#like they micro analyzed every action i had ever taken in the class

[void-of-unparalled-chaos]

I had a dream last night that I missed a chemistry final at 7am and the professor or TAs gave me a review RateMyProfessor style.

The review was very long but the gist of it was "She obviously doesn't pay any attention in class and is super bad at math. She doesn't apply herself enough and should never get any job involving chemistry. It's sad because she's obviously trying but Is just too stupid to understand it. I wish I had something to note about her final performance but there is nothing to say since she didn't even show up for the final. While everyone else got an extra 2 points she lost them instead. I'm so disappointed in her. Also she is quirky and off putting. I mentioned I was a furry and she immediately tried to draw my cat fursona. It was so off the character refrence. Never have her in any of your classes."

[prinzitravels-blog]

It has been such a long time since I wrote a blog post. I’ve missed it.

These are always moments for me to sit down and be truly reflective. I spend so much of my time doing science writing. I love it, but it’s cold…factual…to the point. It has taken me a long time to remove the “fluff” from my writing in order to meet my editor’s standards of science blogging, so it feels good to talk about travel again.

We aren’t on a large European trip this time. In fact, today was one of the most laid-back days we have had in a really long time. We decided to ease into my Spring PhD semester with a mountain getaway to Crested Butte, our favorite mountain town in Colorado. This is the town we spent half of our honeymoon in, and it has had our hearts ever since. After several weeks of a MAJOR holiday rush and travel to Las Vegas for our nephew Lane’s 21st birthday, we have been exhausted and ready for a week of relaxation.

2019 was a bitch. Other than the year that I nearly died from a blood infection, the year my dad died or the year my grandma died, this one was one of the worst. There were so many secret battles being fought on the home front. I promised myself not to go into 2020 clinging to all the negative things that happened in 2019, I am exceptionally excited for this new year, after all. Needless to say, 2019 was filled with all sorts of emotional loss, rifts in relationships I thought would never falter (there were several), sadness, exhaustion and misunderstandings. While I had more personal successes in 2019 than I have had in a while, my empathetic soul could not see past the actions and losses of others.

So, here’s to a fresh start.

But…it started a little rough.

Joey and I were about 3.5 hours into our 4 hour drive last night when we hit the town of Gunnison. We were on the final stretch of dark road making our way into Crested Butte when suddenly, a deer jutted out on to the highway and directly in front of my car. I was driving, and hit her at a solid 60 miles per hour. I am still shocked at my reaction; I didn’t swerve at all and did exactly what they always tell you to do…hit the deer…keep driving…slow down…pull over. I was shaking but managed to get the car over on the side of the road. It all happened so fast, Joey had been reading an e-mail on his phone and couldn’t figure out what we had hit. There was a big truck coming toward us in the oncoming lane, and he first thought something had launched off the truck and hit my Jeep. He got out of the car and immediately tried to take pictures of the damage to the front of the car and look down the road to see if he could see the deer. It was very dark, so we couldn’t see her in the road, but cars kept whizzing by us without swerving or stopping so we assume she ran down into the icy ditch beside us.

It looked like everything was reasonably in tact, so we continued driving the remaining few miles to our condo and got the car parked. We agreed to just settle in to our condo and assess the damage in the morning.

We could have spent the night frustrated about the bad start to our trip, the damage to the car, or how much we already have on our “to do” list when we get home. But we didn’t. I couldn’t get over the extreme gratitude I was feeling for how the situation played out. I feel so badly for the deer we hit, but these accidents don’t usually end well for the vehicle operators. I was so proud of myself for keeping so calm…that’s actually very unlike me in a situation like that.

I know it might sound cheesy, but I have been doing yoga religiously to help deal with the stress that comes with juggling a PhD program and struggles I feel as a truly (and deeply) empathetic person. It has helped bring me back to what is most important and how to let everything else go. This has helped me work through the selfish and hurtful things people have done to me in the last year, helped me balance priorities, helped me continuously love myself and helped me maintain calm. While I truly feel that Joey and I have proudly maintained a loving and healthy balance within a meaningful life we have built together, I feel like I am growing more by the day. I can’t help but wonder if all of this yogi-magic helped me out a bit last night.

We woke up this morning and made a delicious little breakfast in our condo. The sun was shining bright here today in Crested Butte, and we got out first look at the beautiful view from our small little deck! Gorgeous! The wind was whipping last night, but the morning proved to be calm and beautiful.

Our condo is situated in a small, private neighborhood 7 minutes outside of downtown Crested Butte. It’s quiet and far from ski traffic (although this town really doesn’t get a whole lot of that compared to our other resorts).

We went out and took a look at the car. Not too bad, actually. It’s bad, but we definitely got lucky. We can’t open the driver’s side door, so we have to crawl in from the passenger side any time we want to get in. The front left side is pretty messed up, but the damage just missed breaking any containers on the inside or interfering with the wheel.

  Joey spent the afternoon on the phone doing real-estate work and talking to the insurance company while I worked on my laptop. The view was great and the coffee was hot…

To add to the already-complicated-nature of this trip, Joey has come down with a terrible cold. He NEVER gets sick, so it’s very weird when he is…I almost don’t know what to do! He slept for quite a while today while I worked quietly on a large national survey I am building. It was actually great. The views were beautiful, I was relaxed and got a ton of important work done. No complaints! Vacations come in many forms!

Because JoeJoe isn’t feeling his best, we decided to venture out to Clark’s market (insert tiny mountain town grocery store here) for some food items and make dinner in the comfort of our little condo. What makes ANY sick person feel better? Soup and sandwiches of course! It totally hit the spot. We snuggled up, had our yummy dinner, drank lots of tea and binged some Netflix.

While this is probably the most uneventful travel blog post you will see from me all year, I think it highlights the beauty of doing nothing…and that’s totally the mood I am in right now. I am so grateful to be able to sit and write this today, to work from such a beautiful location, to have the freedom to relax as hard as we wanted today. It’s all so completely lovely and worthy of appreciation.

I’ll leave you with a quote that I think should carry us all into 2020. It’s going to be beautiful year (because we are going to make it one).

Happy 2020! The year of clear vision!

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”

PS: If you’re interested in what this CRAZY spring semester looks like for me, here it is–

Intensive grant writing class (Jan-May)

Grant review class (Jan-May)

Clinical research seminars (class) (Jan-May)

IHQSE – a year long quality improvement program that is NOT a part of my PhD program. I am on an amazing team of individuals who will spend a year working on ways to improve quality and patient care at CHCO through the use of an intervention we design and execute. We will meet in person for intensive formal sessions every other Tuesday from 1-5 and should expect to have 5-10 hours of homework related to the program on off-weeks.

Writing for the American Society for Microbiology (and being edited by them) monthly

Working PRN at the CHCO micro lab

Designing a large nationwide study asking microbiology labs about how they manage endotracheal aspirate cultures. Analyzing these data and publishing them within the year.

Getting ready for the next big milestone in the PhD program: The comprehensive exam. I am still unsure if I will be ready, but if I am, it will be scheduled for May. This determines if I get to finish my program or not and if I am officially a PhD candidate.

Attending the ASM conference in Chicago in June

XO,

Ap

On Gratitude (2020) It has been such a long time since I wrote a blog post. I've missed it.