Truly relaxing and romantic weekend up in San Francisco; J and I drove up to visit with one of his college friends and watch one of my college buddies (a really close friend of mine; he was in nearly all my chem courses and he was my partner in all the lab courses) get married. Got back late last night and I'm sad!

My brother has returned from Thailand, where he has been doing mission work for the past two months. While my brother lives in Michigan, the group was based out of Los Angeles, so tomorrow I have to go and pick him up. He stays one night and then he's off to Michigan.

This wouldn't be a problem, but I'm also giving group meeting (where I show many slides of things not working) tomorrow night. So I'll be a little pressed for time. I'm almost done with my presentation, but still...

This weekend. I'm getting one more visit with lelu in this weekend before she takes off for the Midwest (And don't you dare use my stress as an excuse not to get together, L! I want to see you!). At the same time, I have a cousin from Taiwan who is in Santa Barbara for an exchange program whom I would like to visit with as well.

And then...next Wed, J and I are off to San Diego for a short two-day vacation to watch J's favorite baseball team, the St. Louis Cardinals, take on the San Diego Padres (his birthday present)...of course, this is occuring just days before I leave for Michigan, where I will be presenting a poster at the International Conference on BioInorganic Chemistry.

Lots of things to do, but not a lot of time to chem. Esp bad because things in chem aren't working and there's the MI conference and the one in DC on the horizon. Of all times to show up in lab, I think this would be the most crucial; I was always told to work through the problem, not hide from it. And it does feel like I'm hiding, when really what's happened is that I just plan things terribly. At the same time, another part of me says that sitting around and working hard at something that doesn't work is not always good; that a break is needed. but those breaks should only last for a weekend. Not a whole month of sprinkled stuff, right? Gah. I can't do a thing about this but just plug on through, but I'll feel guilty the whole time; I know it.