Blog Year in Review

I did this last year, and apparently it is to be another year-end tradition. Here are the first sentences to each month's first post. January - September will take you to the old site, but don't forget to come back here eventually.

January: While many people went on holiday over the past two weeks, a few people kept their regular blogging habits going strong. (While you were out...(women in science)) Back in the pre-Scientiae, pre-Minnow days when I had the time and energy to keep track of all the women in science blogospheric going-ons.

February: I got an email yesterday from chem guy - a post doc with a 2 year old and another on the way. He wanted to know if I was ready to go back to work yet? (back to work?) Minnow was less than a week old when I got that email, and wrote that post. It was a cruel reminder that no matter how much progress we make on the gender equity front, women are always going to be disadvantaged when a baby arrives...because, you know, we actually gave birth.

March: To fly across multiple time zones with a newborn (It is possible) The interview in bullets. A hopeful post.

April: I go back to work tomorrow. I've got mixed feelings. (An emotional return to work) A meditation on my trepidation at the end of maternity leave.

May: Scientiae #5 is now up at Clarity. (Scientiae plus bonus post) Announcements. I hosted Scientiae's mid-May edition.

June: Wow. I've really been inactive for a while. (Carnivals) More carnival barking. That's the problem with doing the first post of the month when the main carnival you are involved with also debuts on the first of the month. But the next post was random bullets, so it wasn't much better.

July: Sometimes I get depressed when I read the blogs of other women scientists - particularly when the topic of children vs. an academic career is the topic du jour. (I will not be a foregone conclusion.) The original version of the post that is now taped to my office wall to remind me that I can do this, I want this.

August: We're being audited by the IRS. (And then the other shoe drops.) That reminds me, I should blog sometime about how that all turned out.

September: I've got a couple of small grant opportunities available to me over the next few months. (Picking the research to match the grant opportunity) The agonies of a new unfunded faculty member.

October: When I lived in Utopia, I was pretty mainstream. (Mommy Monday: How I became the hippy mommy) Mommy Monday debuted in the summer and it seems to be pretty popular, though I'm not always comfortable having my parenting decisions up for criticism. But it will probably be back in the new year.

November: I'm back...and semi-dug out. Minnow and I survived the conference, though not unscathed. (Bringing baby to a conference) Lessons learned.

December: Kate, our lovely host for the December edition of Scientiae has decreed that the theme is "transcending the debate." (I am a parent blogger) Recognizing the common cause of women and men who want to work and have a life.

I'd planned on saying something about how these posts reprsent my year, but actually I think they speak pretty well for themselves. I'm quite impressed with myself actually. And now I'm going back to work because that took far longer than I had intended.