Too many thoughts

I've had a lot of ideas for blog posts lately, but haven't been able to get any of them onto paper in any meaningful way. So here are some random bullets of things I've been thinking about and that I hope to flesh out in longer posts later.

• I had a conversation this week that for the first time got me thinking about women in science. I've never felt like being a woman changed the way my work was seen or how people interacted with me. But I had a conversation wherein a senior researcher in my area described another female scientist to me in a way that, while very kind, made it clear that this other woman was kind of a bitch and insecure. Now I know that he meant this as just a way for me to understand this other woman's approach and as a warning of how to interpret interactions with her in the future. But it made me wonder, would he ever describe a male researcher in the same way? There's a long blog post in there somewhere, but I have to keep thinking before I can get it out.
• Lab notebooks, is there any 'best' way to keep one? I've been trying different methods for years now and I'm still not sure if there's a really good way to do it.
• Working with and living with your partner can be challenging. When things are good, it's awesome, but when things get a little weird at home, it makes going to work even weirder.
• My undergrad helpers are awesome! They are considerate, polite, hard workers, who work really well together as a team. I'm so proud of them! Not sure how I managed to make this work, but I have some theories on why they are doing so well...that may be worth writing about.
• I'm missing home. It doesn't happen often, but every once in a while, I miss my old school. I miss my old friends, my old coworkers, I miss knowing how everything worked. I miss all of it right now. No real reason, things here are great, I just miss that comfortable feeling you get when you are in a setting that totally makes sense to you and where you are around people you have known for years.
• Balance. How the hell do you do it? I need to learn how to balance my life. I either feel like I'm totally wrapped up in work, or that I'm blowing off work to spend time on things outside of it. I need to learn how to balance the two.
• Focus. I seem to have lost my focus entirely. I can't make myself focus for more than a few minutes before my mind wanders and I'm off checking email or facebook. How do I make myself stop doing that? The answer may be more caffeine. I have to figure that out too!

So there's what I've been thinking about. I'm not sure that anyone is actually reading this, but so I'll just post next about one of those things. But if anyone is reading this and wants to read about any of that, let me know.