It's true.
I forgot I have a blog.
It appears this thing has been collecting dust for about 9 months. Woops? Maybe I can blame my inactivity on the Minnesota winter somehow, which seems to last about that long. In that regard, this blog has a lot in common with my grill, my shorts, my sandals, and my lawn mower.
What I definitely cannot claim is a lack of things to write about! Life has been a whirlwind since I last posted here and it's become clear to me over the past couple weeks that I've done a horrible job of keeping people important to me informed. It's easy for me to self-inflict a lot of business, and sometimes this business keeps me from the people and things that matter most. A constant struggle for me.
Anyway, I should say from the outset that I am doing well and that Beth and I feel fortunate and blessed to be exactly where we are. My health is pretty stable. The prolonged steroid use has done what prolonged steroid use does. I had a cataract removed from my left eye a couple weeks ago and will have the other eye fixed in June. Sometimes I feel like an old man but, overall, things are good.
I was recently promoted to "Research Associate" which means I'm now holding down the first real job of my life, and I love it. I work with great people and have had outstanding opportunities here. My first "major" publication will hit the presses in a couple days. It is a study I did to identify strategies to reduce hospital readmissions. I also recently completed a study of resiliency training programs and am thinking about the factors that allow individuals and communities to bounce back from the stresses and challenges of life. I am partnering with some people at Mayo to train patients to self-manage their chronic diseases and with some folks in the community to think about how one might build resilience at that level. I am in my last quarter of Master's courses and have developed skills and experience in biostatistics, secondary data analysis and meta-analytic methodologies, survey methods, the conduct of clinical trials, the practice of evidence-based medicine, qualitative methods, and dissemination and implementation research, among other things. It's all fun for me, really, but my focus is shifting mostly in the direction of dissemination and implementation of effective health interventions. I have some large scale projects on the docket which will require a good amount of traveling, but this kind of work appeases my curious nature and I'm excited to get started.
Speaking of traveling, I'll be in Miami all week for a conference presenting some of the work we've been doing in relation to communication in cancer. I will then return to celebrate two years of marriage. Beth will be traveling with me to San Diego in June where I will be presenting my readmissions work. The real vacation comes in July, though, when we take a 7 day Alaskan cruise! We can't wait.
When I'm not working or taking classes, it seems like I'm at church. Beth and I have a great community here. I sing in the choir and help with worship occasionally. Beth is really active with the children's ministry and is getting involved in a ministry for teen moms. We still have small group every Wednesday night and benefit so much from those relationships.
Okay. That's it in a nutshell. Will hopefully come up with something more substantive in the near future.
Oh! And a very Happy Mothers' Day to all moms, but especially mine.
God bless,
Aaron
