Busy Week

I've been completely bogged down over the past few days. Apparently I scheduled a bunch of things back to back, and I've more or less been running around like a nut for a solid four days now.

One of the reasons I've been so tied up is that the University closure last week made it difficult for me to do some of the work I had, specifically my GIS homework which involved a steep learning curve. I managed to get the trial software onto my computer at home so that I could finish the assignment. It turned out alright, but the next assignment is going to be really difficult and I want to make sure I spend plenty of time on it.

Yesterday, Larisa DeSantis (my guest for the topics class) was in town, so I was busy getting everything scheduled for her visit. I guess I became kind of a witch because I had to chase people down to get her schedule filled up. The cancellations last week left some planning to the last minute, which always makes me nervous. I was also majorly stressed, I haven't been getting enough sleep, my asthma is acting up, etc. etc. so it was just a bad combination. Larisa's visit went very smoothly, though, and in the end we all had a great time. She is someone I would seriously consider working with once I'm out of graduate school.

The last reason I haven't been posting on my own blog was because I was doing a bunch of other blogging for classes. The new post on the BioBlog is by me, and it is about my trip to Death Valley back in November. If you haven't seen it, you should check it out at BioBlog. I got a lot of wonderful edits from classmates, and it is so much better than the initial draft I wrote. Writing takes a tremendous amount of work, and I fully respect people who do it (well) for a living. I also updated the Paleoecology Blog last week, and we've been having some interesting discussion on that as well.

I will follow up later with more details about Larisa's visit.