On a high after delivering a very successful basic science lecture to 100 first year medical students on a topic that I knew nothing about 20 hours ago. (Meaning: 20 hours of combined prep time in the last week.) It always amazes me how much time it takes to put together a presentation, and I've found the 20:1 rule to hold true - 20 hours of prep for every 1 hour of talking time. I would love to teach more, although I hated lecture as a student. I'm also supremely bad at time management (it is 1:38 AM, after all), and find that my engagement in these activities engenders a lot of collateral damage. As in the poor course coordinator who had to come to work early today to photocopy my lecture notes in time for a 9 AM start. Or the course director who had to critique my lecture notes last night when he probably would have rather done something else with his precious spare time. Or my apartment and the mountain of crusty dishes. Or Tom. For everything.
It's not so bad being up all night though, because I get to spend time with my more fanciful thoughts. Like color palettes. I'm digging these lately:
Or turning over in my mind the snow day my mother had today. She picked up Ava and Blaise today (my niece and nephew, a.k.a La Belle Cutie and Full Throttle), their mother, Bonnie, Ava's friend Max and his little brother Gavin, and their nanny. Off the motley crew went for a snow hike through Central Park. Then home to my parents' house where Grumpa (a.k.a Dad) served hot dogs and cranberry juice. Some time was spent playing and lying under blankets, oh, and coaxing spare sugar cookie dough my mother had lying around in to Valentine's-appropriate treats.
Here's a schematic:
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Love and magic
Love and magic
I hope those kids remember today. I wish I were there. It's the reason why my parents are so wonderful...able to turn a "wasted" day into something special and, yes, magical. Would that all of my kiddos (a.k.a pediatric patients) have grandparents like that.
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