March Madness!

Thank you, life, for teaching me what the term "March madness" means.

I kid. I don't mean NCAA March madness. But this week has just been plain crazy. [An aside on basketball: I went to another nail biting Cal game vs Colorado (I seem to have a penchant for going to really close, exciting games. My first NBA game was OKC @ Warriors and my first Pac-12 game was Arizona @ Cal.) to secure the 4th seed in the Pac-12 tournament! Cal will face off with Colorado again to try and make it to the NCAA. I hope they make it! That would really cap off a great year at Cal for me.]

Emotional events aside, I realized that I suddenly have a lot to do. Kinda stressful. Kinda cortisol-ful...There has been a lot of lab. Almost everyday with a new side project my company is working on. But I'm happy to work hard since we might get a publication out of it. So that's exciting! Our other capstone work is kind of on hold since we're waiting on some regulatory approval.

Then there's my new volunteer job, which I am dedicating a full day to tomorrow. Yikes! And I will probably stay longer because traffic is going to be stupid across the Bay Bridge. 8:30am - 7pm in San Francisco...

Then there's my classes: I have a pretty interesting project for strategic management (I just had a midterm today) but it's a lot of work, a lot of site visits, a lot of interviews, and a lot of research. The class has a lot of interesting readings but readings are still readings. And I have a lot to study for with a midterm coming up in Vaccinology next week (freaking out about that one). There's also a final report for one of my classes that just ended at UCSF. And then there's this really annoyingly tedious-yet-still useful-so-fine-I'll-do-it engineering leadership class with weekly case readings and homework assignments.

The plus side of all this craziness is a "work hard, play hard" scenario. I've been going to the gym a lot and several of my friends have noticed that I've lost a lot of weight and slimmed down. That's exciting and good for my confidence. It's nice that people can see the results of my hard work at the gym and self-discipline in my eating habits. I also just think it's the way I carry myself now... but anyways.

The Color Run is this Saturday and I am pumped! Just bought some cool wayfarer sunglasses on Amazon to fit our "Mighty Morphin Powder Rangers" theme and our friend PJ bought some white sweatbands. It's gonna be awwwshum! Still have to buy knee high white socks and, as per usual, a disposable water-proof camera!

The weekend after is Tahoe with Spicy Cilantro and the other BioE PhDs! I haven't gone snowboarding since 2012 when I went with Hieu, so this should be interesting. I hope my knee can hold up but I'm pretty confident I'm gonna get the hang of the board this time- as long as I don't injure myself (knock on wood).

Shortly after Tahoe, I'll head down to SoCal to finally spend time with the family. And maybe watch some Reduced Shakespeare (if I can afford it, that is...).

Updates on all this stuff later! With all this business, I haven't had time to start on the puzzle I bought for my "free time." Hah..