, then later by having fondue with friends; I did art with my mom on mothers' day; I helped my advisor put on a science show for kids on microscopy.
Life is good and interesting and challenging and fun and busy.