Dr. Shellie

Read any good fiction lately? I’m looking for books for the plane… so much more enjoyable than reading journal articles.

Score for recent conference:

Mistaken for an assistant professor: 1

Mistaken for a senior grad student, and encouraged to send in my CV for a potential postdoc position: 1

Mistaken for a first-year grad student: not this time

This week I went to an interview without drinking any caffeine. It was a good experience. Often I drink coffee or tea to try and give myself energy I really don’t have. I do feel more energetic for a while, but it comes back at me later when I feel worse that I would have without the caffeine. (In other words, I think my total energy is conserved!) The same is true for enthusiasm. Sometimes when I used to drink double espressos I would dream up really grand plans to go to Egypt, or write a novel, or whatnot, but then by a few hours later I’d be lying around on the couch reading the NYT Sunday magazine. (Not, as they say, that there is anything wrong with that.) Not drinking any caffeine makes me feel more quietly and sustainably ambitious, not out of touch with what I really have the energy to do.

However… for all that, I couldn’t keep it up this week, so I am back to the tea! I may experiment again some other time.

The perils of running just before dusk… there were lots of huge dogs out and about on the running path, roaming free from their owners. One woman, who was wearing a face mask of the sort used to prevent contagion, was standing frozen at the edge of the path. "I just think it’s a good idea if dog owners could prevent their dogs from touching people," she was saying pointedly to a woman with three big dogs, her mask (presumably) removed for talking.

I have gone entirely caffeine-free for the last 3 days. The first day I had a bad headache. Since then, I am fine. However, I haven’t experienced any particular benefits of being caffeine-free. From what I’ve heard, I expected to feel simultaneously calmer and more energetic, fall asleep earlier, and get up earlier. Not yet. Has anyone tried it? (Jane?)