Hello North Carolina!

Nancy, Beth, Katie, Diane, and Michelle, and Leiana and Darcy, too – I wanted to write an entry just for y’all. I’m really sorry for falling off the face of the earth. I was really sick last fall – in September I contracted an extremely severe kidney infection that took over a month and 4 different antibiotics to get rid of. Nothing like your own bacteria trying to kill you. The recovery process has been long but it looks like I am finally done with tests. Today is what I hope is my final doctor’s appointment for a long time. I know I was doing a poor job of keeping in touch before then but I promise to do better. Two extra special shoutouts - Beth, congratulations on the latest addition to your family - I read the email during one of my moments of lucidity while I was sick and it really cheered me up. I hope everything is going well. Diane, congratulations on the new addition to your family – I loved the website. I hope everything is going well with you also. Hello also to my yoga group – I really miss all of you and everyone at the Museum.

So what has been going on here in Gainesville? Not too much really – other than two consecutive basketball national championships and a football national championship. Go Gators! You know I had to put that in somewhere. Don’t worry the Gators still rank below the Terps, Longhorns, and Blue Devils, but it’s been fun being here for all the celebrations. Brian has settled into work. The first year was rough – it took forever for his lab space to be ready so that has made it difficult, but everything is up and running now and he is very busy with teaching, students, writing grants, and papers – all the stuff a professor does. Check out his website if you want to see what he’s up to. As for me, I still haven’t found a job that motivates me enough to get me back to work fulltime. I taught summer camp at the Florida Museum of Natural History and will do so again this summer. Other than that I have been concentrating on my triathlon training- more on that later. I hope everyone is doing well and I look forward to hearing from you.