Speed Bump

One word pretty much sums up how I've been feeling lately. I'm reviewing grants right now for a meeting at NIH next week and this process always throws my world upside down. I drop everything for two weeks to get the grants read and reviewed (not to mention a three day trip to the east coast and back) and the rest of my life spirals on without me. I'm going to be reviewing grants three times a year for the next three years (!!) so I have to find a way to get through the process with my sanity intact, my family and my lab only slightly neglected, and with the wheels securely on the bus.  I'm reading the book Overwhelmed: Work, Love and Play When No One Has the Time by Brigid Schulte to find some answers. The descriptions of her overwhelmed days are eerily just like mine. I'm hoping there are some nuggets of wisdom and inspiration in these pages. I'll report back and let you know.

When I started reading The Fault in Our Stars by John Green a few weeks ago, I immediately regretted the decision for two reasons. The first reason being that it is a book about teen cancer patients falling in love. I should know better. Why read something so assuredly sad? And the second reason being that I knew after a couple chapters that I was going to lose sleep over this book. I wouldn't be able to put it down.  Throughout most of the book, I waited defensively for the sadness to kick in. But to my surprise, this book about two teens who meet at a cancer support group is not a classic sob story. The book is more teen angst and young love than courageous cancer battle.  The main characters are sarcastic and real, their moods up and down with the highs and lows of teenage strife. There are sad moments to be sure, but they didn't make me regret reading the story.  "You have a choice in this world, I believe, about how to tell sad stories, and we made the ...

1.  The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath . I'm not sure when I bought this book but it's been on my shelf for years and I'd never read it. I recently heard it described as the female version of Catcher in the Rye, both in its story line and its cultural significance. It is not an autobiography but it bears resemblance to Plath's own fascinating and tragic life. It made me think of my grandmother and how women of that generation challenged norms and battled expectations at every turn. An American classic worth reading.   2.  The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty . I am only half-way through this novel, but so far so good. I heard about it because the University of Kansas selected it as the  2014 KU Common Book , a program designed to unify students and faculty around a singular reading experience. It is set in rural Kansas, the center of the map, the center of everything, in the 1980s and it is like looking back into my own childhood:  " The Day After ...

  It's been awhile since I've had the luxury of reading a few books for pleasure (and it took me forever to get through my last stack , thanks to Steve Jobs' book. Glad I finished it, but it definitely changed my opinion of him, and not for the better). I'm happily making my way through a new stack. 1. Doctor on Everest by Kenneth Kamler, M.D. I bought this book for Ryan, but I'm reading it first. This book is another account of the tragic Everest expedition from 1996 (I've also read Into Thin Air and Climb ) but from the perspective of someone trying to aid survivors of that epic storm. Kamler recounts his experience being a team physician for 5 or 6 different Everest attempts, including 1996 when 5 people died on the mountain. I find the medicine and science behind climbing the world's highest mountain both incredible and ridiculous. This book has been keeping me up late. 2. Academic Motherhood by Kelly Ward and Lisa Wolf-Wendel. This book is n...

Our big trip is finally here! We've been planning and thinking about it for so long, it almost doesn't seem real. I've collected a few books to help us prepare for our trip that include useful travel tips, interesting cultural tidbits on Spain, and of course, some really pretty pictures. As I've mentioned before , I'm a sucker for good old-fashioned books and travel books are no exception. We won't take all of these with us, but a few will be perfect for the long flight. 1. Frommer's Spanish PhraseFinder & Dictionary . This pocket size phrase book is going with us. My high school and college Spanish is very rusty and my Italian will only get us so far. Our emergency back up is the Spanish translator app on our iphone. 2. Fodor's Barcelona's 25 Best . Since the bulk of our time will be spent in Barcelona, I have several books highlighting this amazing city. This one is compact and comes with fold out city and metro maps. We'll see how m...

I love to read, always have. I could spend hours as a kid reading alone in my room. I think I get this from my Mom- I remember how she liked to retreat with a book on a quiet Sunday afternoon, and to this day we still trade books. I will always have an affection for the old school hard copy book. I mean, just look at them - they are so visually appealing. I read books on my ipad on occasion, but it's just not the same. It's convenient for travel, but I'm not giving up my paper books any time soon. I usually read several books at a time, one is almost always a novel, so this list isn't 100% typical. But here is what is on my nightstand right now: 1. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I haven't started this one yet but I've heard good things. I'm not usually into self-help books, but recognizing happiness in my every day is something I know I can improve upon. And I like to have at least one book that I can pick up and put down in short str...