I know everyone knows what I'm talking about: the weird limbo time after you arrive home and catch up on the re-entry items like greeting those in your house, grocery shopping, mail opening, sleeping. I'm talking about after that. The time before you really feel like settling back into work routines, even though you know you need to, and even though you claimed you wanted to; before you feel as if you're neglecting something important, like papers or reading or a workout or dinner.
Before the thrill of routinelessness wears off.
I've been pretty restless today in that limbo, and so I read a bunch of blogs; forecasted my permanent resumption of the coveted second place spot in our hoops pool (John took mathematical advantage of the upset points and put everyone out of running for first during--not even after--round 1, leaving the rest of us to clamor for a newly established second place pot. BWalsh, you can go to Yale, but you can leave second place here!); wondered vaguely how weird it was that I wore jeans at the conference, and on the first day; took care of that dumb requirement that we dig up all citations of our work in order to demonstrate our 'importance' to the committee that metes out merit raises; thought vaguely that I could have written a few pages for a new article for all the time it took to locate of those citations; also thought how much easier it is now that .pdfs are so common; chatted idly on the phone with Elizabeth; wandered through U of I's neurophysiology courses, inspired by a book I read on the train ride home, The Transmission of Affect by Teresa Brennan (I wanted to see who could teach me more about this notion of 'entrainment,' a pheromonal/hormonal process by which bodies and affects alter by association with other bodies and affects); thought about putting that book on my fall syllabus but decided to read Denise Riley's new book first; and at last went to the gym, where I happily got to watch women's basketball (Stanford v. Oklahoma).
The workout, which took me into late afternoon, finally took off the restless edge. I wonder if that's women's basketball related, routine related, endorphin related, or all of those. Maybe that advanced neurophysiology class could tell me.
