back 2 skool

Staples says that it's the most wonderful time of the year. the yellow school buses were out in force this morning; and, thankfully they didn't slow down my ride much. it will be interesting to see how the state take-over will affect the StL City schools this year. after last year's nightly news tele-novella, "As Veronica O'Brien Turns..." I'm curious to see if having the district run by grown-ups will change things. for the sake of the teachers and students, I can at least hope for a bit more consistency. it's difficult to say whether the independent board will have St. Louis' best interests at heart. besides the 7% drop in enrollment, it looks like the first day went off without a hitch.

I've had my own back to school rituals here in the lab... cleaning and re-organizing piles of papers and data from the last 4 months. filing stuff away. buying a new planner insert. switching over to Gmail. registering for a Kayaking class at Forest Park Community College. almost everything except a new lunch box and the smell of freshly sharpened pencils. guess that's what happens when you are a full-time graduate student. there's a lot to look forward to in the coming semester. I have the opportunity to give a couple of scientific talks. I'm presenting data at a national meeting. some fun road trips and other adventures are planned. writing a grant. and hopefully I will start working on getting a couple of manuscripts together for submission.