Bits of my Life

I've been doing pretty well the past week, and I want to record it.

Things are going in the lab, a bit better than lately. The weather is improving, and daylight is getting longer. I think I've finally found the waking-up rhythm that works for me, now I just need to refine it.

There were hard parts over the winter, but overall I think it was less hard than previous years. I was also starting from a better position, so I hope I can get back to that now that it's nearly equinox.

Current Mood: chipper

Follow the light.

I'm tired.

I have banana bread cooling on the dining room table. It looks different from usual. The batter was thicker than I remember it being. Possible reasons: (a) I only had 2 medium bananas, rather than 2 large or 3 medium. (b) Both bananas had been in the fridge for at least a few days, since they were pretty ripe and I wasn't ready to make the banana bread yet. One of the bananas was very overripe. (c) I used whole-wheat flour. Previously, I've used either only white flour or half and half (I don't remember...).
It should be cool soon, I'll see how it came out.

I went to a yoga class at the gym yesterday. It was a beginners' class. It was hard, and now I'm very sore. It was really warm in the room, and my palms were really sweaty, so I kept slipping in downward dog. It was uncomfortable. My forearms are as sore as when I go rock climbing. I'll probably do that tomorrow.

Did I say really tired? Why am I posting here instead of going to bed? I don't know....

Lab work has been going ok. I've been somewhat more productive, and more things have been working. But I'm still having trouble staying motivated. Both yesterday and today I did (most) of what I'd written out that I needed to do, but didn't do any of the general chores and stuff that I need to do too. Ugh...

I might be having a "performance evaluation" meeting w/ my thesis committee next week. Back at the beginning of Sept., when I was in the midst of a couple bad weeks before and after being away for a conference, my advisor said he was concerned about my performance and wanted my committee to review my progress. We've had a couple tentative dates next week for about a month now, but 1 of my committee members hasn't confirmed, so it might not happen. But it might, so I still have that hanging over me. I'm not so worried, b/c I have been doing better since last month, but it could still be a problem.

Ok, time to think about getting myself off the couch and getting to bed.

Current Location: home
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: World Series of Poker on TV

*Blessed is the True Judge

This evening, I heard (through Facebook, of course) of the death of someone I knew of, but didn't really know. A young man around my own age, recently engaged. His father was the rabbi at Brandeis when I was there, so I feel some connection to the family.

I don't really know how to express what I'm feeling. I'm saddened by the loss. I feel pain on behalf of the parents who have lost their child. I can't even fathom how hard this must be for his fiancee.

Current Mood: sad

This song is so beautiful.

( the lyrics )

The music is also so - just - I don't know what the word is, but I feel something when I hear it.

I feel this way about a lot of music. A connection. A need to be part of it. I think that's part of why I love dancing, it's a way to be part of the music.

In the car earlier, a U2 song came on - I think it was "With or Without You" - and I immediately felt that I needed to move along w/ the music, so I danced w/ my fingers while I drove.

Current Location: home
Current Mood: moved
Current Music: My, My, My - Rob Thomas

The morning-exercise thing is still going pretty well. I failed yesterday, but other than that, I did it every day I intended to. So that's Mon.-Fri. of last week, off for shabbat, Sun. morning, off Mon. morning b/c we got back late, and this morning that I worked out. Wow, I'm getting good at this.

Fri. morning I biked the 1.9 mi. loop twice, but forgot to add the loop around our parking lot, so it wasn't quite 4 mi. Other days I've done 1 of the 3 workouts from the workout video (DVD) that we got a while ago.

We were back in Queens at my in-laws' for shabbat. My FIL was being honored at his shul's annual journal dinner on Sun., so we were going to just go up for that, but then a good friend of Noah's had a baby last shabbat, and the brit milah was at my in-laws' shul, so we went up for that. Drove again. Traffic is annoying. I once again failed to get up for shul on shabbat. This needs to stop. On the other hand, I probably need to give myself a day to sleep in at least once in a while.

My mother called Sun. morning while we were in Queens. She asked if we were coming to visit her. (My family lives about an hour from Noah's.) I said no. She said "Oh..." in a very disappointed way. I felt very guilty. If I'd thought of it ahead of time, yeah, we could have gone to visit for a couple hours before heading back to Queens for my FIL's dinner. But we wouldn't have been able to spend much more time there than we would have spent in the car unless we'd gotten up pretty early. And we'd made plans to see a couple friends in the area. I'm such a bad daughter.

Our birthdays are coming up! Mine is Tues., and Noah's is next Thurs. : D I love birthdays.

The mint seems to have recovered now that it's got more space and soil. It's so nice seeing it in the window.

Last week we acquired 2 bunches of collard greens, a bunch of curly kale, and a bunch of red chard. I had no idea what to do w/ it, but Mon, night I experimented, and it worked! I cut it up and sauteed it in a little bit of olive oil and added pepper and soy sauce, then had that w/ rice. It was good, though not as filling as I would have thought. So yay for adding a new food to the things-I-know-I-can-cook list.

Ugh, it's been such a struggle to get out of bed lately. I had to push the physical back to this week b/c of going to Queens, so I've yet to talk to a doctor about this. We'll see what comes.

Current Location: home
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: random stuff

Biked 2 miles this morning. Didn't take all that long, but my legs were tired before I started, so I didn't do a 2nd loop. (I've mapped out a 2-mile loop around my neighborhood.)

Stuff in the lab has overall been going better than it was for a while. Most of my experiments these days are working, or if they're not, it's for an obvious reason. And most of my results are good. Good meaning either expected, when I'm repeating something, or showing a difference where we wanted one, when I'm testing new things. So I'm feeling a lot better about it. Of course, I still have to go back and try again on a bunch of things that have already failed at least 1ce. Not so much looking forward to that, b/c I don't know *why* those things failed. Banging my head against the same wall repeatedly is surprisingly less rewarding than making progress.

My mother had her hip replaced last week, and is already well on the way to recovery, b"h. There's no pain in the hip any more, she just needs to recover from the being cut open part. Modern medicine is pretty good sometimes. Now if only there were as easy a fix for my father's PD.

Right now I'm waiting for Noah to finish mopping the kitchen then for it to dry so I can make salad to take for lunch tomorrow. I meant to do it earlier, but somehow it got late. I got back from work close to 8. Then we had dinner and I did dishes. Then I watched a Daily Show from last week and crocheted. Then I putzed around online a bit, which was good b/c it reminded me I was supposed to go water some friends' plants. Which I then went to do. Then I needed to clean the bathrooms b/c I ran out of time before shabbat. That must have reminded Noah that he needed to clean the kitchen, b/c he was partway through that when I finished. So back to the computer for more wasting of time. But at least I remembered about posting more. But still, I was hoping to be done w/ the salad by now. Oh well, less sleep for me.

Current Location: home
Current Mood: sore
Current Music: Overlaod - Zappacosta, others

I need to get to bed, but I don't want a whole week to go by w/o a post. (Where did the week go??)

Wed. I decided I'm going to work out in the mornings. One of the things holding me back from this was the fact that I get hungry in the mornings, but don't eat before I pray, and don't want to work out immediately after eating. But I decided I'll suck it up and my body will adjust.
So Thurs. morning I got up 30 min. earlier than my prev. goal time (which was not always my actual wake-up time) and worked out. : D I felt good for a while after, but it wore off halfway through the drive to work. Then I got sleepy.

Fri. morning I did not get up to work out. : (
But Noah did a workout later in the day, so I did it w/ him. So that sort-of counts.

Shabbat I didn't get up to work out, it being the day of rest and all. (As it happens, I didn't get up for shul either. Oops.) But I did play Ultimate Frisbee for a little while in the afternoon, so I got some fun exercise.

This morning I rode my bike to and from shul (.9 mi. each way), then worked out for 30 min. when I got home, then rode to and from shul again in the evening for a meeting. So lots of exercise today. I'm sure I'll regret it tomorrow.


In other news, I got a large planter and replanted my mint, which had been starting to look rather yellow and sad. So I hope it perks up! I cut up a plastic jug and made a divider so maybe the mint won't take over the whole planter and I can put other herbs in the rest of it.

I ran lots of errands today, some of which I'd been meaning to do for a while.


I've been getting more headaches again lately, especially after being outside a lot. I'm having a physical this week, so I'll bring that up, along w/ the general blah-ness.


Hmm, I meant to be in bed 20 min. ago. Story of my life.

Current Location: home
Current Mood: headache
Current Music: TV noise

I was gonna post about shavuot and other stuff, but the internet ate my time. And now my neck hurts from sitting at the computer. And I'm not gonna get 8 hours of sleep. : (

In short: It was a nice holiday, I (more or less) made it through the all-night learning, and I slept too much. (Hence I'm so tired - works out well, right?)

Current Location: home
Current Mood: sore
Current Music: האר את עיניו - הפרויקט של עידן רייכל

Less than an hour ago, I looked out the window and noted happily the bright sunshine. weather.com had promised rain, but there seemed to be no sign of it.

Half an hour ago I noticed that it had gotten *very* gray and rather windy.

Now it appears to be pouring. ::sigh:: So much for a nice day.



In other news, I was really productive in the lab for the first few hours I was here, but I seem to have run out of steam (as you may have guessed from the fact that I'm posting in the middle of the day).



ETA 20 min. later: I'd been seeing some vague flashes of lightning, but just now was a bright flash and a fairly loud crack of thunder. I'm glad I'm not out there now. I hope it clears up before leaving time.

Current Location: lab
Current Mood: not sure
Current Music: Happy New Year B - Rent