status update

My back still hurts today. It’s difficult to say whether it hurts more or less than it did yesterday, but sitting is kind of painful. I brought my hot pack to work today and microwaved it a few times, and it helped a little bit. I am just fine when I am lying down. I suspect it has to do with the pressure of my body weight not being vertically on my spine. Walking isn’t the greatest, but it’s better than sitting. I took some advil and I think it must have worked because I am in less discomfort.

But really, it’s probably all an elaborate controversy orchestrated by whatever muscles are involved to convince me that what I really should do is just stay home and recuperate. I would like to stay home and recuperate, but I think I would be bored. I guess my hours outside of work are more special because of the hours I spend at work.

Syracuse has a game against Wake Forest tomorrow night, and I am hoping that I can watch it on my computer. Pittsburgh lost to Duke last night. I was hoping that that would not be the case, but alas, it was. It’s all right, though. We have to play a game against Duke on Saturday. At least that game will be a home game.

Andy is out of town today, tomorrow, and Thursday. This means that Newhouse has to cover his class tomorrow morning, which we may or may not attend, depending on how busy we feel, or how powerful inertia’s hold on us happens to be. Apparently Andy is giving a lecture at UConn tomorrow afternoon.

None of us have ever heard him speak. There is a plan developing to drive the 45 minutes to UConn and crash his lecture, just to hear him talk about what we’re doing. Hopefully that doesn’t end up being a scary and/or disheartening thing. I think it could be fun to hear Andy give a talk; it was my understanding that he was going to talk at last year’s Chemical Biology symposium, but that did not end up coming to pass.

So, assuming all goes well, we’ll have a little science talk and then we’ll drive back to New Haven. I haven’t had sushi in a while, and Kate is feeling the sushi bug herself, so we have tentative plans to go out for sushi tomorrow night. You know. Just ‘cause. Sometimes you need a little tuna.

Tuna sashimi is so good that I often wonder why people like canned tuna fish. Convenience, I suppose, and when you don’t know what you’re missing, it seems like a pretty reasonable thing to eat. I really like tuna melts… I haven’t thought about tuna melts in years. But I really like them.

I have lacked for focus pretty seriously today. It is something that happens to me pretty regularly. I wonder if I am entering some elusive second stage of senioritis. The problem is that I don’t know that I want to be done… what comes next?!

Stay tuned for status updates on my back. Ha, ha, ha.