It’s been a long long hiatus from blogging from me, and not one that has gone unmourned. I miss my blog. I also miss the following things: free time, respiratory health, exercise, the ability to schedule my time, and decent home cooked meals. I have returned to work, and I never realized how loony it would make my daily life.
I went back to work in November, as a postdoc (yet again) working on respiratory infections in kids. I didn’t realize the irony of me taking that job until 4 months, 4 colds, and one ear infection later. Hannah and Brian and I were all sick with them but weirdly only I got the ear infection. This is all on the backdrop of a brand new schedule that is probably not that crazy for most A-type personalities, but is crazy for me: out of the house by 7, drop Hannah off at dayhome, drop Brian off at work downtown, and hopefully into the lab by 8:30 am. Wrap up work by 4:30, and an hour to an hour and a half commute in reverse, then a quick dinner, and Hannah’s in bed by 8:30 pm. And I am completely exhausted.
So I congratulate working moms out there, including my mom and sister, who have blazed this trail already with grace and humor. It wasn’t really until I started back at work that I realized that Every. Single. Minute. Of. Every. Day. Could. Be. Scheduled. Seriously. Every minute. And because I can’t stay late at work I feel like every minute there should be productive (a goal by which I frequently fall short). I also didn’t realize that I would love it. Right now, I love the hectic schedule, and fulfilling these two very different parts of my self. I know that I will always feel like neither side is getting enough attention, but isn’t parenthood mostly an exercise in guilt?
Finally, this brings me to my blog. Oh how I’ve missed thee. I am currently at a conference and while watching Hannah eat on skype I can work on articles that have been languishing in my brain. I have, in the works, various articles about language acquisition in children, more about immune development (I am at a conference on the human microbiome, so get ready for more gross stories), and probably a rant or two about the screwed up system in which I work. When I can squeeze the writing in, that is.
