Wednesday Waffles

Since Noel is going to be on blogging hiatus, I am obviously going to smash him on overall blogging numbers by the time he gets back. I relish it, especially since I am working on my writing a bit more these days as well. I am trying to develop a "writing portfolio." I say this with giant air quotes, as some of our readership has an Actual Portfolio, for the purpose of benefiting their Actual Writing Career. Of course, I don't have one of those, but I would like to be in a position in the future to show a future employer that I am capable of communicating to a wide audience, and having more than one published piece would go a long way to making me seem literate.

Currently, I am working on a piece for the University's Teaching Times, about a grant that some post-docs I work with are involved in. This is a bit challenging, because the Teaching Times has a very Go Pitt! attitude, and the nature of the grant is to benefit the career of these post-docs once they move beyond this institution. I am trying to find a non-smarmy way to play up the Pitt connection to make it a better fit for this publication. It still needs work. It's on my mind though, because Wednesday is the day I go to the waffle shop with a couple co-workers and work on our particular writing projects.

While I was in Spokane, Matt did a nice job hosting our visitors. Bleary-eyed me made an effort to act like a hostess when I arrived, but Matt had already done all the hard work, and the family seemed reluctant to leave. What can I say, Pittsburgh's appeal is in it's diversity, familiarity, opportunity and optimism, and that it isn't the Bronx. Matt did a nice job playing host, while juggling a range of emotional phone calls from his wife.

Getting back to work has been tough. I was pretty upset when I left work last week, so I didn't leave myself any notes about what I was working on- but I've mostly pieced that back together. Since I was upset when I left, all of my sweet coworkers having been asking me how the trip was, and well... there isn't a good answer for that. All told, I would prefer not to go to anymore funerals. But if you've gotta go, you can only hope your family will assemble from far and wide to trade stories and laugh and hug and try to remember how much you enjoyed life.

It seems inappropriate to say it was a nice time, but I do love seeing my family. But that glosses over the fact that I am still very sad, even though I really hate crying at work. Getting the chance to celebrate all the wonderful things Papa did in his life makes me anxious to get started with mine- so I am trying to use the restless energy to propel myself past the moping stage.