2008-03-08 - 11:16 a.m.

...the excitement of going out and about...

It's been an exciting couple of days at the house of teranika. I say exciting because life has varied from the ever-popular, feed-wake-sleep cry diaper feed cycles. Blighty announced yesterday that we HAD to go out. And so we went downtown and shopped for goofy things. I almost bought a bright red raincoat. We looked at some lovely tiffany earrings for blighty - all for a mere $2950. Blighty introduced me to the sinful and strangely wonderful concept of the FRAPPICCINO. java chip. I never really liked sugar. Something has happened to my brain.

But the big excitement is that I've agreed to accept three new students for the fall. This always makes me tremendously nervous because it means that I am agreeing to be responsible for three new people. My stress levels went WAY UP when I was working my way through this decision. I have since called and spoken with the students and that helped to transform my anxiety into excitement. Part of the reason for the excitement is that I will be accepting two women into my lab. I've always loved working with women, but these will be my first female students (not counting undergrads and high school mentees..). It's exciting to bring a little bit of diversity to my group. I'm also accepting a student from Africa. He's lovely, polite, exceedingly professional, and very competent in my field.

So, lots of excitement. But also this sense of responsibility - I have to make sure that I come up with good ideas, funding, and intelligent strategies to carry these people through their projects. Next fall there's a chance that there will be five grad students and three undergrads working in my lab. Time to buy more computers. Time to start planning group meetings because I REALLY HAVE A GROUP. wow.

Okay, it's almost 11:30am and time for us to get out and do some exercise. But first a parting comment. The hardest things about this new life:

1. I spend hours on my sofa with a baby attached to me, unable to move. I look out into the living room and focus on every little piece of dirt and clutter. I think about all of the things that I COULD be doing. But I'm stuck on the sofa.

2. There are all of these things that I want to do. But they really are falling by the wayside. So many emails I want to send / so many people I used to see, but I've had to neglect.

3. I cannot read all of the funny and fun words of my d-land friends. I miss you all very much. I miss sending you all notes. I miss reading about your lives and being a part of them.

4. I fight the tendency to become the ALL-SUSI-ALL-THE-TIME news wire. We d-landers all have tendencies to focus on one or two topics of importance to us...Susi is all-encompassing, and when she's NOT everything, then I'm obsessing about being good enough at my job that I'm on leave from.

5. I haven't been this consistently irritated with K since we executed our cross-country move. Nothing like sleep-deprivation and being cooped up 24 hours per day with someone to produce marital friction. I know that K is a good egg. I know that I'm so lucky to have someone who wants to help and who is normally very quick to resolve any type of conflict. But oohhh, how I want to be through this time....

Anyway, of course there are good things. Susi has gained weight and is feeding well, and is such a happy baby. But what is d-land without expressing a few complaints. So there you have it.

p.s. tune in next time for the saga of the sofa.