This Is Nothing

Insane Graduate School Edition

3/24/2008

Back in Madison again!

Coming back to the familiar is a comforting ritual, in some ways. I’ve been away for most of a week in Hawaii, followed by hosting my parents and brother for a weekend. And suddenly it’s Monday again, the apartment is empty, and I’m back in lab.

It’s a bummer, but it’s nice too. I’ve spent the morning wading through e-mails and re-establishing contact. Adding new stuff to the calendar, looking at how close April already is . . .

Hawaii was amazing, as it always is. Sounds stupid, but you just can’t understand how beautiful it is unless you’ve seen it yourself. Even the light seems special; maybe it’s all the green EVERYWHERE, which saturated my poor mid-western winter retinas. Everything moves slower and that constant gnawing panic I usually feel melted away. I actually felt *THERE* instead of floating high above myself. Hawaii is warm, humid, and magic, ok? I wouldn’t want to live there forever, because you start to forget how special it is within days of arriving. But damn, I’ll visit whenever I can afford it. The conference itself was the best I’ve been to, full of laid-back conversations both sciencey and not. For the rest of the time, I gorged myself on seafood and checked out all the beaches I could.

I arrived back in Madison with one night of peace, and then the next day my parents and lil’ brother arrived for Easter weekend. I’ve already gone over how much I miss them I think, so I’ll just say I was so happy to share the new apartment with them. They are demanding in a good way—it felt like everyone wanted my attention at once, but unlike Christmas I only had to split myself 3-4 ways. Mom and Dad made meals and washed dishes, and we took lots of nice walks around the neighborhood. Andy was fantastically helpful through it all, and had managed to stock the cabinets will the perfect snacks to keep us all going. I’m exhausted from it all, but was still feeling pretty bummed when they were out on the road and the apartment was so empty.

And so here we are again folks. Back to a daily grind of sorts, even though now Spring seems closer than ever. Undeniable even if we’re expecting freezing rain later this week. My bellydance group is performing our piece on THURSDAY (holy bejesus!) which I just realized today. Everything just starts back up again in a crazy flourish.

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