The final stretch

It's November 28 today. I can't believe the term has flown so quickly by. I have one major paper left, 2 presentations with the 2 group papers we've submitted so it certainly isn't over yet.

I miss a few spare hours to do nothing (although there is a nice collection of back shows to watch collecting on the PVR). I'd like to pull out the Advent stuff (seeing as tomorrow starts Advent). But if I go into the under-eave storage, I'll be tempted to start cleaning. Okay, I'll get distracted. I have started to seriously wonder if I'm ADHD!

Back to the paper.

My own soundtrack

I remember walking for hours as a teenager (we lived in Whitehorse; not only was it a stunningly beautiful place to live, there was no internet, 2 radio stations - CBC and CKRW - and 3 TV stations as we didn't have cable).

It was always a source of wonderment to me how people in the movies would have a soundtrack signaling the protagonists' mood and heralding future events, I wished that I could have my own soundtrack.

Fast forward 30 years. I wander to class with earplugs safely lodged in my ears, and realized that most of us ARE wandering around these days with our own soundtracks! I have a couple favourite lists that I listen to but branch out occasionally. I like this technology!

The WORST is over?

I think I may have hit apogee!

For the last three weeks I've been moving every moment from one project/paper to the next. (Or in Vancouver last weekend for a fall institute where interestingly I presented a poster on health care workers and influenza vaccinations!)

I tear myself away from writing a paper to run to a meeting for a group project. Today I ran back for 2 minutes to slap a few more words into a poorly designed paragraph so I wouldn't lose the thought (community based research and policy). Then I hopped into the car to the U of A for the group meeting (collaborative agreement assignment). When I came home I looked at another group project (community gardens) and then back to the paper... In between I try to look engaged when people talk to me, and when they call I have to determinedly look AWAY from the computer or my attention is divided and then gets suuucked into the computer. The human voice is no challenge when I'm in the middle of this stuff!

But, now the paper is 95% done. I have <4 hours of work to do this weekend, the glory of it is that I can't do more - I'm waiting for others to do their part or to get a draft back :)

Happy happy. Oh, I know that it will speed up again, but it shouldn't be that frantic. Ahhhh. Ahhh. Mmmm.

Repetitive Injury

I gave in last week and purchased a wrist protector. It keeps my right wrist from twisting or rolling (as opposed to pitch and yaw). Thanks to an inept database interface, I spend my research assistant time inputting information into a poorly constructed excel form which requires 35 stupid movements per survey (out of about 50). So in nursing terms I have repetitive strain injury.

In student terms, I think I have repetitive brain injury! This is the craziest week of them all for what has to be handed in and what's quickly coming "down the pipe". So I'm spending hours on the computer putting things together and thinking great thoughts I'm sure (if only I could recall them with coherence). Happily, one is handed in only a day late (with permission) and I'm struggling to get tomorrow's together (no hope till this weekend, also with permission).

As for influenza, Alex probably had H1N1 last week (Jocelyn's nursing class calls it the hinny flu). I have a tickly throat and a dry cough. And fatigue. No fever. Could be worse!