And this afternoon

So, what have I done today?

1. Put my manuscript into the requested format, added in a last few bits of support for my conclusions (from other papers), sent it off to my co-author for him to read and comment on

2. Digested down six year's worth of data (well, six sampling periods, but still) into a format my grad advisor can analyze using an ordination-analysis program he has that I no longer own. (He's retired and seems to be looking for things to do, and he offered, so).

3. Taught my class

4. Entered the grades for the labs I graded last night

5. Made sure I had my poop in a group (list of rooms I need to be at, times, getting the tests, making sure the room I'm working in has a projector) for tomorrow

6. Ate lunch. Mostly plants. Not too much. (Potato soup, serving of mashed sweet potatoes, serving of red cabbage, a few leftover strawberries, cup of UNSWEETENED UNMILKED tea, one (1) "soft amaretto" cookie)

I'm gonna go home now and do a workout but I think tonight I'm going to also take a hot bath because I ache slightly from hunching over my computer all day.

The really sad thing in this? If I weren't an adult I'd get a gold star (at the very least) for being so "good" today, but because I am an adult, I only get a virtual gold star in my own mind.

I don't miss much about being a child but I do miss getting papers back that you had done well on and getting a Hello Kitty sticker or a puppy sticker or a shooting-star sticker or something on them. Adult achievements have a distinct lack of stickers. (And no, it's not the same if I buy my own stickers. I have a pad of My Little Pony stickers here in my office somewhere - I took it in to put an Applejack sticker on the paper of my student who is doing research on behavior in miniature horses because she titled it "My Little Ponies.")

Actually, I was griping about "the gamification of everything" but really, the stickers I got on my papers as a child (and in my piano workbook, back when I was doing piano lessons for a short while as a young teen) were kind of like that, and you know? I do miss it. But internet badges aren't the same as a REAL sticker.

Oh well. Maybe my order of yarn came and will be waiting for me when I get home.