Gettin’ chilly with it

Back in Ann Arbor. And it’s cold. Well not “winter is upon us and it hurts to step outside” cold, but that raw wet dark fall cold that does feel quite depressing and makes you want to bundle up inside.

My trip back to the US went well. I even met a robot in the terminal

And had amazing Vietnamese food for breakfast and got to spend my last wons on special edition coffee Chocopies to bring back to the lab. And things went fairly smooth in customs - except that scientist now earn an additional luggage screen at the customs because some researchers are dumb enough to try to hide biological samples in their bags when they travel. Sigh. I actually told the screening agent that I was not that stupid and then I started thinking about what people in these professions think we actually do at conferences........

I stayed awake most of the flight so by the time I went to bed around 9PM I think I fell asleep before my head landed on the pillow. That’s my trick to avoid prolonged jetlag, because it gives a good nights sleep immediately.

And I am trying my best to be chill about next week, which will require a certain amount of “do not panic” attitude to get through with a bunch of surgeries that I had not planned for, but which needs to be done ASAP. And with Luca’s halloween birthday party where we have to find a way to stuff 11 awkward, excited, dressed up, hungry middle school boys into our apartment😳 (Luca did invite a bit more friends than we had anticipated......) and hope for the best!