Friends, family, and fellow adventurers,
Now that my week has gone up in unpredictability, I've decided that its a good time to take a break, slow down, and think. I've neglected this blog shamefully for months so it seems like a good opportunity to catch up on things. Since I've got a horrid backlog, I've created posts for each month and you can zip to them using the links below:
March 2009
April 2009
May 2009
June 2009
I may not finish this all in one go, so please be patient with me.
The continuation from June is that our newly rewritten Animal Use Protocol was due in to IACUC by July 1st, which because of the holiday became July 6th (thank goodness!). So I spent the first week of this month finishing that and trying to prepare for the undergrad summer student we decided to take on in response to a request from one of Bill's colleagues. Drake arrived on the 6th and has kept my hands full. It will be a couple more weeks before I can just tell him to do something and let him at it, since he's learning skills right now, but he's very quick and somewhat more mature than the average college senior. Unfortunately he's also been the center of a lot of drama lately regarding housing here in College Park and he may not be able to stay for the rest of the summer. There are also some difficult things going on at home for him right now so there's a certain amount of drama attached to the whole thing.
As a result I am in this interesting position of trying to be adaptively flexible and constantly available, yet still have enough energy and time conserved to complete my own projects which require attentive focus. Usually I only have to do this sort of thing a couple times a year and never in the summer so I am rather exhausted by it all. And a little frustrated, to be honest. Summer for me usually means that the demands of others goes down, so I can focus on the things I've let go in order to deal with them. Instead it looks like I'm going to have to fight it out if I want to get my stuff done. >_< My ADD is having a heyday with the current state of things. I also haven't been able to take every Friday off this summer like I planned, which is disappointing (I've been lucky to get every other one). Its hard to change the nature of the job when you are the safety net for everyone else.
On a happier note, this weekend is Otakon! Dan and Karin are coming down to attend, as usual, and I'm really looking forward to spending time with them. I also am desperately trying to finish my costume for this year and I hope I make it. I'm having to relearn how to do paper mache for the first time since I was a kid! I will post pictures.
As far as Cornerstone goes, the Creative team is starting to prep for the Fall/Winter quarters. The choir should start singing again in August which I'm really looking forward to. It looks like we are going to have a very busy holiday season if the ideas the leadership have get off the ground, and I invite everyone to attend ahead of time! I'm sure its going to be great. Our next One Night is the last Saturday in August and they are always an awesome time of worship, though I'm not sure the choir will be singing in this one. And it looks like the little worship band I've joined in Underground will be starting official activities in August too. I'm still working on my calluses and my strum rhythm but I've got some great teammates so it should be great! The class I'm currently taking on Wednesday nights is on cults and very informative, especially about Islam. I'm also trying to get the church to support my friend Bryan at a missionary to Ireland with IVCF.
It's certainly been a very full first half of summer.
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