Nerds at the Round Table

Some days seem to mark themselves as important.  A memory has substance. A task list rolls forward. The sound of laughter lingers.  Not too long ago, I had one of those days. 

Last month I had served as a grant reviewer for a new federal granting agency, and kept thinking that I can do this.  So, I forwarded to one colleague the announcement for this rather new grant funding stream. She immediately responded with "let's pull out that grant on post partum women that we almost did."  Being office neighbors and friends for several years, I knew exactly what she was referring to. And, as simply as that is how grant application activities get started.

By the following week we had a meeting scheduled with two other colleagues from medicine. We met in my new, slightly larger office which has curtains and a round table for meeting.  Among the four of us (women), the ideas immediately started flowing.  We noted which grant guidance nuances that would need to be addressed. We mapped out an overall research plan and a subject recruitment plan. We all groaned at the short amount of time to do so much, and at a time when we all already have pretty full plates. But, the grant idea is good and like hounds we were following the scent of potential funding. The mix of brain power and enthusiasm around the table far outweighed our reservations.  So, I have a section of the grant proposal to develop, as do the others.

My office neighbor and I handed the title of principal investigator to our younger, not yet tenured colleague. We both have reached a place where we can be more generous in that way, and love the mentoring aspect of this emerging project.

Yes, us four nerds at my office round table were having fun. The way academic work ought to be fun. Now, we are focused on getting the proposal written and pulled together, and then we will cross our fingers. Hopefully, early next year, I'll have good news. Meanwhile, I have the good news of enjoying, a little bit like the "whistle while you work" enjoyment of life.

Clumpiness of Life

Astronomers have found that matter is not evenly distributed across the universe; it's a clumpy distribution. Hence we have galaxies.  I find this a very useful analogy of how human life unfolds: in clumps of business and events. I've been in one of those clumps for the past few weeks. Not oppressively dense, but dense enough to need to stay focused on timelines and deadlines and tasks.

One contributor to the clump was an invitation to return to RWJF in Princeton, NJ, to continue the discussion of the future of public health nursing. We were a small group and spent a full day of identifying barriers and possible solutions to improving and supporting the existing workforce. So, I prepared a little handout for the meeting and made the round trip in two days. I felt as though it was a good discussion and now we will wait and see what RWJF decides to do.

Another contributor the recent clump has been students wanting to meet about their MPH capstone paper. It's usually this time of year that those who want to graduate in May come asking for help. I think of this as a good thing. But, these meetings do fill up the calendar. Thankfully, those I have spoken with seem to be on task, on target and on time. To be honest, the capstone paper is the one activity in which I really work with the students, helping them pull all the content together into a package that will help them get a job.

A third contributor to the clumpiness is the revisions to my textbook. In July I forwarded all the chapters for the 3rd edition. Now, I am getting those files back with questions from the editor. Things like "this url is outdated" and "where does this table go".  Things that need attention to make the book as good as possible. But, these little things take time. There's no glossing over them.

The last clump contributor was the decision to write a grant proposal for a Dec 5 deadline. Although I am not the PI, the research team (more the proposal team) have swung into high gear.  These deadlines have a way of motivating, being a distraction, and generating some anxiety. I'll update the blog with how the project progresses.

Now, that the clump is thinning, a little, I can make my way back to the routine work of HCMR editorship, course instructor, research collaborator, and manuscript writer.  I guess the clumpiness analogy only goes so far; there's no vacuum in my life.