April 17--totem overlooking the bluffs

One more from my trip up to Mendocino last week.

I would have easily taken another week for spring break if it was offered. It wasn't, so I had to go in to work. Only about half the faculty were there. Maybe the other half got offered another week. I continued to plow through my to-do list. I'm at the point where all the stuff left on the list is stuff that's left on the list because I didn't want to do it earlier. I knocked out two things today, but added two more, so no ground gained, none lost. The good news is summer break starts a month from tomorrow!

I do lectures for third semester tomorrow. HIV, Lupus, and bee stings. Kind of a strange combination, but all related by alterations in the immune response.

I like the HIV lecture. It is constantly evolving as treatment recommendations change, and they change all the time. Treatments start earlier, people stay healthier, there is pre and post-exposure prophylaxis. I think about what it was like when I first started taking care of AIDS patients in the late 1980s, and what it is like now. It has gone from a death sentence to a chronic condition.

The downside to teaching the third semester is that their lectures are in the afternoon, which puts a cramp in my nap time. Once I get started, though, I gain the necessary energy to get through it. I miss kindergarten, though, where nap time was part of the curriculum.