Anyone else enjoying the lack of classes and papers?

I really have no excuse for not having added to the blog lately...except that I'm still recovering from the last semester and have managed to avoid doing just about everything that I have on my To Do list. I got an email from Josh yesterday that says "So it's my job to continue to pressure you to submit your paper. In a very nice way of course :) What can I help with?" I had to laugh and admit to myself that teaching two sections of Intro to Biology in summer school at SLCC isn't enough for me to claim that I'm too busy to work on it anymore... it's just my lack of desire to do anything serious that is holding me back ;)

I have been taking time to live a little more lately, like a trip to Manti last weekend, a couple of family reunions coming up, a trip to Montana next weekend, and training for a triathlon in August. I even tried to go on a ride with Lauren up Immigration Canyon a couple of weeks ago but we got about 20 minutes into the trip and the crank of my bike (the arm that the pedal hooks to) fell off, so I had to ride back down with one leg. I wish we'd had a camera!!! It's been really nice to have time to read or do something I want to do instead of being in the lab 24-7 (though I did have some great times and great conversations there, too). I'm starting to worry that I'll have enjoyed my freedom so much that I won't be able to get back into the studying groove come September.

Yes, that means that I am planning on going back for more... and Ashley will be excited that the position I accepted is in Texas. Of course it's still hours and hours away from her and Brian, but it's in Texas. I'll be headed to El Paso (unless something else changes in the next two months and I change my mind)- it's basically like living in Mexico since the city is 80% hispanic, it's just more expensive since we're still in the US. The good thing is that since it's good weather all year long I can ride my bike or motorcycle every day and save a ton of money on gas. The city apparently hasn't had any public health advise on road construction to increase bicycle usage, though, so I'll have to look for a path through residential streets to get to campus every day.

And lastly, for those of you who worked on the LEP project in Mike's class, our poster was accepted for APHA so we're going to start getting things together for it in the next few weeks. Maybe do a googledoc for old times sake? All of your names are listed with APHA as authors, so you can add that one to your resumes. I think we're in a Sunday afternoon session...

Hope you are all having a wonderful summer!