You know you’ve lived life well when the Christians start calling you names. See The History of Hypatia, a most Impudent School-Mistress of Alexandria: Murder’d and torn to Pieces by the Populace, in Defence of Saint Cyril and the Alexandrian Clergy from the Aspersions of Mr. Toland.
Backbreaking data analysis
I felt about a thousand years old as I got up to stretch my achy back and refold the blanket I use to cushion my desk chair. Data analysis should not be this hard on my back. I may be lusting after another pair of shoes,
tn_29 at gravitypope
but a new deskchair is a much more practical (and affordable) New Year’s purchase. Ikea, here I come!
Bonus for the bright colors! I like to have a room full of colorful things, no matter if they clash.
What motivates that crazy activist?
Friends and family (but mostly family) have called me alarmist for the way I talk about climate change. They think people like Tim DeChristopher, who’s in prison for an act of nonviolent civil disobedience, are absolutely nuts. But consider this conversation DeChristopher had with IPCC author Terry Root at one of her presentations:
I went up to her afterwards and said, “That graph that you showed, with the possible emission scenarios in the twenty-first century? It looked like the best case was that carbon peaked around 2030 and started coming back down.” She said, “Yeah, that’s right.” And I said, “But didn’t the report that you guys just put out say that if we didn’t peak by 2015 and then start coming back down that we were pretty much all screwed, and we wouldn’t even recognize the planet?” And she said, “Yeah, that’s right.” And I said: “So, what am I missing? It seems like you guys are saying there’s no way we can make it.” And she said, “You’re not missing anything. There are things we could have done in the ’80s, there are some things we could have done in the ’90s—but it’s probably too late to avoid any of the worst-case scenarios that we’re talking about.” And she literally put her hand on my shoulder and said, “I’m sorry my generation failed yours.” [from this Orion Magazine interview]
Maybe if more scientists were more vocal about what we were facing, DeChristopher wouldn’t seem so crazy.
New Pants
When I moved to Epiphyte City, my migraines got a lot better, leaving me with more time and energy to do all sorts of things, including an hour of yoga every day and swing dancing several nights a week. Despite all the new exercise, I’ve steadily gained weight. I had no idea why, until I went back to Small Southwestern Town for a visit over Christmas.
All of my old friends were shocked at my appearance – I looked so much better to them. I made the connection between their compliments and my expanding waistline quickly, which led me to the reason I’ve gained weight. I looked better to my friends because I’m healthier. When I lived in Small Southwestern Town, I had migraines 2 to 4 days a week, and when I have a migraine, I usually can’t eat. Since I almost never get migraines in Epiphyte City, I eat every single day.
No wonder I need new pants!
Epiphyte City
One of my favorite things about my new city are the epiphytes. Lichen and moss quickly take up residence on nearly any exposed surface – from tree trunks to stop signs. So from now on, I’ll be referring to my new city as Epiphyte City.
Holiday anecdote (at least I’m not as crazy as my family)
It’s 6:30am. My sister stretches, makes a noise somewhere between nails on a chalkboard and cartoon opera singer, turns to me and says,
Sometimes when I yawn I feel like an air raid siren. What do you feel like when you yawn?
Eating and sleeping – more complicated than you might think
One day a few weeks ago I hit a few migraine triggers on the same day. The night before, I’d been so engrossed in the work I was doing that I accidentally stayed up two hours later than usual. Then my day was busy, so I was really, really hungry by the time I found a moment to sit down and eat lunch.
Migraine Barbie has Snapped by Deborah Leigh on Flickr
I canceled my swing dancing plans that evening. I didn’t have a migraine when I decided not to go. I didn’t even have an aura when I decided not to go. In fact, I felt perfectly fine. I didn’t go dancing because of a migraine I thought I might get if I went dancing. Maybe the music would have been too loud or I might have gotten too hot or used too much energy. So I stayed in, read a few papers, and went to bed exactly on time.
I feel like I should be grateful. The place I grew up or the small southwestern town where I did most of my undergraduate degree had frequent and fairly large changes in barometric pressure that either triggered my migraines directly or made me more sensitive to other migraine triggers, like altering my sleep schedule or getting very hungry. My new city, though, has very stable barometric pressure, so even though I exposed myself to two triggers in one day, I spent my evening relaxed and productive instead of lying on the floor next to the toilet.
In the place where I grew up, I was sick almost all the time. In the small southwestern town, I was sick about 3 days a week. In my new city, I only have migraines once or twice a month. I am happy. It is wonderful to schedule a meeting and not have to reschedule. It is wonderful to have time to go swing dancing and do homework. It is wonderful to take an afternoon a week to just do nothing – and know that the rest of the week I’ll be well enough to do my work.
But I still want to be well. I wish I had a normal amount of energy and didn’t have to be so careful about eating and sleeping. I want to stay late at dinner with my friends. I want to go swing dancing even though I ate a late lunch. I want to stay up all night talking to a beautiful girl after an amazing first date. I want to work 8 hours and then go to a show. I want to have a beer at journal club. I want to stay up late to watch a meteor shower. I want to go on a hike and come home and write a paper. I want to spend all day out with friends and then stay up half the night working on an assignment. I want to keep working until 3am when I’ve got a good idea. I want to eat more avocados. I want to roll over when my alarm goes off and go back to sleep on Saturday morning.
The average 20-something might need an extra cup of coffee after some of those things. I might pay with two days trapped in bed with a migraine.
It’s incredible to feel so much better: grad school is a lot easier and a lot more fun because of it. But it’s hard not to chafe at the restrictions migraines still place on my life.