Home again, home again
I'm "observing" right now, meaning that I am sitting at a computer at school and controlling a telescope about 700 miles away. If I were a better astronomer, I would relish these winter observing nights; these are the nights when it gets dark at early and the sun doesn't come up until late. Yet 'abhor' might be a better descriptor of my thoughts immediately upon seeing that my "night" started at 5:30 pm today and ends at 7 am tomorrow. But whatever. I think it's been pretty well-established that I am neither the perfect grad student, nor astronomer. (If I were, I would surely be graduating this spring!)
So here I sit, looking out my window at a clear, dark sky while I wait for the clouds to clear elsewhere in the world, and I actually have a few minutes to write something. It's apparently been a while since my last post. I spent a week in San Diego at a conference which was good, yet made my brain hurt. These things are so packed with talks and posters and just astronomy 24-7 that I end up leaving at the end of the week feeling completely overwhelmed and certain I will never be smart enough to survive in this field. From there I went to San Francisco for a weekend to see some friends for a little bit and that was fantastic. Exactly the relaxing, low-key break I needed. Yay!
Now, of course, I am home and hip deep in my January of Suckitude. It's really not a good month for me, work-wise. I simply have too many things due in too short a time. Papers, proposals, topic for thesis... Plus, I have started teaching my MCAT students again which, while generally enjoyable, does take a chunk of my personal time. I am teaching at night twice a week this semester, so it turns out to be a sizeable committment. Still, both of my classes appear to be pretty fun and I'm looking forward to working with them.
So I guess that's it. Here I sit. Posting, working on papers and proposals, painting my nails, adding movies to my NetFlix list...whatever I can do to stay awake while I can't observe. And I only have 8 more hours to go!
So here I sit, looking out my window at a clear, dark sky while I wait for the clouds to clear elsewhere in the world, and I actually have a few minutes to write something. It's apparently been a while since my last post. I spent a week in San Diego at a conference which was good, yet made my brain hurt. These things are so packed with talks and posters and just astronomy 24-7 that I end up leaving at the end of the week feeling completely overwhelmed and certain I will never be smart enough to survive in this field. From there I went to San Francisco for a weekend to see some friends for a little bit and that was fantastic. Exactly the relaxing, low-key break I needed. Yay!
Now, of course, I am home and hip deep in my January of Suckitude. It's really not a good month for me, work-wise. I simply have too many things due in too short a time. Papers, proposals, topic for thesis... Plus, I have started teaching my MCAT students again which, while generally enjoyable, does take a chunk of my personal time. I am teaching at night twice a week this semester, so it turns out to be a sizeable committment. Still, both of my classes appear to be pretty fun and I'm looking forward to working with them.
So I guess that's it. Here I sit. Posting, working on papers and proposals, painting my nails, adding movies to my NetFlix list...whatever I can do to stay awake while I can't observe. And I only have 8 more hours to go!
posted by Meredith | 10:31 PM
1 Comments:
Sounds like good times! How do you stay awake for that?
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