Can someone define busy for me?

After getting back from Asilomar last Friday, and working through the weekend, I finished a homework assignment on Tuesday afternoon, realizing that I really did not have the time required to put the right amount of effort into it. I completely realize that there is nothing I can do to get everything done, but it has to somehow get settled. After my class ended at 245, I had a meeting with Mehdi to talk about the state of my project. I basically said I had no more time to work on the project and described what I would be able to do, and that I had to focus on my new rotation. He was fine with this, however he is also looking to finish up his postdoc and is leaving as soon as a few weeks from now for an industry job (ie, losing all contact with me). Arend is still interested in getting a paper, something I was not totally aware was in the works. After that I headed back to MSOB, finished up my homework for 211, and went out with Noah, Alex and David to get some food (Ryan picked me up and drove me home after). David got some really spicy food, I guess it was too much to handle!

When I got home I resumed work on Atul's 217 homework (which was due on Monday) but I decided I would take my late days. Luckily, Atul announced that he had decided to drop the last homework assignment (thank goodness). I still had to do enough research in order to get some sort of idea for what my project title would be (hard deadline on Wednesday). Intermittently I was working on Gill's work with motif finding so that I would have something for my meeting with him on Friday. In other words, I was taking a break from work with, well, more work!! Senator kept me company in the dryer (we now always close the dryer...god forbid he's in it when we run it)!!!

On Wednesday morning I got up at 10 (after going to bed at 3-seven hours does NOT cut it for me) in order to do my study guide for my ethics course at noon, which I attended (12-1). At 3:30 I had Atul's class. I worked almost solid until 3pm, when I met Marc at the cafe across from class to get some food and some well-needed german in. We got back our homework in Atul's class and I was 0.5 points above the average! Professors David Chen and Alex Morgan (yes I know they are fellow first years...but seriously?!?!) scored so high that even if I had answered all my questions 100% correctly I would not have gotten their score! During class Marina was sending me IMs and Yael wrote me emails, they were both sitting in my row (see right)! It was VERY entertaining.

At 5pm (immediately after class )I went to Fry's to pick up Ryan's valentine's day present, and got home to exchange gifts, finalize my title and turn it in, and leave at 645 for San Francisco (on our date-yes I deserve SOME time off). We went to Rose Pistola, where I relaxed for a bit. I even bumped into a girl from high school, Jodi Vergo! She sat down right next to me, it was INSANE! We drove back, and I was singing and dancing in the car, which I now realize Ryan has grown completely immune to seeing. You would think having someone next to you flailing her arms around would distract you from driving, not Ryan. I guess it has been long enough (almost 5 years) to grow used to my antics. He snapped a picture!

When we got back I worked until I had to go to sleep!

The next day I went in to school at 12:15, I totally overslept (almost 8 full hours), and just worked all day. I didn't have any time to go do anything. I worked until 11:30, when I turned in my program (30 minutes before the deadline)! I resumed my work for Gill, but my computer started acting funny, so I went home at 12:30, and my hard drive completley died! It was TERRIBLE! This has happened to me more than once. The timing was horrible, of course, since I need the computer, but at the same time good since it happened AFTER my deadline!! Ryan stayed up until 7am trying to recover my data!

The next morning (after another 4 hour night) Ryan found that he hadn't been able to recover my study guide for my ethics course, so I had to do it over again! I attended my ethics class, and had my meeting with Gill, which of course wasn't as productive as it could be since I lost all my data (quite depressing).

After the meeting I went back and set up times for the South Africa Bioinformatics seminar for which I'm organizing the Stanford-end of things, got a laptop from Alex, and then realized my weekend was FINALLY here! I had tried my best to try to find someone to tag along with to hang out, but not one was receptive, so I decided to ask around if people were interested in going to the Old Pro around 6! Annie pointed out that the BioMass event was that night, so we went there first. We got there a bit late, and the food was mostly gone, but we took what scraps we could and had a good time!

We went to the Old Pro, where we met Ryan. David, Alex, Rahul, Annie, Marc and I headed over together. Noah literally showed and left, not sure what happened to him! We ordered one of those huge beer things, got some food, and had a great time! I went to the Apple store after, where they reformatted my hard drive, and reinstalled OS X. It is definitely not working right, and on the one hand I just want to deal with it until the end of the quarter, on the other hand that is a really bad idea since it could really just die at any second. I think I will go in tomororw and "lay down the law"!

Rahul must have had a really long week too! He seems really happy to see that beer!

Alex rode the bull!

So did Rahul! He is a PARTY ANIMAL! He was also the one who was excited about playing hands at Asilomar!

Alas...all good things must come to an end.

Rahul and Ryan show the rest how it's done.

Thanks for letting me borrow the hat Ryan!!

I guess I am just no longer sure what busy means. My old perception has completely shifted. In college I was clearly not being challenged at any level nearly as high as this one. I now have a new found respect for people who tell me they are busy. Can they please tell me how to make it more manageable? Or is this really just unique to graduate school (I really doubt it-but I have heard that most people who have never been here do not understand). I don't think I did a very good job conveying it...maybe I should do a montage of my life. Sometimes I feel like I sleep too many hours just because I need the time. I'm starting to think that Sam Pearlman's idea to switching to sleeping 20 minutes every few hours is a better idea!! Maybe I'll give that a try! I just have to decide what hours are best for that...At least I know I can always take a nap on one of our desks!