Yes, I have been extremely quiet. I was waiting for the "new professor smell" to wear off. I was waiting for a solid few hours of alone time with which I could write a post. I was waiting for the lab drama (yes, lab drama that was no fault of my own nor of my post-doc but has essentially been tossed in my lap) to end. I was waiting for me to feel like I am not flying through this first semester by the skin of my teeth.
I'm still waiting.
But, I am not waiting for that last piece of equipment or random chemical to arrive. In fact, my post-doc and I are rocking out in the lab and things are starting to work. We have gone beyond the lab maintenance experiments and are now doing actual science! Which is a good thing since I have an R01 resubmission deadline looming in the horizon (March, to be exact) and need all the preliminary data we can get our grubby little hands on. My post-doc (who also happens to be one of my closest friends) has saved my life too many times to count in this place already- and I think my biggest fear may be letting her down.
Other than that, things have been interesting. I am on a search comittee this semester for an open-rank position in a diffent department (yes, it is early for me to do this, but looking at the other people on the comittee I can see that I was asked to help with...erm...diversity)--it is weird being on this side of the table. Could be that I still have deep-seeded anxiety about the entire process, but I feel a certain kinship with the applicants.
Anyway, life is good. Even with the politics, bullshit and drama that has permeated my daily life, I can still sit at the bench, play on the cool equipment that we wanted and got and get back to the entire reason I wanted to do this in the first place-figuring out some really cool science. And this place is starting to feel like home.
