catching up to the new year

hello~!  I'm finally checking back into the blog world after more than a month.... over the holidays I completely disconnected from my computer, which was pretty great I must say. And so far, January has been a fairly crazy whirlwind of a month. There's been lots to blog about, but little motivation to actually pause and write things out... so I figured I'd jot a few quick bullet points as a way to catch up without getting more bogged down at being "behind" with these updates.

Why December was Awesome:

• holiday gatherings meant my coworkers were much more social ~ we had a few meet ups outside of work hours. Fun times and getting to know people better means I feel more like I belong instead of always being the newbie.
• I summoned up the energy to have another hosting effort ~ quite casual, but still lots of fun. I was bad about taking any photos, but luckily one of my guests is a blogging whiz and wrote a nice recap. Thanks Kath! :) Again, having people around our apartment makes it so much more homey. Well worth the effort.
• Decorating our place ~ first real tree, as we now have plenty of extra space!
• Lots of time spent with family ~ including the newest generation in my family.. the little ones make the holidays more fun :)
• Break from work, and the computer! After getting away, I can't help but realize how much I prefer face-time to screen-time.... 

Why January has been Awesome (so far): 

• it is SO MUCH WARMER in Virginia! We went hiking on New Year's Day, which was lots of fun. Granted, today it's actually pretty icy outside, but there are so fewer days where I don't want to leave the house when compared with living in Chicago, when I absolutely hated January.
• New project officially began at work. I'm a PI! (Principal Investigator ~ in university research, PIs are always professors, usually the heads of labs.) This means I'm in charge, which is totally new responsibility for me.... it's been stressful, and kind of scary in many ways, but also really really exciting. Instead of just doing what others tell me to do at work, I'm the one giving out orders and driving the research. I still can hardly believe that I'm in this position, and if I think about it too much I get freaked out...  but so far things are going pretty well, and I'm really excited about the potential in this research! By the end, I'll have learned a ton and most likely will feel much more part of the team at work, since I'm interacting with more people more frequently now. Also pretty awesome: the project code name is TEQUILA, which stands for "Total Energy QUantification In Lower-limb Amputees" ~ with such a memorable name, surely the project will be a success :)
• Lots of behind the scene excitement. Nothing that I want to reveal here yet, but this project is keeping us busy outside of work and means the possibility of lots more fun in the next few months.

Overall, January has been a highly energetic month. This has not been my experience in prior Januaries, when I pretty much just wanted to hibernate after the holiday celebrations settled down, the decorations were packed away, and the snow and wind raged over the city. All of the current busy-ness has meant that some other areas have slowed a lot (like writing here, and exercise..) - I do hope to rectify that by getting back to good habits, once I get used to the faster pace of life.

So we've jumped into the year with some craziness - I think it's off to a good start. If we keep this momentum up, 2012 should be pretty interesting!