{"id":2798,"date":"2013-12-19T14:29:51","date_gmt":"2013-12-19T14:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/?p=2798"},"modified":"2013-12-19T14:29:51","modified_gmt":"2013-12-19T14:29:51","slug":"in-which-i-drop-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/2013\/12\/19\/in-which-i-drop-in\/","title":{"rendered":"In which I drop in"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m now roughly two-thirds of the way through my maternity leave, and feeling surprisingly good. After nearly three months with my new son, I\u2019m finally under control: he is starting to sleep well at night, and I have mastered all the tricks we need to get through the day together in a reasonably calm and happy manner. <\/p>\n<p>My academic life, meanwhile, continues on the back burner. I coach my PhD student by telephone, continue to work on a manuscript with my old lab via email, and start gearing up for a major fellowship application due in February. My team just had <a href=\"http:\/\/www.plosone.org\/article\/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0083637\">a second paper out<\/a>, this time in PLoS One. And I need to write up some interim results for the grant \u2013 on <a href=\"http:\/\/rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org\/content\/10\/89\/20130747.abstract\">treating urinary tract infections with microspheres<\/a> \u2013 that currently pays my salary.<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday I popped into the lab to pick up a notebook I need to consult for the interim report. Nobody was currently working in it, but I was pleased to see how inviting the space appeared now that everything\u2019s been properly unpacked and put to use. <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/lablit\/11450630853\/player\/\" height=\"375\" width=\"500\"  frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Unlocking my office next door, I was stricken to see I\u2019d forgotten to arrange care for my roommate:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/lablit\/11450514994\/player\/\" height=\"406\" width=\"500\"  frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Otherwise, all was well. The room was cozy and warm from the central heating \u2013 a distinct novelty \u2013 and all of my books, folders and notebooks were lined up patiently on the shelf, waiting for me to consult them once again. Everything felt peaceful and conducive to serious thinking. Suddenly, I experienced the deep urge to cancel my afternoon plans and dawdle there for a while, perhaps catching up on some reading or proofing the fellowship draft. The pull was both primitive and seductive: the urge to discover, to know, to keep building my project like a house of blocks, one little teetering cube at a time. <\/p>\n<p>Instead, with only a small twinge of regret, I changed my son\u2019s nappy, tucked him back into his pram and headed out into the chill London daylight. He was smiling in his sleep. My office \u2013 my job, my science \u2013 isn\u2019t going anywhere. It will still be there when I return. But in the meantime, it\u2019s good to know it\u2019s waiting, patiently, a little secret world especially for me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m now roughly two-thirds of the way through my maternity leave, and feeling surprisingly good. After nearly three months with my new son, I\u2019m finally under control: he is starting to sleep well at night, and I have mastered all &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/2013\/12\/19\/in-which-i-drop-in\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-domestic-bliss","category-the-profession-of-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2798\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}