it is pretty dark in the morning here. i was finishing my 10 mile run this morning (all of which was done in the dark) when i heard a gurgling sound to my right. i think my blood pressure spiked for a few moments before i realized it was someone's sprinkler system. phew!
on a very random note, congrats to chris and julia on buying their first house. my little brother is all grown up! my friend michael told me not too long ago that i was falling behind...everyone else seemed to be buying houses, getting engaged, having kids, etc, etc. so michael, i think this means that NOW i am officially behind (i wasn't yesterday), but i am okay with that. their house looks awesome...they can see the rockies from their bedroom window.
and in other unrelated news, everyone seems to be coming to austin in february. a friend from the ride will be running the marathon (i've promised to pace), and michael and his gf will be coming to do the half-marathon. that will be one exciting weekend!
i am happy to report that i survived my midterms. i got back the grade for the one i thought i failed, and it turned out i didn't do nearly that bad. in discussing the exam yesterday the professor told us that his class and one other that we took last spring were supposed to be the equivalent of our qualifying exams...so they should be difficult. i hadn't realized that, but somehow this small bit of knowledge (about what our classes were supposed to be) helped me put things into perspective. despite the fact that the class is hard, i admit that i'm learning and being challenged. i like that.
its funny how your expectations about things (classes, people, trips, whatever) can make you see those things in a different light. my class, as i mentioned, makes more sense knowing that its supposed to replace my qualifying exam. i had a lot of expectations going into this past summer, and then the summer turned out to be not at all what i expected. i was also expecting the return to research to be a breeze, but many days, i just want to go outside and actually feel the breeze.
i'm currently realizing too that my classes are permeating my ability to live and think about things other than school. either that or its just making my curiosity level about everything around me in a scientific sense, increase. i lead a discussion this morning in my lab meeting on a paper modeling the probability of tripping. as i was reading the paper in preparation i was thinking about how it related to everything i was studying in biostats and the concept that if you increase the frequency of something minor, something major is also more likely to occur. for example, if you walk more often, you're more likely to trip. if you trip more frequently, there's a higher probability that you'll fall...simply because you trip more often. my headlamp is mia at the moment, so as i was running in the dark this morning, thinking about how i couldn't see, it was a logical next step (no pun intended) to start thinking about the probability of me tripping on an unseen object...i could model this.
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