5:13 pm – Friday 13th October 2006

To sleep perchance to dream...

Wow, this feels like the first time I've had to write in weeks. Not that I couldn't be doing something productive, in fact I should be packing up my things in boxes and getting ready to move. However leisure time in the US is an undervalued commodity, and so I intend to take as much of it as I can.

I hardly have time of course these recent weeks, the middle of the semester just passed, and so there are endless lectures to write. I really only get 36 hours between lectures, and so almost always I end up waking up early on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and working on the lecture du jour.

Last weekend should have been my time to rest and recuperate, and yet instead I spent it playing rugby. The women's rugby team here is ok, but as with all women's teams they needed a big butch girl to run it up the center. That was my ticket, and there was a tournament last weekend here in town. We lost the first match, but afterwards we did a lot better. I discovered the “fend”, and managed to score two try's in our second match. Admittedly the opposition was composed mostly of rookies, but a win was a win. We also managed to win the last match of the day. I might add I had to cycle three miles to get to the field, and then 3 more miles home. There was a costume party later on, but it fizzled and so I went home to bed. The next day we played two more games, winning the first, but losing the final. I scored another try, but was just happy for the day to be over.

This of course meant that I was behind on my lectures, and so this week I have been struggling to keep up. I have made a few minor mistakes, but thankfully nothing too severe.

Now I am scheduled to move in with Ecole, a girl I met through Alex. This move could have happened last weekend except for the rugby tournament. Next weekend there is another rugby tournament in Albuquerque, so I will try to get the move completed as soon as possible. Alex will bring her car over and we will all move boxes. I have my current apartment until the end of October, so I have plenty of time to clean and move out.

Kadie and I are talking again which is good. We had a big fight after we went home after the San Francisco trip, but we seem to be on speaking terms again. I may go back to Montana in November for a visit. I think she would like to come down here for Xmas, but I think I should see how a small visit goes first.

I am happily typing this entry on my new MacBook. I finally got around to putting a dual boot operating system on it, so now I can switch between OS X and windows. It has much better battery life than my old Dell, in addition to having wireless and being really portable. I decided to not get the MacBook Pro, since I couldn't justify the additional expense when all it does is process video slightly faster.

What else? Alas, I received rejection letters for my grants that I put in during the Summer. There is a new set of deadlines coming up at the end of November, so I believe I can submit for that date.

All in all, I am well but tired. There is always something going on, so that I haven't really been able to draw breath yet. This doesn't even recognize the fact that I am supposed do be doing chemistry research, as opposed to just teaching. The building with my lab in it is not yet finished, and probably won't be until Xmas time.

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