Daily happenings

Since the birth of peanut I've been doing a lot of reading. Some new moms lament a lack of time for all things adult, especially reading...but I've found myself with an obscene amount of naptime and thus I read like a crazed fool! Actually it all started a few weeks before my due date. I think I had some subconscious fear I would never have time to read again, and so I started reading nonstop. I must have gone through a book a week or more, which I haven't done in a looong time. Then post-birth, Jake's mom brought me a bunch of Jodi Picoult books. So I've read four of those since the second week of September. I've read some science nerd stuff, some fiction, some travel writing (I love Bill Bryson). Now I'm about to read Isabel Allende's "House of the Spirits".
I have an addiction to book wish lists. I like to visit Powell's website (best book store ever, located in Portland Oregon...I've been there once and nearly started drooling uncontrollably at the vastness and scope of selection), and add new books on a regular basis. It's a sickness, much like my Netflix Queue. I have more than 100 movies in that damn queue, and I never stop adding. Last year we got 50 movies total from Netflix. This means I have 2 YEARS worth of movies chosen. Unnecessary much? But I digress. I was just thinking about how many books I've read recently and how we're traveling to Pittsburgh this weekend for a wedding, and Sunday will be my first mountain bike ride since April! And once again, pretty much basking in the glow of how mellow life can be when you don't think too hard and just do what's come naturally (and how much grandparents rule for babysitting this weekend)!

With any luck, I'll return to New Haven on Monday with bruises and muscle soreness. I haven't had a worthy mountain biking ride (including drops, rocks, and MUD) since February. Rock gardens here I come!

Balance and Flow

Life has been one long string of things that I've worked hard at, but initially pursued to a minimum. College? I applied to 2 schools late in the year. Visited 2. Didn't like 1 but liked the other. Got Accepted. Went to School. The End. No complications. No in depth research. I pretty much just visited a school based on someone's suggestion and found it a nice enough place to continue my education. Post College? I applied to one job and took it. By chance it happens that I got the opportunity to study brain imaging, and work on publications, and present at conferences. Again, worked hard...but pretty much the opportunity found it's way to me rather than vice versa. Then came Yale. I presented data at a conference and was offered a job based on that presentation. So I went, and here I am. Then there's my little peanut. My fiance and I hadn't quite planned to have children for another couple of years, but were so happy when we discovered the news. Motherhood too, as it turns out, was unexpectedly dropped in my lap and has become my happiest time alive yet. And so now I'm faced with a crossroads. I have to apply to grad school. For the first time I'm researching and comparing and completely befuddled by the choices...and concerned that I won't get in...and won't know what to do next if I don't. Oy. But I have to trust that the flow I've become accustomed too will somehow find it's way into this process. I have to believe this happy balance will continue. If not, I'll adapt...but what a strange chapter in life I'm about to enter.