Making a clean getaway

I'm taking a vacation next week. For real. Miles from anywhere. We're headed to the isolated Isle Royale National Park, which is the island in Lake Superior that is the eye of the wolf, as it were. We take a boat there Monday, and come back on the next boat, which runs on Friday.

Guess what else?

There will be no Internets.

I wanted to write a similar post to ScienceWoman on my reflections on my first year, but I feel I need a little space to be able to do this first. My head is so full of static - what to read next, should I really read that next, shouldn't I work on the revisions for this one paper, you want me to pay $1085 to replace my bathroom floor you have to be kidding, did I remember the carpet to bring to my mom, is this the best price this plane ticket for a conference is going to get, is my graduate student transitioning okay, are we going to get this darn grant or not, we don't have enough food in the fridge to feed us until we leave, who should I call to fix the kitchen drain, why can't I write more blog posts on engineering? - that I need a little time and distance to really reflect properly and not just become more and more anxious about what else I still need to do.

I made the mistake over spring break of working to "catch up." Which means I've been breathless about work non-stop (it seems) for a good 5 months.

So I need a few days of quiet to hopefully appreciate what I've done this year. While I will be taking work, it will be in the form of books to read, and not at the frenzied pace dictated by email programs.

I'll schedule a couple of photos to appear so you can recall the zenlike state I hopefully am achieving. :-) And there should be some nice photos of the park after we reconnect with the online world.

Posts that I promise to write (at some point ;-) ) when I get back:

• musings on my first year as a faculty member, including a guide to things newbie faculty should ask/find out when they start in the fall;
• Some thoughts on setting up a research group, an activity I'm engaged in at the moment;
• A description of my husband's cool new sustainability curriculum job, if it actually works out and is created (the meeting on Monday went very well, btw - apparently the dean thought it was a good idea! Yay!)
• some snippets in development for conference presentations that I'm presenting this summer (at the Inclusive Science conference, and the National Women's Studies Association Conference - any chance of some meetups? Let me know.)

One more thing - Zuska is hosting Scientiae this month, and I am not going to get to submitting a post again, but you should. The theme is "Added Weight," posts are due June 6, and instructions for entry submission are here.

See you in June!