Week 38
View from the houseboats
I was surprised to realize this week that I’m feeling pretty good! It was lovely to take the 4 days of Thanksgiving almost completely off, and I think I got some extra sleep and decent exercise in there too. I’ve able to regard my long to-do list without getting too stressed about it (maybe the meditation is working?). Theo’s generally been asleep by 7:30 which is amazing. I’ve also stopped reading quite so much news, been off Twitter, and have watched fewer Grand Rounds about the COVID insanity. I feel a bit guilty for feeling so good (gestures wildly at the ongoing tragedies around us) but it highlights how much I was impacted by the election, fall grief season, and job talk prep (and associated existential questioning).
Of course, I drafted much of this update Wednesday, and then Thursday and Friday my spouse had low resilience, which made things harder (I find I have one day of patience and empathy for spousal distress...the second day I run out…I’m working on it).
We’re going to take the afternoon today to go for a bike ride together in the sun – air quality looks a little better today than it did yesterday afternoon. While it’s awful to see the COVID cases rising, it’s not yet impacting our lives much. Theo’s school has been open the whole pandemic, even if he couldn’t attend the first 4 months of shelter-in-place – we’ll see if we get bumped in favor of the kids of essential workers again. We’ve started ordering groceries rather than going into stores whenever we can. We’ve tried Good Eggs and Imperfect Produce but someone just recommended Thrive Market and Farm Fresh to You as potential alternatives/upgrades.
Gratitude & appreciation
Three papers I senior authored came out in the last two weeks! So proud of the amazing work of the first (and co)authors!
The Division investing in activities to boost morale. We joined the class on Japanese Souffle Pancake making – while it was a bit stressful to have in the middle of the work day, the evening option wasn’t feasible for our lives and it was fun to try something different!
Have I mentioned recently how good my therapist is? Definitely the best I’ve ever had. Therapy can be so helpful when you find the right person.
New Brandon Sanderson book. FYI, if you didn’t know, I’m a huge sci fi/fantasy nerd.
Theo’s absolute joy in the new pink leggings he got. He’s given up real pants in favor of leggings during the pandemic, and really, he’s pretty on point for 2020. I personally live in Betabrand dress yoga pants.
The Lego advent calendar my mother gave Theo. He’s so excited every morning and I think it’s helping with his counting.
Holiday presents as an excuse to review all the pictures we took over the year and realize how much we’ve done and how much Theo has changed. I send my 99yo (adopted) grandmother a picture calendar and album every year.
(Re)Learnings and observations
On work-life integration: I’m getting better at unapologetically refusing most meetings before 10 am or 4:30 pm, thus giving me flexibility for exercise after Theo goes to school and allowing me to be on pickup duty. I recognize being able to do to this is a marker of privilege. In a more-fair world my spouse and I would trade days of getting up for the pre-dawn workout and making dinner (things he’s currently doing) but we’ve found that’s too many decisions and change for our lives right now. Better to flow with what is (and is not) working than constantly fight against it (insofar as we can).
On the vicissitudes of careers: I had a few fun meetings this week. One with a new PhD student asking about how my career has evolved. One with a professor at Penn whose work I frequently cited in grad school (turns out she’s more impressive and intimidating IRL, and has built a pretty cool group). It’s been a nice opportunity to (again) reflect on all the twists and turns, and opportunities to revisit and integrate the ethics literature of grad school into my current work.
Actions to be anti-racist and/or support Black and other people of color: Prepping for a faculty meeting next week where we are trying to tackle difficult conversations about language and inclusion, and a meeting the week after to tell others about our plan for a new collaborative program to pair high school students from historically excluded background with our MSTAR students in conducting a summer research project. New paper on my list of things to read: The Urgency of Justice in Research
Things I’m looking forward to
(per the advice of this UCSF Psychiatry webinar)
Getting a few more papers off my plate so I can dig back into long-ignored analyses. I made a decision to put things on hold for awhile because I reached my multitasking limit, but I’m looking forward to having bandwidth to return to it.
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, if we have one) 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