A New Day, A New Semester

this first day of the spring semester finds me in a better mood than when i wrote my last entry. today started off with a beautiful 50-something degree, mostly sunny january morning and is progressing toward a cloudy (blah) 70-something degree (yay) afternoon. i'm not crazy about the cloudy, but i am so loving the high-60's/low-70's forecasts for the next week or so. i absoutely hate the cold, and the windy, 29 degree friday night we just had made me want to hibernate. but that was redeemed by a gorgeous 73 degree sunday afternoon... with more of the same for the next week or so. :) also contributing to my good mood is the feeling of doing something worthwhile with my time and the fact that the flyers are presently leading the NHL in points. a win over the devils tonight will assure that they stay on top.

before heading to my first class of the semester, i arrived at the university an hour early to set up sample extractions for me to run on the HPLC tomorrow. spending some quality time at the lab at least makes me feel like i'm one step closer to a Ph.D.... and i have a meeting scheduled with dr. v. on thursday, which makes me feel like i'm one step closer to getting a prospectus written (a goal that's a little closer than finishing the Ph.D.). that feeling of being stuck in a rut with respect to my career seems to have evaporated for the moment, for which i am eternally grateful.

my one class of the day also seems promising... plant physiological ecology. that might seem like the most boring topic of study in the world to some, but a brief overview of the lecture topics leads me to expect to enjoy the course thoroughly. it also gave me a goal for the next couple of weeks - i have a presentation/paper review to do in two weeks (as usual, i signed up for the first spot), so now i have to find a paper to discuss. i have a couple of topics in mind already, so now i just need to look up an article.

of course, i can't post about a fresh start without a little hockey talk, especially considering all the changes the ice pilots have made recently - firing the coach, losing some players, and finally acquiring some new ones and a new assistant coach. i'm excited about the new players from florida, and i hope they help us out. i'm getting really sick of this whole losing thing they're doing. of course, i miss my jacquo banging the hell out of guys on the ice in pensacola, but i'm really glad he's doing well up in toronto. maybe he'll even get to stay there. they've taken notice of his physical style (despite the small size) up there, and he scored his first goal there in the marlies' last game. hooray for jacquo. maybe the pilots will get it together on the road over the next couple of weeks so the next home game will be better then their last few.