How things are

I've just lately been swamped with stuff. It seems like everyone in my
department is going through this, too.
On the balance issue, it's been pretty crazy. I'm trying to get in
about 10 hours a week of bike riding. Right now, about 4 hours are on
the trainer and the rest come on rides on the weekend. I'm also doing 2
hours of Pilates a week (at 7:45am!). And then I've got my work, which
is moving forward quickly but also splitting into 3 separate projects,
two of which will hopefully re-converge at some point. I probably put
in about 50 hours a week of actual work, which is less than many, many
other graduate students, but I think it's sufficient. And I still am
trying to knit some stuff, though it's dropped off tremendously. I did
get a compliment related to this a couple weeks ago, on a bike ride.
One woman mentioned how I had had a really good cross season; she'd been
following my results. I replied that someone else had had a much better
season. And her response was, "Yes, but you have balance in your
life." At least I can maintain an image of balance even when my brain
sometimes feels ready to explode. And, although this has only been a
more recent though growing in intensity problem, I'm really tired of
hearing the question "are you going to have kids soon?" Seriously, does
it look like I'm in that position let alone interested in that right
now? I've got glaciers to understand and bike races to make crappy
excuses for.