Breaking the Habit

It seems that smoking will soon be a thing of the past. On Tuesday evening I began the patches and they seem to be working very well. Though perhaps not the most orthodox of quitting techniques, I've allowed myself one cigarette per day since, duing the late afternoon hours when I take off the old patch and before I put on the new one. An interesting (and encouraging) observation associated with this: Wednesday's cigarette was good. Thursday's was so-so, and today's was just terrible. I only got a few drags into it before putting it out and rushing off to the bathroom to brush my teeth and gargle with a gallon of mouthwash. Blech!

Cravings haven't been all that pronounced save for yesterday morning. This was an exceptionally rough time, but after a few hours of anxiety and fighting the urge to rush out to the closest convenience store to buy a pack, the urge passed and I haven't had the desire since. Even now, as I sit at the computer with a cup off coffee on the desk (two of the most powerful smoking triggers: computer time and coffee), the urge to light up is strangely absent. I haven't even put on the new patch yet, so one would assume there would be at least a minimal desire to smoke.Yet it's simply not there. Very curious. Having quit before (back in 2002) I know very well that powerful smoking urges can suddenly arise out of nowhere, so I'm proceeding with all due caution. The important thing to remember is that the urge will pass, ususally within ten minutes or so. Sure there's a long way to go to conquer the habit, but I'm well along on that road.

Fifth Wheel

Having decided a last minute cancellation would be rude, I went though with the dinner plans last night. It was a mixed affair. The food was good, though the setting was awkward in the sense that it was a "couples night" sort of dinner. Well, two couples and me. I have no idea why I was invited and it was a rather uncomfortable thing being the fifth wheel. Most of the conversation revolved around two general topics: their work (they're all employed by same organization) and weddings (my sister's forthcoming wedding, the other couple's wedding, and various weddings recently attended), so my contribution to the conversation was more or less limited to such things as "oh really?" and "that's nice." But mostly I just sat there quietly, wishing I had pager duty (paging oneself is a great way to get out of bad situations. BEEP BEEP BEEP. "Oh my. Gotta go. BYE!")

Pager or not, I was able to escape about halfway thought the evening. After dinner, the group was going to walk down to the Bier Garden a block or so away to meet up with some more of their friends and have a few beers. I seized this opportunity to politely excuse myself and flee back to Norfolk. Perhaps had I been in a more gregarious mood, the evening may not have been so tedious and I wouldn't have minded spending the sixty dollars for dinner (per person, counting food, wine, appetizers, and tip). Ah well. Such is life.

As the weather has deteriorated (cloudy, cool, with rain on the way), I won't be making the trip to the Outer Banks today. This is unfortunate as it leaves a gaping hole in the plans for my only free weekend until late August. So I think my two chocies for today are 1) Go to the university library to research some topics of interest, and/or 2) Drop by the office to work on assorted tasks that are difficult to accomplish with the distractions of the workweek.

Rambling

1. Booked the flights to Guatemala early this past week. The trip will run from July 10 to the 23 and the flights themselves are very good save for an eight hour layover in Miami on the way back home. A rather disagreeable thing, but I can't complain as the booking process took place rather late in the game. Now I need to start working on organizing the flights to Scotland in September for my sister's "destination wedding."

2. This is my first free weekend in ages (no pager duty, no research), and about the only thing I've done is clean the apartment. At least started on it anyway. Also got around to reorganizing the kitchen. Ho-hum. Maybe I'll actually leave the apartment tomorrow. Had tentatively planned to make a trip down to the Outer Banks of North Carolina at some point this weekend.

3. I've slipped back into a hermit mood as of late. These are curious phases when I simply want to be left alone beyond the obligation of work. As a rule, I won't pick up the phone, I won't return voicemail, and knocks at my door go unanswered. I've politely declined several social engagements this weekend, but am still trying to worm my way out of having dinner with my sister, her fiance, and a bunch of their friends tonight. I wonder how rude it would be to simply not show up? There will be a large group of people there, so my absence won't have any impact either way. Would so rather just stay home and busy myself with reading, working on my Spanish vocabulary, finishing up the cleaning project, or simply just listening to music. Up to a certain point, these solitary periods are a welcome thing, though I'm sure it drives my friends crazy. Ah well, it's one of my greatest eccentricities. Take it or leave it.

Clouds and Rain

Cloudy and cooler today in Norfolk with occasional rain showers. This is a nice break from the insufferable humidity of the last few days and will make today's research trip a little more adventurous between the muddy roads and slogging through swamps in ankle to knee deep water.

No real plans for today other than research. If that goes well, I should be back home by 4-5pm unless I do something silly like accidentally wedge the Jeep between two trees.

Me: "Hmmm. Guess this wasn't a road after all."

Weekend Festivities

Went over to my sister's place yesterday afternoon for the annual Memorial Day cookout. It was a small affair (only myself, my sister and her fiance, and our parental units), but a considerable amount of fun nonetheless. As to my contribution to the affair, I brought over an organge cake and a Thai beef curry. Both of which were well received, particularly the curry, which surprised me as I made it "Thai hot," meaning that it was...well...hot. Will certainly have to make the curry again in a few weeks when I host a dinner social thing here for my laboratory staff from work.

It is rather doubtful I will make it to the gym today. My body is simply too sore from several hours of Extreme Badminton yesterday afternoon and evening. It's played like regular badminton (sort of) except there are not rules whatsoever. As there are not "out of bounds" you spend a lot of time running here and there like a wet hen, reaching, lunging, and performing all sorts of acrobatics. About sunset, with darkness gathering and several glasses of wine consumed, it became Ridiculous Badminton, a lot of fun in its own way, though not nearly as competitive.

Momentum

Haven't been to the gym in almost two weeks and I'm finding it very difficult to go today. I've lost momentum (at least temporarily) and am coming up with all these viable excuses not to go (I have pager duty, blah, blah blah. I need to cook for tomorrow's cookout. blah, blah, blah). Rather remarkable the process of talking oneself into or out of something. Foraying to the gym will take only about two hours of my time, so it's not exactly a major committment, despite the perceived justifications otherwise.

Screw it. I'm off to the gym. As one of my friends in the Army says: "Just do it! Hooah!!"

Plagues and other Delightful Things

Up much later this morning than my usual time (8:30 instead of 5 or 6) due to a very late night. Whilst sorting my book collection shortly after my post yesterday afternoon, I stumbled across Laurie Garrett's "The Coming Plague" which was among a stack of books in need of shelf space and one that I have not yet read. I began thumbing through it, then decided to read the introduction, and before I knew it several hours had passed and I was well into the text. Close to two in the morning, I reluctantly put the book down and went to sleep. It's a remarkable book about old and new infectious diseases and the role of humanity in the resurgence of old diseases and some particularly nasty new ones. I foresee a delightful weekend of hemorrhagic fevers, drug resistant bacteria, and vengeful parasites. Ahh. Bliss.

Weekend Plans

The oppressive heat and humidity of the day is now giving way to clouds and thunderstorms. A short while ago we had a few drops of rain and off somewhere in the distance I can hear the deep growl of thunder. Hopefully things will cool off some when and if a storm passes through. This is the first real summer-like day of 2006 in Norfolk and I'm not quite yet ready for the humidity. The heat I can tolerate with little problem; the humidity is what sends you scurrying for an air-conditioned environment.

So it's a Friday afternoon, the beginning of the long Memorial Day weekend. No real plans as of yet other than a cookout over at my sister's place Sunday afternoon. As I have pager duty this weekend, I'm going to have to stay relatively close to home, which is just as well since I have a lot to do around here anyway. This weekends' research will be delayed until next week since the ecological preserve is too far out in the middle of nowhere for the pager to have reception. Realy don't want to take the chance of being out of communication for several hours, just in case something happens. This is fine with me as I can certainly use the break.

One project I want to begin this weekend is cataloguing my book collection and organizing my study/library. At the moment, I have books scattered everywhere. Some are well-organized on the shelves here in my study with others on the shelves in the living room. These are fine. The ones that are bothering me are those scattered about the living room and bedroom; and a good many more still boxed up in various closets. What a nightmare. To be honset, I'm not sure how many books I now have. When last I totaled up the collection, I had somewhere around 500, most of which were history, anthropology, and literature. And most were hardback, so I shudder to think just how much I've spent on my reading habit over the years. But again, the last book quantification attempt was some years ago and I've made many additions to the library and some deletions (giving away a number of historical books), so the net total may be about the same. Who knows. This is something I am determined to find out this weekend.

Belated Weekend Relaxation

Finally a little free time to myself to savor what remains of the weekend. All of yesterday and most of today (up until about a half hour ago) I was tied up with thesis research, including both fieldwork and the ever enjoyable (yet tedious) laboratory aspect. Certainly it was a very involved weekend and I'm both physically and mentally drained. Thankfully, the work is mostly complete save for joitting a few more notes in my field notebook and working on data tabulation.
Off to relax a bit.

Thursday Afternoon

So it has been quite some time since my last post. Between work, research, and other sundry things life simply got in the way. Oddly enough, not much of any real interest to report during my time away from the blog.

Except for one thing.

I found out this afternoon that I have been awareded a summer research grant for which I applied several weeks ago. It's not a tremenous amount of money at all, but will be sufficient to cover air fare, accomodations, and other incidentals during my time abroad. I'll be heading to Guatemala to do the biologist thing with a trip duration of anywhere between two weeks and a month. My in-country contacts are thinking a month minimum (which is fine by me), though I have certain obligations here that might get in the way. Thesis reseach won't be a problem as I can ensare some ungraduates to carry out the fielwork whilst I am away. Making the arrangements with work will be a bit more dicey, though I have sufficent leave to cover my absence. I'll broach the issue with my director tomorrow and see what happens. I suspect that a month away might be too traumatic for admin, so the most viable solution may be two trips of two to three weeks each, with the first trip being in early July and the second trip coming later in the summer.

Anyway..more on this later.