you know you're busy when...

...you look forward to surgery as a chance to take a nap.

Seriously, just getting things done to the point where I can take a few days off has been mind-bogglingly annoying. We had our LSO speaker, two people want the LSO to co-sponsor conferences with them, my grading job finally started heating up, the Chinese people want me to record 3,000 more words, a GEO member is being screwed over by the department, I'm coordinating crash space for SLRF, and- oh yeah- I'm in grad school too.

So, tomorrow morning at 10:20 am (central time) I'm having half of my thyroid gland taken out. This involves a 10 cm incision across the base of my neck. They're doing it because there's a nodule on it that might be or someday become cancerous (I've known about it since high school, but it always seemed to be benign before.) If all goes well, the scar will barely be noticeable in a year, I won't have to take thyroid hormone, and I'll be back in class on Monday. If it doesn't go well... well, I'm an optimist.

Say goodbye to my unadulterated neck!