Limbo

It's been a good week.  I took the frantic (manic?) energy from the last post and coasted through this one.  I went to DC on Sunday to review small business grant applications for the NIH, which is always fun.  I met lots of new folks and hung out with Charlotte, one of my dear friends with Rice.  We wandered all over the mall under a full moon, trying to figure out where the new MLK memorial and the bathrooms were.  We found both of them.  :)

The MLK memorial is truly beautiful and inspiring.  It certainly helped to keep things in perspective.  I remain one of the luckiest people on the planet, and that's no joke.

I set up my home office, and it is truly a lovely place to work.  It's hard to get the true sense of the loveliness and energy from the photo below, but imagine music playing and the windows open with the ocean breezes coming though.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with myself.  Technically I am still employed until March 15, which makes it a little awkward to start networking in a serious way.  "Hello, Doc.  I'd like to help you out.  Technically I can't talk to you about this concept for another two weeks, but just thought I'd get in touch."  So that doesn't work. I can, however, make plans and maps and budgets, which is something that I enjoy.  But I also find it exhausting.  I can make it until about lunch, then I need to find something less cognitively challenging to do.  I remember that I had a similar trouble in grad school as well, although less so in post-doc.  My poor brain is probably just so enfeebled from attending back-to-back meetings for so many years that it just can't think that long.  I guess I will just have to work to get it back in shape along with the rest of me.

Have a wonderful weekend!