Episode LXXVII: A Busy February

February, as you may know, is a short month. This February, however, seemed to be filled with enough stuff for me to fit into two regular-sized months. Anyhow, now that February is long gone, let me tell you about a few things that occurred.

First, as I mentioned last time, I have been fairly busy with the band in which I am- practicing, recording, playing concerts and then eating IHOP pancakes late late at night.

In the meantime, I won this award called the Newmark Award for biochemistry at the University of Kansas. Basically I had to submit a résumé and reference letters to the department, which invited five finalists to give a brief talk on their research; based on these, they chose their winner. And this year, that winner was me! Huzzah. This is nice because (a) it will look good on my future résumé, and (b) it comes with a nice $$$ (cash) prize as well.

Also, this semester KU started up an official men’s club volleyball team. Tryouts were in February, and I made the “A” team. One nice thing about the team is that even in practice we are playing some really good volleyball, which is a lot of fun. Another nice thing is that we occasionally practice in the official stadium where the NCAA women’s team plays, where the floors are always freshly-finished, and where we even get to use the “clubhouse,” complete with Gatorade, TV and plush couches:

Another nice thing is that I get to wear a real University of Kansas jersey with lucky #17 on the back:

So in late February we played our first-ever tournament in Lincoln, Nebraska, against a number of regional teams, and guess what? First tournament ever, we win the whole thing! I forgot to take a picture (I suppose I was busy), but here is a pretty accurate representation of what we looked like:

And now, ladies and gentlemen, please excuse me (and the rest of Lawrence) while we prepare for MARCH MADNESS!!!