Wednesday, August 19, 2009

over encumbered

I’m working my way through my usual bloglist after being away from all internet activity for a while. Sciencewoman has a post here that reminded me of one of my travel/fieldwork pet peeves.

I am fairly young and able-bodied. I’m not generally travelling with a horde of small children. But at times I’m forced to lug extremely heavy and awkward stuff around in crowded places.

If you’re unencumbered and you see someone who has obviously had a long day, is limping, has several bandages on the hand she is using to grip her stuff, and is fighting with a door/trying to cross a street/trying to haul her stuff up a flight of stairs, the very least thing you can do is avoid getting in her way. I don’t usually ask for help from strangers, but I’d like to avoid getting run over by cars in crosswalks, having doors slammed in my face, and getting cut off by people going up stairs when I’m obviously struggling.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

farmer tan

I use sunscreen all the time when I'm out in the field. I usually use 45+, and on a good day I actually reapply the stuff every couple of hours. I tell people that I'm so diligent because I'm concerned about my skin's health, but the real reason is that I detest farmer tans.

Since I wear t-shirts nonstop in the summer if I'm doing fieldwork, when I have the opportunity to not wear one, I do. So you'll usually find me in something sleeveless or with a scoop neck. I look ridiculous with a farmer tan and a frilly little camisole.

So I was outside a couple days ago, wearing a t-shirt, and I did in fact apply a lot of sunscreen. However, I apparently missed the sides of my neck and a 1-inch strip right under the edge of my sleeves (both arms). I now have the ultimate farmer tan, and I'm going to an outdoor semiformal event (think sundress) in a couple of days. Grr.

Monday, August 17, 2009

blog break explanation

So, I haven't spent the last couple weeks in an internet-deprived wasteland. What happened to me? Bear with me, I'm going at this one sideways...

Once when I was in high school, I came across my dad's performance review. Here's what it said in a nutshell:

"We really, really like Mr. Geologist because he cares way too much about this company and his duties. We do realize that we've put Mr. Geologist into an utterly thankless position with an absurd amount of responsibility. Our one negative criticism is that he's obviously going to work/worry himself to death over his job, and we don't actually want him to keel over because of it. Maybe he should relax a little and delegate more."

My dad waited until the offsprings' college bills were taken care of, then dramatically quit. He is now at the same age that my grandfather (same personality) died of a massive heart attack. We are all holding our breath.

I've mentioned before that we don't get along well. Certain facets of his personality drive me nuts, and I'm aware that some of the things that aggravate me the most are traits that I share. Like impatience, with myself and with other people. Like being unable to stop worrying, stop stressing out about things that are essentially out of my control.

The last month of work has been really hard. Even though I can't control what's going wrong, I can't help feeling responsible. I've been working long hours, coming home, reading garbage popcorn books to try and take my mind off work, and going to bed. Weekends, I sleep for hours and hours because I've built up a huge sleep deficit during the week. I haven't taken care of anything other than pressing bills, haven't gotten back to friends when they call.

Things are not looking up yet at work, but I've decided that I need to fight through this and not succumb to the temptation to become a hermit. Part of this is getting back into the habit of writing a post every day. We'll see how it goes...