Typical Fall Semester

School starts...it's the start of the 4th week and somehow I'm already behind in grading.

Well, no surprise I guess.

This semester was going to be different though. I have an "easy" semester which means I have classes I've taught at least a few times.  My easy prep though has turned into developing some new activities to implement. I also had my gall bladder out the week before classes started so the first few weeks I was basically just teaching and prepping.  Minimal grading. Minimal time in the office.  It's all beginning to catch up on me.

The only way out now is several late-nighters or even-earlier-than-usual mornings. I'm becoming my mother which means working after midnight is becoming a dream. Waking up at 5 AM? Not too bad.  Sometimes I even wake up at that time on my own and can't go back to sleep.

I am becoming my mother!

In other news, I went to a professor workshop this past weekend. I was surrounded by professors from every field and every type of school (large research one universities to two-year colleges).  The workshop was helpful and encouraging (aka it was nice to commiserate with other non-tenured, junior faculty members). But I was reminded of something: I truly am a nerd.

I thought maybe leaving graduate school behind meant that I had left nerdom behind.

Nope.

At dinner the first night, I had some professors sitting next to me that were from different non-science areas. We were able to visit, but conversation was a bit stilted. On the other side of me, there were two science professors.  When I talked to them, not only was I laughing, I had THEM laughing. (If you know me, you know that people don't describe me as "hilarious" usually.) Science nerds unite!

After this past weekend, I reaffirmed something about myself. I really do enjoy some science talk. I like dumb science jokes. I like sharing funny laboratory stories.

And I'm okay with that.
Mostly.