Wrote my biography for the university’s graduate profiles website today. Had a further realization around how far I have come since I started graduate school 22 years ago, and how not only my research interests but my general goals shifted over all that time. Sure, part of it has to do with a change of academic study area, and some has to do with the reality of going from being 28 years old to being 50 and how much a person changes in that amount of time. But underneath these changes I also get a glimpse at the unexpected paths we take, especially when the roads we thought we were going to walk are unavailable, or terrain requires detours. Would 28 year old me be surprised I’m writing on sectarian violence, for example? Back then I was just interested in hieroglyphs and museums.

Clearing out the to do lists and preparing for another week. I got to read an upcoming book for someone this week in order to write a review for the back cover. I’m excited for him - I think it will be very well received and delighted he’s finally written this. Also got some very good news on one of my own book projects today. Still can’t share it, but we’re closer to that day.

Middle of a set of three 12-hour days. Many things going on, some very good and I cannot wait to share them. The weather is wreaking havoc on my sinuses (just pick a season, please) but otherwise things are moving right along. Zigzag is sleeping nearby, occasionally throwing me a look as if to say “you could nap, too.” Not quite yet, but hopefully soon.

For the third day in a row, I’ve been stood up for appointments that people made with me. Stress seems baked in for everyone from the governmental level on down this week. Doing my best to ride the waves and get to my own shore.

Experimenting with a new kind of journaling (written, in a book) that might help me make this microblog do what I’d originally intended it for. I wanted it to be short and reflective of a current day of events, versus sweeping summaries of private life. Watch this space.

Another Gregorian year comes to pass. Halfway through my personal year 50, and just on the other side of treatment. Looking forward to a day of no side effects and hopefully some time very soon. Jet lag and chemotherapy two days after I got back from the UK, plus a cold I brought home with me, made December far more of a struggle than I had expected it to be. For almost a week I didn’t do much of anything besides sleep and drink water, and I’m still trying to get my legs back underneath me after all that.

2020 is shaping up in a good way with projects. Waiting to hear about one project that went into limbo once I started treatment. My Patreons are being revamped with new content and more reasonable/appropriate tier structures. I will be speaking at the International Coptic Congress in Brussels in July, my first lecture as a Ph.D. I’ve been asked in the last few months to appear on several podcasts, which I had put off due to just not feeling well/needing to conserve what energy I did have, but am hopeful to be able to make those appearances. Starting in April I will be doing some traveling for teaching. I’m balancing things better, making sure that I do not forget myself on my internal priority list, and settling into life-after-grad-school. While I am a work in progress, it’s also fair to say I’ve always been a work in progress, and we all are, as long as we live. Here’s hoping this year brings good work.

Tomorrow afternoon is my third and final chemotherapy treatment. Grateful to be at the point where it will be recovery versus continued suffering. I’m a little worried about how well it will go, as I’m not in the best of shape going into this one; just got back from England in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, and jet lag plus an 8-hour time change were not kind to me.

The trip, however, was worth the bodily wear and tear. I got to see friends and family I haven’t seen in years, and to teach the things I love to teach. I even spent two days at a seaside resort listening to live music and wondering why it was so cold in my room (answer: I had turned the heat off, not on). It wasn’t two weeks of wandering everywhere nonstop like my first trip to England five years ago was, since I wasn’t in any shape to handle that level of exhaustion. But it was still very enjoyable and I saw a different part of the country. Hopefully today’s elections won’t make it impossible to visit anytime soon again.

Getting back home was more of an adventure than expected due to the French airline strike and a serious windstorm that jeopardized my first two flights, followed by a fight between a passenger and a flight attendant on my third flight (Chicago-Portland) that required us to return to the gate so security could get the passenger off the plane, but eventually I got back to Portland and back into my house. I was gone so long that Zigzag didn’t even yell at me. I’ll appreciate the fuzzy company while I’m recovering this weekend.