back to find myself tagged

I'm home again from Maryland, finally full of some Cabernet, just finished with a rowdy game of Apples to Apples with my sweet E and her friend, and very glad be to finished with my science team meeting up in DC this week. I'm really wanting to write about my feelings about my first science team meeting (as a true PI) but for various reasons am hesitant. Maybe I will write more later. In any case, here I am, fresh out of a 3 day meeting with an intense focus on climate change in the arctic, and the various issues related to pulling off a very huge, multi-agency aircraft field campaign. I'll be in Fairbanks, Alaska for 2 weeks in April, but I think I can get away with not going to Cold Lake, Alberta Canada in July. It's going to be a very VERY busy year for me at work.

Turning to other-life, fellow blogger Coffee tagged me to tell about 7 interesting facts about myself. (Thanks for the call-out, coffee!)

Here goes:

1) I once ended up with an email discussing issues with breastfeeding my daughter being sent to pop-star MeatLoaf. It's a long, convoluted story as to how that happened. (M? Are you cringing right now???) In summary: discussion of difficulties breastfeeding, some internet newbie confusion as to the difference in "bounce" and "return" email commands, BFF with hollywood connections who felt safe sharing emails with me, a big OOPS, MEATLOAF being highly confused, BFF being mortally embarrassed, and myself left wondering how in the HELL all this happened. (LOL!!!!)

2) I saw Newt Gringrich in the Pittsburgh airport once. I had laryngitis. My memory is hazy (due to being quite sick and on meds at the time) but I remember lurching forward with DH grabbing my arm while I (barely) croaked out "NO NO NO!!!" or some other choice words. (Recall that am quite liberal and while I aspire to be understanding and accepting of all, Newt Gingrich is, um... N.O.T. one of my favorite people so I am surprised that I did not implode.) Hmmm. Not sure this is really all that interesting a fact. It's very amusing in my memory, though. The amusing part was the synchronicity of the siting with the laryngitis.

3) When I was in 6th grade, I wrote a story about global warming. (This was - good gosh - 32 years ago???) I'd happened to read or hear some news piece about it. I wrote a story about people fleeing to the mountains as the sea level rose catastrophically. I think I may still have it in a box up in my attic. I think it's absolutely amazing and somewhat magical that after 32 subsequent years of life with all its twists and turns (and not all that much conscious forward planning), that I have ended up in a career studying this exact phenomenon. I think I have ended up where I was meant to be. This is simultaneously THE most comforting and discomforting things ever in my life. Maybe it actually defines my life.

4) I dearly love documentaries. My son shares this passion with me. In just the last two weeks, we have watched documentaries on Thomas Jefferson, Charles Darwin, and the Galapagos Islands together. We love Carl Sagan's Cosmos series. We love the Discovery channel and PBS. The Blockbuster movie rental mail program is one of the best things that ever happened to us. I foresee myself old and in a wheelchair watching documentaries with my grown-up son one day. Geeks rule. But that's because you cannot BEAT learning new things. Really.

5) I had TMJ surgery when I was in college (undergrad). Dentists love to call in their trainees to look at my x-rays with all the brackets and screws. My facial structure after the surgery changed. I remember going back to college a few weeks afterwards. I saw one of my friends as I walked up to my apartment. "Hey, J!!!" he called, then he looked panicked. "I'm sorry," he told me. "I thought you were someone else." I laughed through my teeth (which were locked together at the time). "It's ME!!!!" I said. Or was it? Weird thing, to have your face change.

6) I really only love beaches in the wintertime. I like solitude. Ultimately, I am a very solitary person. I have worked to change this about myself, with moderate success in my everyday persona. But in my heart, I remain in love with being alone. I'm not sure if I'm better described as narcissistic or shy. Does it matter?

7) I did not date during high school. Ever. And despite my feelings at the time that I was doomed to be a complete loser forever, I was not. Yet, I do not know the secret of telling kids/preteens of today that the things they think define them today will not rule them for the rest of their lives. In fact, very little of the rest of their lives are defined by today. In FACT, it doesn't matter a WHIT. Yet, I fear, I will never be able to convince even my own children of this when the time comes. And, I think, THAT is the point. They won't know it until they discover it for themselves. All I can do is offer a non-judgemental smile and open arms when they need them. Kind of like my mommy and daddy did. :-)

8) I've had a very happy life. No complaints. (and I take this as the right to add a number 8 to a list of 7)