A weekend to smile

Sep 16, 2007

A gorgeous weekend in North Carolina, and I’m feeling great. With Erin and the girls and my mom away at the beach yesterday, I worked on publicizing the food blogging event and the science blogging conference, and caught up on a consulting project.

The food blogging event, starring Michael Ruhlman, is going to be a blast. I have 21 people signed up for the dinner, and can accept nine more. Drew Brown and Andy Magowan are planning a delicious meal for us. Contact me ASAP if you want to join in on the fun.

For the science blogging conference, we have our first 50 registered, and more than half are coming from outside the state, from as far away as California, Toronto, the UK and even Sweden. Just look at the stellar individuals who have signed up. And Bora’s put together a dynamite program for the day.

So anyway, a quiet house cooled by a blast of autumn air — heavy rains on Friday were a godsend — coaxed me to sleep by 7pm last night. I woke up at 7 this morning, refreshed with the 12 hours of slumber. Guess I don’t sleep enough during the week.

The highlight of my first few weeks at Duke came this past Tuesday at a meeting of all the Duke communicators — more than 100 people who variously tell the stories of the students, teachers, researchers, doctors and nurses throughout the institution.

Duke President Richard Brodhead talked about the university’s commitments to promoting scholarship in service to society, and as an example he mentioned his pride in reading the blog of basketball star and pre-med student Emily Waner, who spent the summer working in the highlands of Guatemala. That seemed to relate closely to the BlogTogether event we had back in February, in which my fellow bloggers introduced social media to the head of the Duke Engage program.

In my new role at Duke Medicine, I have the opportunity to build some innovative organizational communications tools. Just one of the exciting responsibilities keeping me up at night.

Erin and the girls are on the way home, a big pan full of paella is on the stovetop, and the neighborhood is quiet and still. I think I’ll go outside and rake some leaves, breathe deeply, and smile.

Anton Zuiker ☄