AL...MOST...DONE

I'm handing in the thesis copies to my committee on Friday and my defense presentation will be two weeks later on Friday, February 13.

Workouts have been spotty, but I've managed to not miss a heavy days and I continue to bike commute despite the sub zero temperatures.

Studded tires kick ass.

Given my limited time I've opted for bang for buck and all that jazz. Last night between about 8:30 and 9:00, I did 8 sets of Snatch Grip deads finishing off with 2 reps at something odd like 207#

I feel like I got hit by a truck today. Not sore. Just exhausted. I enjoyed the Snatch Grip DL's quite a bit. They are a tough lift though.

I think the exhaustion is probably a combination of being totally mentally drained (by working what equates to 3 part time jobs for a total pushing 80 hours a week at the moment) and subsisting on weird delivery Moo-Goo Gai Pan and sub sandwiches. Not ideal, I know. And I'm not one to make excuses and say things like "I don't have time to cook." But for the next two weeks, I don't have time to cook. And even if I did, I don't have the mental energy.

In two weeks I'll be back down to a much more manageable 2 jobs. And in May I'll be happily back down to one. I am looking forward to that.

I started working a bit with the new group. I will probably write a long post on this later but I think over the past 6ish years I've lost sight of the forest so to speak. Despite being busy, I now have people to talk to and interact with and share the workload with. And for six years I've been dismissing those things as incidentals and tried to shoulder all of the blame for things going poorly for me as a grad student. Yesterday I got a call from the new group saying "Hey we need you here ASAP."

Stressful? A bit. But I spent the day cracking out a little mini-project with a senior grad student and when I bumped into the boss at the end of the day he said "Good work turning that around for us today."

It's been 8 years or so since someone has said "You need to come to work today" and/or "Thank you for doing this work today."

And I got so mired down in a bad place that I forgot that while those things are not essential to my getting work done, it really helps your state of mind to have feedback. Not to mention the funding. Holy Christ. For 6 years I've been saying things like "Oh well, that would cost a few hundred dollars. We can't afford that." Yesterday I had to help put together a project budget. Wow. I can't believe I ever fretted over that much money. I also can't believe I've spent the last 6 years doing all of my analysis manually and that in 3 weeks I'll have top of the line automated equipment at my disposal.

Despite my constant diatribes about the academic world and research over the past 6 years, I now have very high hopes for the new job and the new group and the new PI. God bless this ability of mine to change my mind about things I'd previously been so strongly convinced of. On that note, expect a rant about academics and research in a month or so.

For now, I have to throw together a lecture on Covalent bonding and Lewis Structures.

And seriously, have some Moo-Goo-Gai Pan and do some Snatch Grip Deadlifts. Especially if you like feeling like a Zombie. I just hate being alone.