moving forward

- reviews of my paper came back: accepted with "major" revisions. they actually used the word "major". it was really hard for me to read the reviews. their nature is to be harsh, critical, and unless your paper is near perfect, they don't have too many positive things to say. and we all know how well i take criticism. enrique thought they were pretty good reviews. i thought he was crazy. i responded to them by diving head-first into experiments: i pounded out 3 solid, consecutive days of experiments on the microscope. procrastination by occupation, escape by keeping busy with something else. that sort of thing. i think i am finally ready to confront the reviews and revising my paper.

one of the things that's been hard about all this is that enrique's been really busy lately, not just with committee & grant work, but with helping other people in lab write papers. i guess i'm not at a terribly critical point so i don't need a lot of his attention, and it is saying something that he doesn't need to be holding my hand through every step. but a bit more guidance might be nice. i could always ask for it...

i have to come to terms with the fact that i am just not as social as some people -- as most of my friends, actually. i do like to go out, but on my own terms, when i'm in the mood for it, and i can't always predict what i'm going to feel like doing in advance. i definitely seem to need more "me" time than patrice does; she will go hang out with alicia or abby on a random sunday night. me, i'd rather sit at home by myself, especially after an active, social weekend. but that's OK.

heading home for X-mas in 4 days. yikes! where did december go?? don't have all my plans ironed out for what i'm going to try to do and who i'm going to try to see while i'm home. my big 3 are fred, doug, and katy sullivan et al. there's always the car issue, too -- trying to negotiate the borrowing of a car while i'm home in FdL. i still feel bad asking for one...but i shouldn't. ask, if it's a big deal, my parents can say no. oh yeah, i need to try to relax in there sometime, too.