Friday High Five (copycatted, again)

I’m up to no good again, copycatting Chrissy with a High Five post.  These posts give me a chance to share a little news in between bigger posts.  Without further ado, five high points from the past week:

{One}  Today I went on a group bike ride with Paul and his roommate Matt, which was super fun.  I love riding with other people and rarely get to do it.  Now that my work schedule is much less intense, I’m hoping that Paul and I will do more of this sort of thing—maybe I’ll even ride across town to hang out with him at his place!  Currently, Paul does all the driving for us, which means we spend a lot of time in my apartment.

{Two}  Speaking of my apartment, for lunch today, I made an old favorite, Greek Avgolemono Soup.  Yum.

{Three}  A new book recommendation: Bread & Wine.  I just finished listening to a podcast episode in which the author, Shauna Niequist, was the guest host, and it was wonderful.  I would love to have more people over for dinner or coffee and nibbles this year.

{Four}  Speaking of having people over, Paul and I went to our friend Faith’s last weekend for a movie night.  We made it a “let’s-stay-in” night by making our own pizzas, starting with homemade dough.  It was simple and homey and delicious.  Paul and I are trying to travel less this year, though our calendar seems to be conspiring against that goal.  Nevertheless, I hope that we can have more weekends in College Station and more movie nights with Faith.  And, of course, more homemade pizza!

{Five}  I’m not sure I’ve spelled out, here on the blog, exactly what I’m doing with my life this year.  I decided that I am done postdocking and that I want to move my career away from the lab.  I managed to cobble together a transition period for myself: I’m working close to twenty hours a week as the lab manager in a friend’s lab, and I’m planning to fill the rest of my working hours with tutoring or tutoring-related work, such as studying, lesson-planning, marketing, communicating with clients, and whatnot.

It’s a big transition for me to go from a salaried position to being an hourly employee.  But…it’s also a huge relief.  I want to write more about this in a future post—I have much to say.  What I want to say for now is that I am surprisingly at peace about the reduced income.  On a Friday afternoon, I was able to spend some time studying cell biology, and when Paul and Matt arrived, I was able to put away my studying and hop on my bike with them.  It was lovely to be in the sunshine and fresh air, lovely to have the freedom to choose to embrace the day and time with people I like.

I enjoy working; I really do.  I like getting things done, and I have fun being a scientist and a teacher.  But I don’t enjoy feeling like my job owns me, and that’s the feeling that I have been able to walk away from now that I am no longer a full-time, salaried person.

Happy weekend, friends.

PS  Lucy loves Merrills too.