Thanks, Bob

After a winter of feeling bored and lonely, I got a badly-needed and much-appreciated week of attention and fun in Chicago. At the end it was tough to leave my hilarious family and their friendly dog (and their warm house), my Chicago friends who are busy saving the world for a living, AND my fossil preparator buddies who spent three days with me in a conference/exploring the Field Museum's fossil collections and having a blast.

Luckily for my mental health, Cambridge welcomed me back with open arms. I turned on my UK phone in the airport and had two texts waiting for me - two people had noticed I was gone?! Win! Then I stepped off the airport bus in Cam and ran right into a friend (small towns are sometimes awesome). Then I walked ten minutes to my department and ran into another friend. I had just gotten off an 8-hr overnight plane ride and a 3-hr bus ride and must have looked like hell, but my friends seemed happy to see me and we shared a few fun minutes of stand-in-the-street chat.

Then I got to the grad students' office at my dept, which has been an echoing hole of nobody since the end of term in March, and found FOUR people there! Hooray! Inspired by my hard-working classmates, I dumped my suitcase under my desk and got right to work catching up from my week away. Then there was a SEMINAR - imagine. It was wonderful to sit in a room and learn again! Wow, I think I hate term breaks.

Then - to top it all off and make me feel actually maybe possibly needed in this community - I got this:

"Hi Caitlin!
I hope you had an enjoyable Easter holiday!
I was just wondering whether it would be possible to have a revision supervision on the SSK [sociology of scientific knowledge, a course I supervised in the fall] material next week (beginning Monday 10th)?
I am currently doing some more reading and going through the lecture notes, but I plan to write some essay plans during the next few days which I would very much appreciate being able to discuss with you!
I look forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes,
Amy."

Community, learning, AND responsibility?? I'm starting to remember why I like this place so much.
In the words of Bob Marley, every little thing gonna be all right.