Just keep swimming.

I'm currently swimming in a sea of papers about Martian meteorites and GC-MS characterization of carbohydrates. Those things might not seem directly related at first, but what if I told you that no one's been able to figure out how ribose could have formed under the same conditions that formed the *rest* of RNA on Earth, and what if I reminded you that meteorites have been going back and forth between Earth and Mars for as long as Earth and Mars have existed? And what if I told you that no one's bothered to look for sugars specifically in the Martian meteorites that we have found?

This is a whole different paper from the previous assignment I was talking about, even though they both have to do with Mars. This one is much more massive. It isn't due until the week after next, but my weekends are filling up pretty quickly with dancing and other events that are supposed to be keeping me sane, but I have a feeling will leave me more stressed out in the end (in particular if I don't get going on this paper).

I don't really mind swimming in this particular sea of papers; after all, I chose the topic, and I think it's interesting stuff, and this will be a good exercise in writing a proposal. You could say that the water's just fine. But like real swimming, I do get tired after a while. Hopefully, I won't drown.

I had a chocolate Easter egg for breakfast today. Is that bad?

All this work would be less daunting if I were not already under a lot of pressure with my research. I was just accepted to give a talk at a conference in May (!), so M wants me to try to get our paper submitted before then. I don't know how serious he is about that deadline, but it's going to be *difficult*, to say the least, to meet it. It would be less difficult if:
a) The weather wasn't ridiculously gross outside. We're talking rain, then snow, then rain, until it's just a complete slushy mess. I don't mean to be a wuss but I just can't bring myself to walk a mile (each way) through that this weekend. And forget biking.
b) I wasn't training an undergrad. When M asked me if I'd be willing to be in charge of an undergrad in the lab, I didn't hesitate, because I remember how important that experience was for me. He's doing a good job, but it just takes him a long time to do everything, because he's just learning. And then it takes longer for me to do my stuff.
c) I didn't have this week-long training session coming up in May, which I have to do for this "leadership" job I'll be doing next year. The job itself shouldn't be too much work, but the training is absolutely required. I told M about it a while ago (I think), but I'm not looking forward to reminding him of it.

So I'm going to be ridiculously busy until...June. But usually I function best this way.