All summer in a day

It has been a while since I have had a day off.  I am working at the Palo Alto Research Center for a while (possibly until mid-August) and we (Michael Recht and I) are scrambling to gather lots of data in a little time.  Consequently, we have been working long days in a cold, loud, windy room doing lots of trouble shooting. We have been fairly successful.  Our troubles are not lying dead in the street, but they seem somewhat subdued for now.  

We have some real data in which we are confident.  Real data are like the drugs that keep scientists hooked to relentless schedules like the one we are working on now.  We sleep, eat, and collect data. I am dead tired, but running off the buzz of really cool data.  However, I have a glorious half hour to sit and do whatever I want because we took some time out this morning to think, which put us off schedule.  If we were to start our experiments right now, we would miss lunch in the cafeteria.  I brought my lunch, but Michael didn't and it's Mexican food day which is pretty good.  Though it would be nice to skip the eating part of our lives right now, that really isn't practical.  I am glad to have a half hour to simple sit.

I realized that I will not be doing anything this next Saturday besides getting ready for the Gordon Research Conference on Microbial Population Genetics which is in New Hampshire next week.  My time prior to this Saturday is completely scheduled, and from the moment my plane touches down in San Francisco upon returning from the conference, my time is scheduled.  (Yes, I will be in the lab at the end of a traveling day which includes taking a shuttle to Boston, a flight from Boston to SFO, and a 2.5 hr car drive back to Merced).  

I am not sure what I will do this Saturday.  My sewer line should be completely replaced by the end of today and I am not sure what my backyard will look like when I return, so maybe I'll put it back together.  I am sure I'll do a couple loads of laundry.  Maybe I will take a nap or read or go for a walk or watch Hmong guys play volleyball with their feet.  All of those sound great right now.

I did forego some sleep last night and went dancing in Palo Alto.  The music was Latin and I taught a couple of guys to Merengue.  It was fun. I noticed that all of the women in this area have long hair that is really shiny with at least a few curls in it.  I showed up with my short (though stylish) hair, blue fingernail polish and a cute shirt depicting a small child about to be eaten by a sea serpent.  I felt like the entire counter culture population present and had a good time regardless.