The Blanket Game

First, an apology for the gap in postings. It has been a whirlwind of an autumn, with a number of surprises both welcome and unwelcome.

Those of you who went to girl's slumber parties as a kid (and I'm kind of hoping this is limited the women here...) may remember a somewhat mean-spirited initiation rite called "The Desert Game." An unsuspecting newcomer would be placed under a blanket, and then the story would begin: You're stranded in the desert. It's hot. You're thirsty. It's getting hotter. You're burning up. Etc., etc., TAKE OFF SOMETHING YOU DON'T NEED.

The object of the game was to see how many articles of clothing the poor victim would take off before realizing that THE BLANKET was the unnecessary item.

Why am I telling you this story? Well, in the past three months this blog temporarily became the something I don't need. I share this story because I know how hard most researchers work and what a balancing act we try to perform with conflicting demands at work and outside of the office. We are prize multitaskers. But I'm hoping that sometime when you are feeling buried under a hot blanket, and you're overworked and burning up and stressed out, that you'll remember this little game, stop, breathe, re-evaluate the priorities and take off something you really don't need.

That being said, back to blogging.