Week 23
View from the houseboats
Well, we are surrounded by fire in the middle of a pandemic and ongoing public reckoning with race and police violence. We had a rough weekend, a good first few days of the week, and yesterday and today are shaping up rougher.
For example, Saturday morning started at 4am when something in the house started beeping, but we have 3 smoke detectors, two of which require a 20ft ladder to reach that’s kept outside on our lower dock. The dog is terrified of anything related to fire alarms, so in her fear she knocked over the liquified half gallon of DryRid in the bathroom and tracked it all over the house. So I washed the dog and mopped the floor while Sam took down all the smoke detectors, only to realize it was the carbon monoxide sensor that’s very accessible. Theo woke up 30 minutes later.
On the upside, I've had a lot of great meetings this week with mentors and mentees, and I did take Wednesday off and am planning to take much of today off too. Overall takeaway: it's time for another reset to figure out what does and doesn't work both professionally and personally. Theo's home from school next week (annual school planning week) so it will probably be a multi-week project.
Gratitude & appreciation
I am still hugely grateful Theo has preschool to go to, even if every morning he claims he hates it and misses us and sobs at dropoff. It’s so nice to have quiet working time.
The DNC convention was surprisingly uplifting and validating. I caught most of it through highlights the day after but was still surprised at the emotion triggered by some of the speeches.
I am glad I was able to take Wednesday off.
I am glad the Division not only mentors but sponsors their junior faculty to help them succeed. Not that they're perfect, but that they try.
A colleague shared this resource for academic/research advice/strategies.
The new Elemental series on COVID is great, including this article about the pandemic depleting our "surge capacity"
As in past weeks, I invite you to report in on your wellbeing, share your goal of a tiny step towards a passion project (and perhaps a second goal of a collaboration) and report in on your progress from last week's goals.
Thinking of you and hoping you and your loved ones stay healthy and safe.
Krista