One of the reasons I'm ready to not be a student anymore

I doubt I will go through another six-year period without finishing any project. At least I hope not.

The meeting

Thanks for all of your concern about my travel drama. I made it to the meeting the next day with a couple of hours to spare. My luggage didn't make it on my flight, but they delivered it to my hotel before I wanted to go to bed, so no harm done. That day was about as stressful as I imagined, but I got through it with no major bumps.

Our special session went much better than my travel. The speakers all basically talked about what we wanted them to cover, and we mostly stayed on time. I had the unenviable job of moderating, including cutting off famous scientists when they went on too long. I hated doing this, and won't volunteer to do it again if I can avoid it. On the other hand, we got some good feedback about the session. We have even been invited to write a couple of summary/commentary type reports for publication, which is very exciting. The due dates are really soon, and neither of us really have time for another writing project, but I think it will be quite worth it.

My poster didn't get too much traffic, but I felt fine about that. It was directly after the session and I was too worn out from the travel anxiety and stress of running the session to be interested in answering questions. What's more, it was based on the least interesting chapter of my diss. So whatev.

The social aspects of the meeting weren't as good as they have been in past years, partly due to the geography of the location, I think. Still, I got to see some old science friends, meet a few new ones, witness an ass-shaking contest (abhorrent), and I got a couple of post doc leads. We'll see what comes of those.

In all, it was a successful meeting for me. I'm glad it's over, as I always feel when I return from travel. The weeks leading up to a trip are filled with conversations ending with, "after I get back from the meeting, I'll do x". It's nice that things should settle down now so we can all get some meaty work done.

Overbooked

I should be on an airplane right now. Unfortunately, my flight got canceled due to mechanical problems or something. There were absolutely no seats available on flights to my destination, or to the next nearest city. There were no seats on my airline, nor any other airline. There were no seats from the airport I from which I was meant to depart, nor from the next closest airport, nor from any airport within a 4-hour drive. Only the leg of my journey from here to layover city was affected, but there were no seats to layover city in time for the final leg of the flight. There was just no way to get me to Conference City today. At all. Could I BE any more pissed?!

So, my first airline refunded half my fare and I booked a new flight myself on Southwest, which apparently does not have ticket agreements with the other airline. Thus, I had to pay for the ticket, which was $185 more than my original fare. I will get to Conference City around 9 am. Our special session, which I am moderating, starts after lunch. I should make it with enough time, but I will feel rushed and tense instead of (sort of) relaxed and in control. The original plan was to arrive around 3 pm today, go to the hotel, and finalize details for tomorrow with my friend/session co-organizer. We were going to decide exactly what I'd say at the start and end of the session, what she would say after the break, what we hoped to achieve if we got time to meet with the speakers later in the day. She was going to practice her talk for me, since I am more expert in parts of her project than she is (it's new to her, but is my bread and butter). I was also going to have time to iron my clothes for the week, suss out what talks to see, and have dinner with other scientist-friends. Instead, I'll arrive in the morning, rush to the hotel to drop off my bag if I have time, or else go right to the conference center. I have to register, hang my poster (which is also scheduled for tomorrow), attend moderator training, finalize the deets with my friend, eat lunch, and get to the session. It will all be fine, I'm sure, but not how I wanted it to go. Stupid airplane.

Working

Things have been going really well the past several days, but it feels like work is a series of ups and downs. I got some feedback on that interminable paper which, although constructive, really challenged me psychologically. I tackled the comments, but it was difficult and I felt like I was working in slow motion.

Then last week someone at my work organized a writing group for grad students. He suggested that we make a time line coupled with weekly work plans with tasks assigned to each day. We buddied up, and then created these work plans in Google docs, which we share with our buddy.

This system has been amazing so far. I have been getting so much done, even on the weekend when I typically only fake work. I know what I need to do each day, so I don't spend any time deciding what I feel like doing next. It also helps to have something to aim for each day. Perhaps most valuable, it gives me a way to gauge my progress, which I find extremely difficult with writing. The tasks are supposed to be broken down into chunks that should take no more than a couple of hours, although many of mine have been larger than that. Still, it has made what used to feel like an overwhelming volume of work seem manageable.

I have had good results in the past by making weekly plans, especially when I share them with a buddy for accountability. But this is the first time I have taken the effort to actually plan the work day-by-day, and I think it has made a difference. I haven't been doing it all that long, and I'm preparing for a conference next week which always ups my motivation, so we'll see if I keep up the momentum long-term. I might be blogging about this prematurely.

I thought you might like to see an example of what I mean, so here is my work plan for this week. Items in gray are complete. I'm not sure I can get through all the Chapter 2 writing I scheduled, but I figure it's good to aim a little high. I left some play in the schedule for Friday in case some of the writing spills over or if there are problems with poster printing.

Tasks to complete by July 31:

• Finish and print poster
• Finish Chapter 1 paper revisions
• Discuss revisions with RA
  
• Finish new cover letter for paper revisions
• Email revised paper and cover letter to coauthors
  
• Set up work space for new lab protocol
  
• Do trial protocol on practice samples if reagent arrives and I have permission from safety committee
• Draft Results and Discussion of Chapter 2 paper. Organize remaining tasks.
• Plan meeting session intro/moderation
  

July 27

• Set up work space for new lab protocol
  
• Finish paper revisions; list items to discuss with RA
  
• Email graphics people about poster printing
  

July 28

• Revise poster; email to coauthors
• Polish figures for Chapter 2 paper. Embed in paper.
• Draft Chapter 2 results
  

July 29

• Discuss revisions with RA. Get cover letter comments from RA.
• Draft bloogle section of Chapter 2 discussion
• Start trial samples for new protocol
  

July 30

• Complete Chapter 1 paper revisions
• Finish trial samples
• Polish poster
• Draft bloggle section of Chapter 2 discussion
• Draft bloogle vs. bloggle section of Chapter 2 discussion
  

July 31

• Print poster
• Email revised paper and cover letter to coauthors
• Wrap up trial
• Assess progress on and create plan for finishing Chapter 2 paper
• Make plan for week of Aug 10

Aug 1

• Shop, laundry, pack for meeting
• Complete personal schedule for meeting
• Script brief introduction for session I'm moderating
  

Aug 2

Travel to meeting

I finally cracked

This weekend I bought new athletic shoes, thicker socks, a sports bra, and AN IPOD.

iTunes is currently converting the songs that were on my computer into iSongs or whatever.

The iPod is green. LOVE.

I am now prepared for exercise. Lab work used to keep me moving. However, since I don't do lab work frequently or regularly (is that okay, Cath) anymore, I need to get my ass doing something else. Perhaps the iPod will motivate me. I'll let you know.

Proposition

Remember how I whined about a certain instrument a few months ago? My main complaint was that I use it so infrequently that I don't remember what to do, and each time I go to use the thing the protocol has changed slightly anyway. Well, I need to use it again for another project. Just three more encounters with this thing and I will be done. I'm so not interested in learning how to run this instrument for just these next three times, but I need the data. The culture of the lab dictates that I should run my own damn samples, but since I don't know how, it typically goes like this: I stand there while someone else does everything but explains each step as they go along and I pretend like I'm absorbing it all. I learn a little bit, but not enough to do it on my own the next time, so I always need help. This doesn't seem very efficient to me, as I see no point in using two people's time to do a one-person job.

So, I'm going to propose a trade. There is someone else who is really proficient with the instrument. It's not her job to run other people's samples, but because of some recent shifts in lab personnel, it would probably fall to her to help me. So I'm going to ask her to just run my samples for me and in return I will do something for her. I'll ask her to keep track of how long it takes with my samples, and then I will do something for her for an equal amount of time. Anything she wants, as long as I have the skills to do it. I would much rather spend a few hours doing something for someone else than waste my time watching someone do what should be my job. I think it will appeal to her too, since she'd probably spend almost as much time on my samples if I "do them myself" as if she does them for me, and she'll get a few hours of skilled bonus help. Win-win, right?

I'll let you know how it goes.

ETA: She agreed. I have to help with two partial days of field work. It's possible that I am overcompensating, but I have a feeling she's going to be doing a lot more than her share of lab service for a while, so I don't mind helping her out.

In which I make friends

I've complained here before about how I seem to have trouble making friends, especially independent of EGM, especially people who aren't from work, especially women. So I jumped at the chance to join a book club a few months ago, despite a somewhat awkward invitation.

I was at the birthday dinner for the female member of our only-friends-who-are-not-scientists couple along with another of her friends. We'll call this other friend Bookworm. I had met Bookworm several times before at other events hosted by this couple. Anyway, Bookworm invited my friend to join her new book club, but my friend declined because she doesn't like to read much. Awkward pause, then Bookworm said, well, um, would you like to come to my book club, Ecogeofemme? My natural inclination would have been to say no because it would be all people I didn't know and I felt like I was getting invited just because she felt rude leaving me out at that point. But, I'm always saying how I want more friends and I've been mildly interested in a book club for a long time. So I said yes.

That was right at the end of last year, so they skipped a couple of months around the holidays, and then I didn't make the next one. Then after all that time, I waffled about going. But I'm so glad I finally put on my big girl panties and went. The group is so great. They are a bunch of really intelligent, interesting women. They have different backgrounds from me, which is so cool. One is almost finished with a Ph.D. in English literature, so she always has great insights, but (thankfully) is never condescending. Several others have theater backgrounds, which adds a lot too. They seem to like my perspective as well. The discussions really add to my appreciation of the books because the others point out and explain allusions that I miss since I read way more science than literature.

Bookworm moved away a couple of months ago, and it was unclear if the group would continue without her leadership. So far, so good. I was a little worried personally, since I didn't know any of the other women before. But they seem to have accepted me as a regular member. I think it would take a long time for me to become actual friends with any of these people, but it's still really wonderful to have a standing engagement once a month where I feel like I belong. It has been a lot of fun so far.