The trials of travels

I feel like such a bad blogger for writing such a depressing entry and then failing to update for so long! I'll share some of the fun times from the past month to make up for it.

The husbeast and I had a blast collecting plants in North and South Carolina right after my last entry. Bill has exhibited quite a knack for finding suitable collection locations for my plants, despite his current claim to fame as a fungal geneticist. 

I had a brief reprieve from traveling for a few days, and then left on a (long, read: 26 hour) road trip with some other biologists to attend the annual Evolution conference in Moscow, Idaho (sidenote: there are some interesting posts from other folks that were at the conference here). 

Check out this pic of the Badlands in South Dakota...some beautiful country I had never seen before, and many new-to-me states (ID, MT, WY, SD). I had a tough time on this trip...I've never had joint pain, but my knees were killing me from sitting in the car. I got a massive ear and sinus infection while there, and was generally miserable but tried to be a good sport about learning fun things and meeting nice people. 

Upon returning from my trip, Bill discovered a special surprise: a tick bite I had acquired in NC/SC had developed a huge rash. A doc appointment later, I was diagnosed with my very first tick-borne illness (not sure which, and not really worth the test to find out) and had a huge bottle of antibiotics. So my other problems while traveling (infections, aching knees) suddenly made sense. 

Now I'm settling into the horridly hot Missouri summer, and the usual issues that summer brings...lack of clear timelines, few obligations for work, and lots of people wanting to play instead of being productive. I'm managing my workload fairly well, and am still excited about some of the projects on which I'm working. The real issue is trying to pace myself and not get too burned out. I sit around the house and night and feel like I should do some reading, but make myself do chores instead. LMAO...I want to work too much right now.