Hola, everybody. This has been a busy past few days and I’ve been either too busy or too tired to sit and stare at my computer longer. Since I last wrote, I’ve been to hot yoga again, watched UF win the SEC champsionship in football, and had an interesting thesis committee meeting. Not in that order, actually, but that’s the order I want to write about them in. The order in which I want to write about them? That doesn’t sound right. Whatever.

I went to hot yoga again yesterday (Saturday) morning and, yet again, enjoyed myself. Not so much during the class, actually, but afterwards. I can’t tell you how wonderful it feels to walk out of the hot room into a cool, drizzly morning. I’m feeling pretty good between yoga classes, as well…my muscles ache a bit, but I feel like I’m…I don’t know. Better. More alert. Taller, if that makes any sense.  At any rate, I highly recommend it. My plan is to continue going twice a week through December and then buy myself a membership in the new year, assuming I’m still going.  It’s moderately expensive, so I want to be sure I’m going to use the classes I buy. This past class I saw a friend of mine there, which was really nice. Well, not so much a friend as an acquaintance. She’s one of our favorite waitresses at the 43rd Street Deli (on 13th Street), where Emma and I love to have breakfast on the weekends.

Speaking of that, I have a question if anybody’s actually reading this and has any opinion. There are a few people at the Deli who we talk and have fun with at the Deli who I’d like to hang out with more (and I think Emma would enjoy spending time with them, too), but is that weird? Is that an awkward transition? I don’t know. I think it’s odd, but I could be wrong. Like, “Here’s your tip and want to grab several beers next weekend?” Odd.
I went to the Fellers last night to watch the SEC championship game (woo!) and had a great time. My poor, heroic wife had to work a 24-hour shift yesterday, so I went stag. I do not think that I would have enjoyed this a year (or more) ago — going to spend time with people who she knows more than I do without her — but I did and am glad I did. In my excitement over the win last night (and my current attempts to avoid doing work), I’m refreshing the ESPN college football page about every 1.5 nanoseconds to see if any polls or computer rankings have been announced. I’d bet there’s an embargo until the official TV show tonight, but I could be wrong.

The last item I want to write about this afternoon was my committee meeting on Friday. I’ve been having a moderate amount of anxiety about my progress and the potential for any future progress in the lab, so after consultation with one of my committee members who I greatly admire, I put together a meeting so we could talk about where I am and where I’m going. We spent about an hour and a half going through the problems I’ve been having and the projects that I’m working on and then I briefly outlined where I want to go from here any the reasons why this is a good plan. They agreed with my overall plan, but I have a bit of a deadline looming. We’re going to meet again in March and if my current project hasn’t shown progress by then, they want me to switch to a less risky project, maybe a less exciting project but one with an extremely high chance of success. Several of my committee members actually mentioned to Tom their concern that I’m in my fourth year and am still working on something of a fishing project. At one point, someone asked if I had any publications yet and I replied, “No. Well, not in this lab. I have four from my year and a half as a tech.” Heh. Tom pointed out that there are several papers that we’re working on where I’ll be a coauthor, but I’m hesitant to count those until they start getting submitted. Or at least until I see a draft. There’s one manuscript, in fact, where all of the data collection was completed about three years ago, when I first started in the lab, and we have yet to finish writing it, let alone submit it anywhere. Allegedly one of our former postdocs is working on two manuscripts right now, but she’s been gone more than a year and I can’t imagine that we’re her highest priority. Sigh.
Overall, I thought it was a good meeting and we addressed many of my anxieties, so I’m pleased. I wish I was further along, with more papers out at this point, but I don’t feel so much like it’s completely my fault. I’m really at the point where I need to be moving forward in this lab or I need to change labs. Emma has two and a half years left on her residency, so that’s my outer limit. We’ll see how the next month or so goes.

At any rate, happy Sunday and happy December. I’ll type to you soon. Hot yoga Wednesday! 6 PM! Who’s game?

Oh, before I forget: WTDISTThursday: 12:15 PM. Friday: 11:15 AM (my committee meeting started at 11, although he did call to say he’d be late. One committee member observed that he was “glad to see Tom doesn’t discriminate. He’s late to everybody’s meetings.” Heh.)