Seems like every end of month I manage to get my act together and write a post... maybe I should make this an official schedule.
The past couple of weeks were, as usual, crazy. Work on my current project was so-so, with quite a few set-backs but also some solutions; over all I'm not too excited about what I'm doing now, even though I know it's important and needs to be done.
I also decided to organize a special session at the upcoming fall AGU meeting (December 07). I am hoping that organizing a session that deals with the topics I focus on in my research would allow me to meet other people who are interested in similar things; perhaps this would make me feel less isolated. So far I found three co-organizers, and quite a few people who were supportive and offered to help. I hope our sessions is accepted. An additional benefit for me would be the extra exposure, which is very important, as I will soon be looking for a postdoc/job.
Another source of anxiety was health-related - my doctor noticed something weird in my annual check, and wanted to run more tests. Typically, I completely repressed that idea and went on normally until the second exam, which revealed that it was actually nothing. Only then I freaked out... This is so me. But the tension was there in the back of my mind, which made everything else seem much worse and made me very edgy. Anyway, everything is fine, so no need to worry anymore.
This week I also kinda freaked when I realized that I don't have anything cool and fun scheduled for the summer. As Yos wisely said it, "the fact that our trip to Israel is only in September makes it look like a long vacation-less summer". Anyway, after getting all depressed about this, I booked plane tickets to Chicago for a conference I'm going to, and immediately felt better. I also went hiking and wall-climbing, and made plans to take a whitewater kayaking course with some friends and to go visit Maureen in Washington DC, so I'm feeling much better already.
This was my monthly update. The coming month holds lots of activity as well, so stay tuned!
