New adventures

In less than a month, I will be starting my postdoc at Penn State. I'm pretty excited to have an office again, and to explore a new place. I'm not thrilled by the weekly commute, but I am so, so thankful that I will be working somewhere close enough to Philadelphia that I can come home every week. And I am looking forward to improving my snowboarding skills this winter on the slopes that are only 15 minutes from campus. (!)

For now, I am trying to re-energize myself to work. It is a sometimes losing battle, although I have managed to get some work done. I am trying to finish an R&R now. The editor has asked for a number of rather large revisions, so it's a slow process. But I'm getting there, and hope to finish by the end of the week. I am also trying to finally get back to all the papers I abandoned during the last year. My co-authors have been very patient for a long time, but I know they are tired of waiting. Too bad there are several of them. I think I am a tad bit over-committed.

The good part of having more time on my hands (or at least not having any immediate deadlines) is that I have been able to run, cycle, and go to yoga on a more regular basis. I love progressing in these areas, and I think I have.

I have some pictures of meals I (or Alison and I) cooked over the past few weeks, which I hope to post soon. When I'm uninterested in work, I put my time and energy into cooking. It works out well.

Lastly, I have been avoiding all news of the health care bill. I see those NY Times articles staring up at me, and I can't bare to watch. I'm so nervous that it will fail again, and I just can't watch it happen. This country needs better health care. It is a CRIME that people can go without--that insurance companies can declare someone "uninsurable", that insurance is linked to work, that people can lose all their money because of an unanticipated illness... The list goes on. This is a topic I cannot even write about in a cogent manner, because I feel so angry about it. How can someone be against healthcare for everyone? Why is "socialized medicine" such a bogeyman? I'm cool with socialized medicine. Yes, even if it occasionally means I wait a little longer to see a PCP or some other minor inconvenience. I'll deal. I think we all will.