Man, I am pooped. (Incidentally, after I typed that I searched my archives to find out how many times I have told you I was pooped, and the answer is five since 2004. I also turned up one special entry that was not about me, but about how pooped Sophie used to get when she was learning to crawl.)

I wish I could say I was tired from a schedule packed full with thrilling events, but that’s only partially true. What I’ve mostly been doing is writing. I’ve been writing some front matter for a teacher’s handbook. I’ve been writing several passages, poems, and plays for the little kiddos whose educations I shape with my hot little hands (I was meant to be editing those, but sometimes manuscript comes in with…issues). I’ve been writing and rewriting an article for a magazine, which has now gone through two editorial reviews and two extensive revisions. The process has taught me a great deal about the job I want to have, and eliminated any last traces of ego I may have retained about my writing, which makes me extremely happy. I don’t mean that I’ve been horribly torn down; I mean that I’m more used than ever to taking edits and running with them, and to kissing what I may have thought were delicious phrasings goodbye when someone suggests a change to what I wrote. It’s also been helpful because it reminded me that science journalism takes many forms, and some forms prohibit editorializing. Since it’s editorializing that I love the most (I know, I bet you’d never have guessed), that knowledge is also going to shape the job I’m working on creating for myself.

It’s kind of a fun learning curve. I feel like I’m putting myself through a professional course of sorts—an extremely scattered and slow one with no student fees.

Anyway, tired me. No new photos in a while. I’m working on that too.