If grad school is going to teach me one damn thing. . .

It's going to be how to give talks effortlessly. Or, at least with less anxiety and procrastination. It's really annoying. I've done all kinds of reading for my presentation, but here I am not wanting to do anything close to putting it together. Let ALONE practice it. I hate practicing speeches--mainly because I like to put off what I think is going to be a traumatic event. This is ridiculous, because I am generally a good speaker--even better if I've got a memorized speech. Heck, I've been in the top five in my state for that kind of shit.

I think it's that my brain runs on a different wavelength than my mouth. When I give a memorized talk, it's like singing a song. When I have to give a speech that's EXPLAINING something, I have trouble keeping it slow and linear.

But I know gradschool is going to make it better. Starting tomorrow (when I give a short lecture and lead discussion on a journal article).

Tomorrow is one of those days that will be so fantastic to have finished. Everyone is antsy on campus. I think most of it is that keen relief of having February behind you. That month is pretty lame. It's been springlike, so that makes everyone crazier still. This wednesday, I have to get up and buy some overheads/print them, get my booty to class by 10:45 AM. Give 55 minutes of background material/disscussion of the results of the paper/discussionquestions. Go to seminar at noon. Go to lunch with friends. Wait until Ned's available to discuss papers (3ish). Either go to step class (haven't worked out in a week) or go home. Shop for groceries. Sleep.

Thursday will be pretty open. I may meet with my professor to talk about how the presenation went. I also want to reward myself with shopping for a little somethin' for Sharon and Andy, who have birthdays coming up. And somewhere in there read a paper for pathology 750. The evening will be perhaps ballroom dancing practice, and I somehow promised to drink on thursday night. In return, I have been promised full protection at Salsa Night at the Cardinal--no having to dance with random men.

Friday and Saturday I am hosting a grad student recruit for the final recruiting weekend for the microbiology program. His name is Yann and he seems to originally be from France? We'll see.

Then Sunday. . . Sarah and I hop on a plane to HAWAII for the yearly pow-wow on squid vibrio research!! EEEK!