All manner of things

Wow. Where have I been?

Santa Fe, New Mexico, for one. The dentist, for another. (There is no causal connection between those places.) And many others. So let's get started on some of the significant events that have happened in the last while...

I received my green card this weekend, so I am now officially a permanent resident of the U.S. I am still somewhat surprised at this development in general, and completely astonished at how quickly the process went. The attorney we we working with was sort of gearing us up for a process of a couple of years. And they're not actually green.

I was in Santa Fe end of last week for a biology workshop, which was fun. Actually, got into a fascinating conversation with an artist on the shuttle to Santa Fe from Albuquerque. That alone was worth the trip. I was glad not to be driving out of Albuquerque, since I've heard from a very young age that it's very easy to get lost there. Apparently, you have to make sure you take that left toirn in Albuquerque.... Anyway, the hosts (W. H. Freeman publishers) fed me well, and put me in a very cozy little hotel room, and I met plenty of other cool biology people. It was really interesting to talk to people who were all really thinking hard about teaching introductory classes.

Two things of note today. First, I made a trip to the aforementioned dentist office. I learned I have an ulcer in my mouth. Probably explains why my jaw was hurting a while back. It is pretty bad -- there was a bit of exposed bone in my jaw. The dentist scraped off some of the dead bone, trying to get a blood clot so that the gum tissue would grow back over it. Trying to get it to heal is probably going to mean a mostly liquid diet for a while.

Final weird thing of the day. A while back I submitted a grant proposal, which I've done many times before and will do again. Only this time, I got a letter from our university president, Bambi, thanking me for submitting the proposal. Not sure why -- whether this one caught her attention, some random act, or whether she's doing it for all proposals now.