First day of school

I'm glad to be back in classes. I'm not teaching this semester, but I am taking four classes (three real ones). I like having classes and lab meetings to structure my time. I get more done when I have a lot to do.

It also makes me happy that there are people around the lab again. At our first lab meeting today there were 10 women and Herb. There are some schedule conflicts, so that number will dwindle over the course of the semester. Some undergrads, some new grads, some moderately experienced grads, and one almost-finished grad. It's a pretty good mix, aforementioned personal conflicts aside.

Being away last week means that I missed all the departmentally-organized introductions to the new grad students. One lives just a few blocks from here so I offered to show her around the neighborhood.

I'm also excited about the new semester because it means the price of birth control went back down and I can go to the gym again. I'm seriously going to exercise regularly this year. I'm thinking of rock climbing once or twice a week. I'm also thinking of training for a very small triathalon (seriously, the shortest they have because I'm a terrible swimmer). If I can get someone else to train with me it will tremendously improve my dedication, especially for the swimming. Today I went to a group fitness class and they have a great new instructor this semester. The instructor really makes or breaks the group fitness experience.

I just changed my profile description to say that I'm a second year grad student instead of a first year grad student. Oh, the milestones!