Week 39
View from the houseboats
“Everything’s fine, we’re fine, it’s all fine”, as my second-choice holiday card said. Things really are fine, and a bit hectic, as you might infer from sending this so much later than I often do. I’ve got two different computers open right now, one semi-dedicated to photo-based holiday presents and cards, and the other with my usual 6 virtual desktops (within a single Mac) in operation, each dedicated to a different research endeavor. I’m doing the best I can to take pressure off wherever I can (e.g. my goal is to send New Year cards before March 2021).
We’re realizing switching our grocery shopping patterns (from Trader Joes to Good Eggs) is increasing the cognitive load of our meal plans, and we are trying to be patient with ourselves. Theo went through 5 nights of spending an hour and a half fighting bedtime, which we finally realized was related to his transition (and wild excitement over) being in a new classroom at school. I’ve been prioritizing work over exercise for a few days due to deadlines and morning meetings; I look forward to rebalancing over the weekend.
For those of you celebrating Hanukkah or other non-Christmas holidays, I recognize the ubiquity of Christmas stuff may be frustrating and overwhelming, especially when you’re trying to fit it in without dedicated time off. For those of you preparing for Christmas, best of luck navigating this season of shipping deadlines and mystery packages. It’s also the season of administrative stuff in my life, so thank you to those of you who UCSF has asked to evaluate my candidacy for promotion or who will be asked for stuff as I prepare final reports or RPPRs.
Gratitude & appreciation
Theo and I made gingerbread people this weekend.
I had an opportunity to give a talk “at” Penn, which went a lot better than I was anticipating (and let me re-use much of the material from my UCSF series change talk). And the dog didn’t even bark during it!
That pandemic holidays are something I am enjoying this year (aside from the stress of shipping deadlines and trying to shop small but not in-person).
The COVID vaccine progress is honestly remarkable.
That our landlord replaced our broken washer within a day!
That we have the privilege and ability of being able to avoid stores and afford to order things.
(Re)Learnings and observations
On making space for grief: I found another good podcast on grief, Grief Out Loud. Episode 174 has nice ideas for navigating grief during the pandemic holidays and episode 171 with BJ Miller has a nice discussion of what happens when our personal grief interacts with our professional jobs. I’ve been finding these useful for making space for checking in with my feelings. The one about the interaction of pandemic, grief, and holidays was a nice reminder that people do have a wide variety of reactions, including being grateful to have space away from other family members to navigate their own feelings, or less aloneness in the strangeness of grief.
Other things I wanted to share with you : I read the transcript of the most recent GeriPal podcast re: cultural shifts in end of life care and really liked the discussion. I listened to the first third of the Endwell Take10 “conference”, which you too can enjoy here: 2020.endwellproject.org. I had to pause after the first bit both for emotional space and pragmatically needing to do other things, but it’s nicely done.
Actions to be anti-racist and/or support Black and other people of color: I reached out to a friend-mentee at another institution to ask how they are doing and how their institution is doing with recognition of injustice – a reminder that even asking can be validating and helpful. Highlighted a few papers by Black scholars on Twitter and am recommending them as potential GeriPal podcast guests.
Things I’m looking forward to
(per the advice of this UCSF Psychiatry webinar)
When the number of meetings on my calendar drops down to a dull roar in January
Perhaps making more cookies with my son this weekend
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