Today I'm feeling...

Tired. Frustrated. Annoyed.

Taking the Lead

Yes, I know that "Take the Lead" is a movie, and this post is someone related as it involves dance. For the past couple of weeks, I have been attending salsa rueda classes (aka Cuban Salsa or salsa done in a circle) and it's been TONS of fun. Usually, there are lots of people that come to the class (it's free and is offered on a "drop-in" basis) and ususally the guy to girl ratio is pretty even. If anything, there are 1 or 2 more guys than girls. Last night however, this was not the case and so some of the girls had to be leaders instead of followers. Now, I've lead before in regular salsa, but leading in salsa rueda is a whole 'nother kettle of fish. Needless to say, I was totally confused. I got some of the basic steps like enchufle and enchufle doble, pas la con hermanos, and dame. But when we got to some of the twisty, curvy ones I was usually at lost. I often forgot which way to turn the follower for the first turn and would often get cofused somewhere in the middle. Nevertheless, I struggled through it and it was fun. However, I definitely prefer to be the follower! I also learned some key lessons:

1. Cut the leaders a little slack. Their job is difficult.
2. It really helps if followers know what they're doing....e.g.. know which way you will turn and what partner you will be going to
3. Followers: don't preempt the leader. Wait until he/she gives you the signal.
4. Most of all...no matter what...KEEP DANCING!

Still here...

Just a short note to let you all know that I'm still here! I've spent a lot of time in the last two months reading science articles, writing a proposal, editing said proposal, and preparing powerpoint presentations. The end is near though, just on the horizon. Come 3pm on Monday, Decembr 4 I can come up for air. Until then, I'll keep swimming.

Happy Holidays!

Shoe Randomness

I was at Target tonight shopping for some last minute travel items before I leave for our annual departmental retreat tomorrow when a girl came up to me and asked me about my shoes. Now that in and of itself is not that unsual but she continued to ask non-fashion related (and slightly personal for a stranger although not offensively so) questions. I had just come from dance class and was wiped out. The last thing I wanted to do was reveal my life history to some random girl in the toiletries aisle. However, I scrounged together some manners and chatted politely with her. I'm rambling here...(remember the tiredness????). Anyway, she said something that striked me as funny. She said, "That my shoes looked like J.Crew." Now what does that mean????... That they look expensive? or that they look preppy? Hmmm, thanks to the former but I'll pass on the latter. I don't think that my shoes were anything out of the ordinary. They're brown slip-ons, slightly (and only slightly) reminiscent of bowling shoes. I bought them three and a half years ago in preparation for my trip to England. (I was really excited about these shoes at the time and my friend Stephanie reminded me that is was going to be rainy in England and that perhaps backless shoes were not the best items to be taking with me. While that made a lot of sense, I took them with me anyway and they were great. I bought rainproof sneakers (or trainers if you prefer) for the rain and THEY were definitely the best shoe buy ever! Go Montrail and REI!!!). They were in no way expensive...I doubt I paid more than $40 for them at Dillards. Ah the randomness.....

wanderlust

I'm thinking of taking a trip overseas towards the end of next (this?) summer. Destination not yet determined. Maybe Europe, maybe South Pacific? Hmmm...

Quote of the Day

A postdoc in my lab was describing something she heard on a talk show and she said that this event occurred "down south....in SOUTHERN California." How freaking hilarious is that?! Since when has "down south" come to mean "Southern California!?!!!"

Quote of the Day

Yesterday in the school newspaper (yay for the return of The Daily!...and it's crossword puzzles!), there was small blurb. It read, "There's not enough art in our schools. No wonder people think that Martha Graham is a snack cracker." Gotta love it!

Salsa Craze

I am discovering the salsa scene in the bay area and loving it! This weekend is the last weekend before classes start and as such, the campus is overflowing with new face and lots of get togethers. Tonight there were 2 salsa parties going on on campus. One was at the international center and was playing a variety of latin music from salsa to cha-cha to bachata (spelling?) to merengue, etc. The other on was playing at one of the grad residential community centers and this one was just salsa. My salsa buddy and I (the one I can always rely on for being up for a little dancing action) decided to check both of them out. We headed to the one at the international center first. When we firs walked into the door, I was a little skeptical. It didn't look like too many people were there and those that were there were primarily beginners. Despite this, however, we had only been standing in the doorway for less than 30 seconds when we were both asked to dance. Never ones to turn down guys who were willing to dance, we agreed. For the first couple of dances, it was painfully bad. After that though, the action picked up a little and guys got better. I was particularly impressed with two of my partners. One was french and studing astro engineering and he was pretty good - innovative, rhythm, a good lead. He said he hadn't danced salsa in a while and so he was still trying to remember all the things you can do. The second guy was from Norway and studying petroleum engineering but was at school only for the year taking some computer science classes. He was great and we danced for 3 songs. Both guys were cute and I was tempted to ask for their information....ONLY so that I could ask them to come out salsa dancing with us! (right! ;) ). Shortly after the that third dance, my salsa buddy mentioned heading over the the other salsa party to check it out. I was game, so we headed over.

On the way, i was talking to her about salsa rueda (aka casino salsa) and how I wish I could find a place to take lessons or a club that dances it. Well, low and behold, what do we find at the other party??? A group doing salsa rueda! I was in between partners at the time and was just staring at them agog in amazement. I was just thinking about salsa rueda and here they are doing it in front of my face! At the end of the dance, I asked on of the guys (one I had danced with earlier) if they took lessons or had a class. Well, not only is there a class, but they also taught me a few of the basics quickly and I was able to join it! I was in seventh heaven! I got one of the guys' contact information so that I have a point of reference for the class (directions and so on). I am so excited! I will definitely have to check the lessons out! Oh, and the best thing is...they're FREE!!!! (Now that's what a poor graduate student wants to hear!!!).

I feel really blessed. This summer, I have really come into my own here at school. I've been out trying new things and going new places - doing some things with friends and some on my own. Over the past two years, I had forgotten how independent I used to be. Too often (during the 2 years) I found myself relying more and more on others and less willing to try and do things on my own. Part of that was due to my surroundings and part of it was due to health, but I feel so glad now that I have recaptured some of my independence. I feel like I'm coming closer and closer to that girl who wasn't afraid to travel an hour and a half by train to a busy foreign city in order to see a show that looked interesting. That girl that wasn't afraid to wander around a big city alone at night (I was cautious not stupid!) to soak of the experience of being abroad. We all have detours in life, but it sure feels good to come the center core that is you.

Full Spectrum

Today I felt nearly the full spectrum of emotions? I'm not sure what the right word is....this morning I woke up with a pretty bad headache. As per usual when I feel icky when I wake up, I buried my head under the covers and tried to coerce myself back to sleep in the hope that the oblivion would eliminate my pain. Also as per usual, this tactic did not work (the fact that my roommate was up and moving about at 6:30 in the morning probably had somethign to do with that, too). Anyway, I could't dawdle too long b/c I had a meeting with my PI (principle investigator...grad school lab mentor) at 11am and I needed to do some last minute reading before hand. So, I dragged myself out of bed and despite the pounding in my head decided that the headache wasn't as bad as the one I had earlier in the week and as such, I could afford to shower and get dressed before drugging myself up with advil. Well, halfway through dressing, I suddenly felt very woozy. I needed to boost my blood sugar NOW and get some food in my system so that I could take the advil. Heedless of the fact that I was only half-dressed (thank goodness my roommate had already left! Although, I was feeling so bad that I probably wouldn't have cared!), I stumbled into the kitchen, poured my self a glass of juice to sip, turned on water for oatmeal, and stumbled onto the couch in the living room before I collapsed. The juice helped raise my blood sugar and soon the water was hot enough for my instant oatmeal. I got through about half the oatmeal before the nauseousness settled in. Skipping the rest of the oatmeal, I downed 2 advil right away, pulled a blanket out of the storage ottoman, set my phone alarm for 20 min and passed out on the couch to let the advil take effect. Twenty minutes later the worst of the pain had subsided (God bless Advil!!!) and I was at least functional enough to finish getting ready and get to lab.

A low grade headache persisted until lunch. Lunch...food, I am convinced, is the cure all. I felt much better after lunch, but was still a little tired through out the day...surreptiously taking cat naps at my desk. I finally gave up at 4:30p and head home. Another short catnap on the couch and I conviced myself to get up and go to dance class. I considered not going, but I had missed a class a couple of weeks in a row earlier (I usually go twice a week) and I recalled how much it sucked getting back into the swing of things. So I hauled my butt of the couch and into my leotard and tights, grabbed a bottle of water, and money for a snack on the way and headed out the door. Two and a half hours later, I was in heaven. I had such a great class (Friday class is always challenging both technically and endurance-wise, but is so much fun) that I felt I could keep on dancing the night away. I grooved to music on the way home and was dancing around the house when I got home (I was looking VERY forward to having the house to myself for a little bit tonight while my roommate hung out with her new classmates). I was still grooving when she came home unexpectedly with a classmate to pick something up. Her classmate was from Argentina, and the poor thing must have thought that I was absolutely off my rocker given the way I was acting (I couldn't help it! The radio was on loud and I couldn't help but jam away...my adrenaline was still pumping from class). I tried to tell her that I'm normally not this crazy (well at least to people I just meet anyway! hehe), but I don't think she believed me. Oh well! You win some you lose some! I am thoroughly grateful that today ended on a "high" given the very "low" I had this morning!

One Year Anniversary

On this day one year ago, I moved to California. I was both nervous and excited. I would be starting a new phase in my life - graduate school. Was I ready? Had I made a mistake? Did I pick the right school? Was I smart enough? Was taking a year off the wrong decision, and was it going to come back to bite me in the butt in the year to come? I was also transitioning to less money with more expenses, not to mention going from being paid biweekly to quarterly (that's right - only 4 paychecks a year). How would that work? It would be the first time that I had to generate a very specific, detailed budget instead of just a general idea. Would I like my roommate? Would she like me? More importantly, would we be able to successfully live together? Would I like the west coast? All of these thoughts were rambling through my mind on the flight over from the east coast and during my first few days of being in Cali.

Well, now a year later, I am happy to say that all is well. Though the first few months were hairy, I can honestly say that I now feel that I made the right decision in terms of school. I survived my first year of grad school classes and all of my lab rotations. And while, I certainly was not the smartest in any of my classes, I am glad to say that I pulled through just fine. Afterall, the motto for grad school is "You don't have to get an 'A,' you just have to pass." Hehe. To top it all off, I have chosen a thesis lab and am now fully entrenched in grad school life. It also turns out that I LOVE being paid on a quarterly system. No more having to wait until the next paycheck to pay a bill. I can pay it right when I get it. And budgeting is no problem...it suits my detailed and organized personality quite well. My roommate fears were also unfounded. We get along great and live together extremely well. While I primarily consider myself a "Southern girl," I really like the west coast. The weather can't be beat (no humidity, no hurricanes, no tornadoes) - nearly the perfect temperature for 6-8 months of the year. There's a variety of things to do with both the ocean and the mountains close by. The atmosphere is relaxed and laid back, and if the people aren't exactly as friendly as back home, well...you can't have everything! Thus, on the eve of my second year in Cali, I can only hope that things continue to go well and that life continues to blossom!

A lesson to be learned...

...from online shopping. I caved into to my desire to shop by purchasing 4 items from the REI outlet and 4 items from Dancewear Solutions. Of the four items from REI: bike lights, a waterproof, fleece-lined jacket, and 2 pairs of shoes, I only ended up keeping the first two items. One pair of shoes was too wide and the other was too big even though I ordered my normal shoe size. Evidently, I am not meant to purchase shoes online. Thank goodness I can return the items to a nearby REI store for a full refund (and I didn't even lose money on shipping, since shipping to an REI retail store is FREE!). Of the dance items: 2 pairs of tights (I really needed these! Mine are a little holey) and 2 leotards, I ended of keeping NONE of them! That's right folks...the tights were the wrong kind (it's hard to tell from the catalogue description), and the leotards were too big. To compound matters, the correct sizes of all of the items are backordered! From these experiences, I have learned that sometimes it's just better to go to the store. At least that way you can be sure that you get the items you want AND that they fit.

No longer homeless

That's right folks (can you see my "Southerness" poking through?! I am no longer a transient rotation student, I have finally chosen and joined a thesis lab! I have a permanent home (for the next 4-5 years at least) in Upi Singh's lab studying the enteric parasite Entamoeba histolytica. Woo-hoo! Let's celebrate!

Twinkle Toes

I have many family nicknames, but one in particular is "Twinkle Toes" because of my love of dancing. Well, did I dance last night or what! A friend invited me to join her and some other friends in a night of dancing in SF. We went to a salsa supper club called Roccapulco, and it was fabulous!!! I first heard about this club from a post-doc in one of the labs that I rotated through, and originally I wanted to go there for my birthday (but I figured the vast majority of people wouldn't make the trip to the city). Needless to say, I was excited to check it out in person. The club is great...there's lots of seating and a decent-sized dance floor. They even had a live band! The clientele was a mix of old and young, but everyone was dancing and it wasn't over crowded. There was plenty of room on the dance floor and you weren't dripping sweat from too many people. We danced all night long (literally - from 10p to close at 2a). I think I only sat out 2 songs the entire night...(my feet just couldn't take anymore towards the end of the night). I have never been twirled, spun, and dipped more in my life! It's definitely the type of place that you go to if you already know how to salsa (beginners beware). I wouldn't say I'm a great salsa dancer, but I know the basics and I can follow pretty well. Although, as the night wore on, my following ability was inversely proportional to my degree of tiredness. I did see a lot of styling on the dance floor and I'm going to try to work on that. The majority of the guys were great leaders, but I think the best ones tended to be older. My toes did get stepped on a little bit towards the end of the night, and I noticed as we were leaving the club that my big toe nail had been cracked and was all bloody! (I'm feeling it today...Ouch!). Although I was dead tired and aching from my hips to my knees to my poor feet as I limped home at 3am, it was definitely well worth it! I can't wait to go again!

I feel the need, ...

the need to shop! Now you probably think that every girl feels the need to shop, and while I would generally agree with that statement, I have rarely felt the need in the past year. Let me explain.... When I was living at home with my mom during my year off (I was working at the CDC in between undergrad and grad school), I shopped A LOT. Perhaps this had something to do with the fact that I had a real job and thus was making real money (this should be qualified- "real" money as compared to NO money in college), not to mention the fact that I didn't have to pay rent, utilities, groceries, etc. (Now before you get all huffy about me living the "good life", I want to let you know that my money went to a lot of places other than shopping. For instance, I paid off two of my credit cards, and paid off the one I was currently using which had racked up some damage over the year. In addition, I started paying on my student loans, saved several thousand dollars to move across the country for grad school, and even managed a sizeable down payment on to a new car).

Okay, back to shopping. While I was at home, I had the greatest shopping temptation of all... my shopping buddy (a.k.a. Mom)! My mom LOVES to shop! Mention the word "sale," and she's there. Try something on that you even mildly like, and she will convince you to buy it. Needless to say, my wardrobe was greatly expanded by the end of the year. (In my defense, I bought very little during college and I wore my clothes to death!) In addition, I found the most perfect tailor ever! I'm a small girl and very rarely does anything that I try on in the store actually fit. (Cords from The Gap and stuff from Bebe being the exception). This used to be a deterant to shopping, but as my mom oh so skillfully pointed out, things clothes can always be taken in and tailored to fit. With that thought in mind, I went crazy at my new favorite store, The Limited.

The move to California was expensive, and although I had saved money, there was little left over for freelance shopping. Moreover, I had gone from a nice paycheck to a virtually nothing left over once essentials were taken care of (ie. living with a real job to living off a graduate student stipend). Even if I were in the mood to shop, there was no money to do so. And while the financial side of things improved slightly over the subsequent quarters (I was overpaid), the urge to shop did not return. This is quite funny given that my roommate loved to go shopping. (I however, could just not bring myself to shop in a mall where one of the cheapest stores was J.Crew - the nearest mall. Nor could I bring myself to drive 20-30 min to the next nearest mall when gas prices are $3+ a gallon). This does not mean that I did not do ANY shopping this past year. That would be unrealisitic. I did do a small amount of spending at a couple of outlet malls.

After perusing websites, the shopping but has once again bitten. My favorite website of the week is for the REI outlet. How long can I hold out? Waterproof jackets and shoes beckon!...

Remarkable Educators

As most kids across the nation (and teachers, too) are gearing up for another rip-roaring exciting year of education, I pause to remember some of my favorite teachers and experiences.

For my most formative years of grade school (fourth grade to eigth grade), I was in the magnet program. I loved the magnet program. Besides being in small classes, we were really academically challenged in a supportive environment that made me LOVE going to school (gasp!). I think one of the best things about the magnet program was that it fostered creative thinking. For example (and if I ever teach grade school, I would definitely implement this policy), in the 7th grade I had a language arts teacher, Mr. Galyean, that had a standard policy with regard to projects. At the beginning of each project assignment, he would hand out a sheet that listed the project criteria. If you met all of the requirements, and recieved the maximum amount of points for each section, the highest grade you could get was a 70, which was a D. (Now for a class of "high (aka "over") acheivers, a D was not acceptable). For every thing you did above and beyond the requirements (e.g. an extra visual aid, a poem/story, etc.), you had the possibility to earn 10 extra points. Essentially, to receive a grade in the "acceptable" range, you had to do 3 extra things for each project. Now while some might think this policy is harsh, it was actually fun. It challenged you to think outside of the box and to go the extra mile.

I would have to say that my favorite magnet school teacher of all time (not the one I was personally closest to) was Mrs. Persaud-White, my eigth grade language arts teacher. It was in her class that we learned how to analyze poetry and literature and even music lyrics. Besides being awesome, it was a tool that held me in good stead for the rest of my academic career. I distinctly remember Mr. Galyean saying one day to "read between the lines" of some work we were studying at the time. All of us looked at him like he was crazy and major frustration ensued. However, Mrs. Persaud-White actually taught us to do just that and I can remember "ah-ha" moments when she would say something in such a way as to turn on a little lightbulb in our heads. My personal favorite of the year was the poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" by Langston Hughes.

Other memorable magnet school moments include:

1) Laura Ingalls Wilder Day in 4th grade where we all dressed up in costume, redocorated the cafeteria, made her wedding cake from scratch and my friends and I re-inacted her wedding to Manning.

2) Passport Around the World (4th-6th grades). Each homeroom class was a different country and we would learn all we could about that country - food, culture, money, politics, economics, language, dances, etc. We would then pack a small suitcase, our passports, and our plane tickets (all made out of construction paper, of course), and travel to another country (i.e. a classroom down the hall). In 4th grade, my class was Mexico. This was great because my teacher had a Latino background and her mother had a closet full of traditional clothes. So, we got dressed up and even learned some traditional dances and songs, and of course, we offered yummy foods, too.

3) Making commericals in 7th grade German class (my group was the grocer).

4) 8th grade earth science: We made time-lapse movies to learn about erosion. We had a fashion show using characteristics of the nine planets as insipiration. We got to decorate a ceiling tile as our favorite planet.

La-La Land

I've been having trouble focusing of late. It's like my brain can't think ahead to the next step until it's right on top of me. While I suppose this mindset could be okay for certain situations, it is definitely NOT ideal for lab work/research. I need to wake up and get my brain in gear...major decisions are coming up....WAKE UP!!!

Where in the world have you been?

create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

Hmmm...it looks like I have a lot more places to visit!

5 Things

I've seen these types of things around, so I thought I would update it with my own version...

5 Things in My Refrigerator:
Iced Tea, White Cranberry Peach Juice, Brie, Tortillas, Eggs

5 Things in My Car:
Area Map, Umbrella, Ray Charles CD, Tool Kit, Jumper Cables

5 Most Frequently Watched TV Stations:
Food Network, HGTV, MTV, TLC, NBC

5 Things I Like to do in my Spare Time:
Read, Watch TV, Go to the movies, Make Jewelry, Dance

5 Favorite College Courses:
Lab on DNA Manipulation, Chem 111, Genetics, Cell Bio, Intro to Theater Production

5 Least Favorite College Courses:
Orangic Chem I, Organic Chem II, Greek Classics, Biological Clocks, Immunology

5 Things I will Spend Good Money On:
Food, Travel, Clothes (including Shoes!), Movies, Dance Classes

5 Places I've Been Abroad:
U.K., Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Russia

5 Places Abroad Where I Want to Go:
Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Scotland, Egypt

Finally!

You may have heard me lament before about how I'm no Betty Crocker. Well in the past couple of days I have tried again. On Sunday I wanted an omelette for breakfast. I am notoriuosly horrible at flipping them in the pan, so when I came across a recipe for making them in the oven, I thought, "Fabulous! A fool-proof way to get my omelette fix!" Well, I followed the recipe - adjusting for my favorite ingredients of course (pineapple, bell pepper, and cheese), and 20 minutes later I had an unbeliveably disgusting concoction that I had the unfortunate misfortune to put in my mouth. I quickly threw that recipe in the trash! That night I had decided to make fajitas for dinner (I found a fajita marinade in Target that I decided to try - glutton for punishment that I am). The directions suggested marinating the meat for several hours, so I mixed marinade with the beef strips and popped in the fridge for 3 hours. Hmmm...the marinade was pretty thick so cooking the meat in the skillet with the peppers was interesting to say the least. The outcome was edible, but barely....Strike two. (It probably would have been okay if I had left out the marinade...note for next time!)

Despite two less than steller experiments, I decided to try one more time. Given that I still had all of the ingredients from the fajitas (tortillas, 4 mexican cheese mix, pico de gallo, shredded lettuce), I figured I would give chicken quesadillas a try. Well, this one finally turned out right and quite yummy, too! I didn't follow a recipe; I just winged it! Yay for winging it! Hmmm...what's next?

Good Golly Miss Molly!

Good golly Miss Molly!...I am roasting from the heat! I haven't been able to sleep really well in the past week b/c it's been so hot. My apartment is great..lot's of windows, high ceilings, but unfortunately, the campus apartments don't come with air conditioning or fans! (This is the first time I've ever lived somewhere where they didn't have AC!). Normally the no AC thing isn't a big deal b/c I'm not at home during the day and at night it cools off, so I'm usually good if I just open the front and back doors to let the breeze through. However, weekends are a whole 'nother story! Today I did some volunteering at a nearby soup kitchen and while they didn't have AC either, it wasn't as noticeable since the room was large and there were few windows to let in the burning sun. When I came out to my car though, the outside temperature reading on my dashboard read 99 degrees! "Enough is enough," I thought. I MUST get a fan. Fast forward to failed trips to Target, WalMart, and Mervyns (I guess everyone had the same idea!). Sears was my savior! I grabbed a nice oscillating fan that can sit on the ground (about 15 inches) or can be raised to about 2.5 feet. I am now relaxing on my couch with the consistent breeze of my Blizzard fan while it's 106 outside. Ahh, life is good! (Now if I could only work up the energy to do some cleaning...)

Home Sweet Home

I enjoyed three marvelous weeks at home in HOTlanta. On average, I didn't do much (which is just the way vacation should be). I filled my time sleeping (in my big queen-size bed no less!...Queen beats X-long Twin any day of the week!), reading books (I was expecting a 6 month backlog of books as I hadn't been home since Christmas, but alas, my mum has been sending all of the books to my sister! Needless to say, the bounty never made it up the coast to my neck of the woods!), and watching TV (So You Think You Can Dance, the Hills, 5 Takes - love that show!, Take Home Chef, A Baby Story, Bringing Home Baby, various and sundry Food Network shows, and of course...Bridezillas!).

While I was home I also went to go visit fomer colleagues at the CDC for lunch. It was fantastic! So much had happened in the one year I had been away. The CDC underwent a total physical transformation into a much more beautiful working environment. In addition, the flu branch got an upgrade from a branch to a division, and IVPS got more lab and office space! (Gone are the days of 7 people working in a 4 person office). Plus, there has been lots of people drama, too. Two people had left on not-so-good terms, two people had given birth to baby girls, and one person was pregnant with a girl and due very soon. It was really nice to reconnect to everyone; however, it reminded me of very important fact of life....Nothing is constant, and one should not hold out on the future for a glimpse of the past (Note to self regarding lab choices!).

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

In some ways I am like Thomas the Train, especially when it comes to the end of the quarter/semester in school. Needless to say, this is the last week of the quarter (Yes, I know it's JUNE already, but what can I say...Californians are crazy), and life has gone from steadily doable to OMG I have so much to do in the next few days. So, here's my list. All do on or before Friday at 5pm.

1. Biotechniques critique
2. Innate Immunity problem set
3. Innate Immunity research proposal
4. Lab meeting presentation
5. Wrap-up in lab
6. Choose a thesis lab or decide/set-up 4th rotation.

Well, wish me luck...It'll be a crazy couple of days. (Did I mention that procrastination has become my middle name?) Oy vey!

Another One Bites the Dust

Today, as I was heading into the dance studio, I spied for dance teacher at the far end of the building smoking a cigarette. I was so disappointed! I really like this teacher. He's creative, always upbeat and energetic, and makes great analogies to get his points across. "He caved," I thought. Caved into the pressure, the stresses of the business of being a professional dancer. I have NEVER understood why dancers smoke. Oh, I've heard the excuses...it's an appetite suppressant...it keeps the weight down. What a bunch of baloney! Why would you poison your body, especially when you depend on the physical health of that body for your livelihood? How do you expect to do petite and grand allegro, let alone a full-length ballet, when your lungs are full of tar?!!!!

Budgeting

I don't know about everyone else, but as a poor graduate student who only gets paid FOUR times a year, budgeting is an intimate part of my vocabulary and daily existence. I budget everything and even have a detailed Excel spreadsheet dedicated to chronicling where every precious cent goes. (Hmmm...this make me sound kind of anal, but it's not as bad as that. I just allow x amount of money for things each week or per quarter, and make sure that I don't spend over that amount. To help me keep track, I enter and tally my receipts into Excel. Yay for Excel!!) At first, when I realized that we would only get paid 4 times a quarter, I didn't think I would like it. Surprisingly, however, I love it. It allows me to pay all my bills on the day that I receive them. There's no waiting until the next pay period to pay things. That's great!

Anyway, I digress from my initial point of this entry....Yesterday, I stopped by the Student Services office for my department for a little sugar break (she keeps a basket of candy by the door), when MJ (the student services coordinator) said that she need to talk to me about budgets or finance or something. Hmmm, I thought...what could this be about? The only thing I had used department money for was to purchase my laptop fall quarter - department approved spending of funds. Well, what she had to tell me had nothing to do with my computer, but rather my stipend. Evidently, whomever had stipend allocating (it would be called payroll if we were employees) at the beginning of the year had made a mistake. I was incorrectly entered under some special fellowship that paid more than the Biosciences graduate student stipend ($30,000 vs. $26,750, which may sound like a lot, but this is northern california...nothing's cheap here). Well, to make a long story short, my stipend check will be about $2,500 LESS for the summer quarter than anticipated b/c of someone's mistake! $2,500 LESS!!! I'll be lucky if, after my on-campus housing is automatically deducted, I'll have money for groceries!!!! Not to mention that the summer quarter is longer than any other quarter! Longer by an additional FOUR weeks! Thus, not only will I have less money, but I'll have less money over a longer period of time! While I'm airing my grevieances, let it be known that at the beginning of the academic year, I didn't even get paid for weeks (several weeks after classes had started mind you!)!! All I know is that if this were a business, heads would roll. This kind of mistake is unacceptable in the business world and should be unacceptable everywhere! How can you mess up someone's paycheck?!

Birthday Review

Last Friday, May 26th, was my 24th birthday! It was my first one away from home or family that I can ever remember. As my birthday falls after the end of the college spring semesters, I am often home or with fam for my "big" celebrations. "Big" is kind of funny b/c we rarely do anything. Maybe it's dinner, but more usually it's a movie. Hmmm, let's recap the last couple of birthdays..

2003: Moving into summer housing at Wash U school of med, preparing for a rip-roaring summer of fun doing HHMI research in lab (woo-hoo). I was lucky enough to have my mum help me move in. Yay, mum!

2004: I had just graduated from college, packed up all my stuff, and moved back home. I then promptly (as in the very next morning), got on a plane for Miami and a little rest. I had gone straight from a surprisingly intensive final semester of classes, directly into finals (no reading week for me), then madly finishing up a year and a half of work in lab, followed immediately by the arrival of my dear college buddy (who graduated a semester early) for Senior Week, hail the arrival of parents/grandparents/etc. for the mad dash of graduation ceremonies, all topped off my packing up the massive amounts of stuff (dare I say "junk?") that I had accumulated over 4 years. When all that was said and done, I was tired of being around people. So, I packed a suitcase and headed off to Miami to hibernate in my sister's apartment and sit on the beach.

2005: I was taking a topics course in immunology at the CDC, and my birthday happened to fall on the day of the final exam. So I went into work, took the exam, and then high-tailed it out of there to catch a plane to L.A. (By this time, my sister had moved from miami to L.A.) to visit my sister (see a trend here?) and be a tourist. While my actual birthday was spent primarily on a plane, the weekend was fun. We toured Warner Bros. studios, went on a Hollywood homes tour, and did some shopping. My sister even baked me a cake!

2006: Fast-forward to present day. I had been talking for weeks about going dancing, and now that my birthday was here it was a perfect time to coerce people into going out with me. The salsa night at a local club was on Thursdays, so I celebrated my birthday a day early. I invited people over for cake (well, fruit tart really b/c to be honest, I'm not a huge fan of cake), and then we went out dancing. Surprisingly, a good number of people came over - about 15 or 16 (I was really only expecting a handful of people to come, so the large turnout was great!). We hung out for a bit, but when it came time for dancing, only 3 of us went!...Me, my roommate, and Simona. Go Simona! I think more people would have come if there was a salsa lesson ahead of time, but the beginner lesson was at 7:30p! Anyhow, as I hadn't been to this club before, it was probably a good thing that not many people came. The crowd was, how shall we say... a bit older than I thought, but we had a good time anyway. I must say, it's great to dance with old men when they really know how to dance! I'd never been spun and dipped so much in my life! It was fun!

2007: Who knows what's on tap for next year, the big 25? My mom has already made some noise about going to Vegas, but we'll have to see about that.

hehe

I was driving around campus the other day when I pulled up behind a really nice Lexus. Upon closer inspection, his license plate holder (? you know...the frame that goes around your rear license plate....whatever it's called) read, "Opinions are like assholes...everyone's got one." I busted out laughing. It was so funny to see this guy riding around in a nice car with that on it's rear. Hehe! Gotta love Californians!

5 Things

5 Good Things About Moving to/Living in California:

1. The weather. (In a few simple words...nearly perfect, no tornados, no hurricanes, no humidity.)
2. Living in the same time zone as my sister. (Now instead of calling and waking me up at 1am, it's only 10pm).
3. 45 min from the ocean.
4. 3.5 hr from Tahoe and skiiing (that is if I knew how to ski)
5. I'm closer to Hawaii (although still a 5 hr plane ride)


5 Bad Things About Moving to/Living in California:

1. The price of gas. (Currently the cheap gas is $3.35 and that's DOWN 10 cents from last week!).
2. Chains Restaurants. (Californians seem to have something against chain restaurants, but every so often you just crave a little bit of the familiar).
3. It gets cold at night, even in the summer! (That means that you waste 2 outfits a day! Man, where's the humidity when you need it?)
4. The cost of groceries. ($3.80 for a loaf of plain bread? Come on!)
5. They have big, furry caterpillars that hang from the trees! (Eww! Watch where you walk!)

C-o-o-k-i-e :)

Well, the snickerdoodles did the trick. A little lunch and some down time before an afternoon of class and more experiments does (did?) the body good. I am happy to report that the day carried on without any more major mishaps (just a minor one or two that were palatable). Now I'm just plum tuckered out. It's time for dinner, a little blog searching, the OC, ER, and bed. :)

Damn!

It started off as a good day...the sun was shining, my cells were ready, the experiment was going great. But then halfway through the first experiment disaster struck!...I messed up my controls. DAMN!!!! An hour and a half wasted, only to be repeated later. Blah, as if I already didn't have a full day! And to top it all off, my head phones broke! Double Damn!! Mentally, I'm trying to remind myself not to let this little set-back ruin my day. Afterall I have 3 more chances to redeem myself, but really, all I want to do is wallow in self-pity and disgust. (This may take more than one cookie to get me back on track. Hmmm, snickerdoodle and butter toffee and a little sunshine might do the trick).

Spring has Sprung!

Spring has finally arrived in northern California! It has been an incredibly rainy winter (if you can stretch your imagination to consider that California has a "winter"), even breaking the record books. I for one am thankful for what the green it has brought to this oft barren land, but not thankful for the bugs....or birds that chirp at some ungodlly hour before 7am! But all that aside, I am mostly thankful that the rain has stopped, and the temperatures have finally risend out of the low-mid 60's! Hopefully we're in for the weather that I moved to California for...sun and 70's! (People think I'm joking when I say I moved to Cali for the weather. I'm not. Really). The other day I was watching the weather channel and saw that St. Louis was in the 90's. For a BRIEF moment, I was jealous, but then reality hit and I remembered what 90-degree heat and humidity feel like. Sorry! Been there, done that, have moved on to "greener" (well at least less humid) pastures! Coming from Atlanta (a.k.a. HOT-lanta) and spending four years (and four summers!) in St. Louis, I am truly looking forward to a summertime of beautiful weather that is easy to enjoy (ie. can be outside for more than 2 minutes without being drenched in sweat!). Mmmmm...I can't wati!

Spring also ushers in another wonderful thing...spring clothes! I finally moved my sweaters out and my tanks, tees, and capris in! I love it! It's like shopping without having to spend the money (well, technically I guess I've already spent the money, but that's besides the point). My roommate laughed at me the entire time I was switching my clothes over....She can't believe how many clothes I have. Well, I can't believe that she can fit her ENTIRE WARDROBE (including spring, summer, fall, and winter clothes) into one small closet and one set of chester drawers! Oh well, I enjoy my variety.

Toodles for now; tomorrow brings another beautiful day!

A weekend in review

On Friday night, my roommate and I hosted our 3rd Games Night. As per usual, we sent out a ton of invites via email, cleaned the house, and picked up snacks. This time, however, we were smart enough to OPEN the snacks and strategically place them aorund the room. (Last time we were left with a lot of snacks as people were hesitant to open them and dig in). Also, unlike last time, the demographics of the guests were skewed towards musicians insteads of scientists. Hmm, my roommate has often said that music/musicology attracts an interesting (okay, weird) crowd, and by the end of Friday night, I decided she was right. Of the seven music-related individuals present, I really could have done without 3 of them. They were pretty rude (probably a consequence of the immense amount of alcohol they consumed while playing games...who knows how much them drank before they arrived. AND let it be known that we did not supply the alcoholic beverages, they brought it themselves; therefore I feel no responsibility for their behavior). All in all, though, it was a good success. I even managed to convice some people to go out dancing with me later this quarter (we'll see if they actually stick to it, though).

Saturday, was a day of work. My goal: to complete enough work so that I could take the entire day of Sunday off. This idea of taking one day off a weekend is the brainchild of my roommate. It was her initial plan to implement this idea all year. Sadly, the reality of school set in and this idea soon bit the dust. However, we both revived it this weekend. Saturday was my roommate's day off and Sunday was mine. Her Saturday comprised of sleeping in until noon (unheard of since the girl never sleeps past 8:30am at the lastest!), a leisurely walk, a little shopping, email, TV watching, and a movie. My Saturday consisted of getting up at 8am for dance class, ballet class (not my best but the turns were surprisingly good), finishing cleaning up after the previous night's festivities (mainly dishes and vacuuming...chores I left for my roommate since I did most of the cleaning the night before, but when she wasn't up by 11a I caved in), Subway for lunch, Biotechniques critique (hence the work part), and a movie. Not too bad.

Sunday was a day of bliss. It had been a long time since I could fully enjoy a day of doing what I want...ahem, that does not include school work!. Unfortunately, sleeping in was not on the agenda as I had to get into lab to set up a time course expt by 9:30am, but it wasn't too bad. When I came back, I continued to read a really good book ("colter's wife by joan johnston), had a leisurely shower, pizza for lunch, quick trip to the grocery store, finished reading book, traipsed around the mall (there's a farmer's market there that has these awesome dried strawberries, and of course Macy's was having a sale, so I had I good time in the lingerie dept.), made really yummy and very satisfying meatloaf, started a new book and stayed up late reading. A truly wonderful day. It's too bad I can't have these all the time...maybe once a week during the summer. We'll see.

Goals

So, we're two weeks into the new quarter and I have implemented a couple of new goals for the quater.

Goal #1: To become involved in community service. Throughout high school and college I was very active in community service. I love it. It's fun and I really enjoy connecting with people with whom I might not ordinarily interact. So, after a couple of days of diligently searching the internet for volunteer organizations in my area, I stumbled upon "Hands On Bay Area." This organization is just what I was looking for. It is very similar to "Hands On Atlanta" in which I participated in high school and the year I spent at home after graduation. it is ideal for me because they have a variety of projects that you can do and none of them require consistent commitment. You can sign up for activities as your schedule allows, and that is key for me right now. Also, this is a chance to break that "school bubble" that inevitably surrounds colleges and universities and to get out and meet some new people.

Goal #2: To go to dance class more often. Last quarter I started ballet again, and I love it! I've found a studio nearby that offers all levels of adult classes, they teachers and facilities are nice. The best part, however, is that there is some class I can take every single day of the week (including Sunday)! It's been great getting back into dancing, although a little frustrating becasue it's difficult to make substantial progress when you're only dancing one day a week. Thus, this quarter I'm going to try to go at least twice a week for the majority of the quarter. I say "the majority" because, well, it's life and we all know that things (like class, lab, assignments, etc.) happen.

Goal #3: To relax about classes. For the past two quarters, I tended to get stressed out about classes. This quarter I am going to truly embrace the grad school philosophy..."You just have to pass (ie. get a B), and it's REALLY hard to fail classes." This is not to say that I will slack off in my classes, only that I don't need to do everything perfectly.

Food on the Brain

I love food. It's nearly always on my mind. So, I thought I would jot down some of my favorite eating spots. Some unique, some chains, all good. Here we go...

St. Louis area:
Pointers Pizza - Clayton (yummy, cheap, great Italian specialities, horrible pizza)
Stir Crazy - Olive Blvd. (the best stir-fry ever!)
Zoe - Central West End (a little spicy, very yummy, and kind of expensive...go for lunch!)
Cunneto's - The Hill (so good and huge portions!, you'll leave stuffed with lots of leftovers)
Maggie Moo's - (really, really good ice cream. Mmmmm)
Mrs. Field's Cookies - (they have so many non-chocolate options! I love the Butter Toffee ones the best)

Atlanta area:
The Flying Biscuit - Candler Park (so southern and so good. I particularly like the jam)
Sonny's BBQ - by CDC
Mama Fu's - Toco hills (the yummies noodle bar in Atlanta. I LOVE the beef curry rolls)
Cracker Barrel - (gotta love those maple pancakes)
Famous Dave's - Snellville (BBQ - 'nough said)
Harry and Sons - Virginia Higlands (best Thai food in the ATL)
Jason's - Lavista (love the New York Yankee!)
Joli Kobe bakery - (the best French pastries around)

London:
Wagamama's - (yummy, cheap Japanese)
???? - Russel Square (I can't remember the name, but it's right around the corner from the British Museum and they make the best sandwiches in London)
Coffee Republic - Brighton (better and cheaper than Starbucks)

Finis

I am finally done!...

Cell bio oral defense - check! (it wasn't my finest 15 minutes, but it's done!)
Pathogenesis take-home final - check! (completed a whole day early!)

My roommate and I went to Stacks, a great little place with really yummy breakfast, for lunch to celebrate. I had a chicken philly. Let's just say that I'll stick to breakfast from now on. It wasn't bad, just lacking in flavor. My roommie and I are also headed off to Sacramento tomorrow for a Black-Eyed Peas concert! The Pussy Cat Dolls are opening for them, too! We bought tix on the spur of the momment and I hope it's great (at least worth the 2-hour drive!). We'll be stopping at one of the 4 northern California outlet malls on the way for a little retail therapy. Let spring break begin!

Fire hydrant warning

As I sit here in the med school library attempting to work on my take-home final for my microbial pathogenesis class, I find myself surrounded by eager and diligently studying med student and am reminded of an interesting analogy I heard a couple of weeks ago. A grad student and a med student were discussing the differences between grad school and med school classes. It went something like this...the amount of information med students are being asked to learn/absorb is like standing in front of an open fire hydrant going full blast. For grad students, it's more like having an open fire hydrant and deciding whether or not you want to go over and take a sip. I, personally, am all in favor of the second scenario, which is why I'm in graduate school instead of medical school. However, right now I don't even feel like going over to take a sip, which is too bad since my final is do in a couple of days. Hmmm...

When I grow up...

I've been reminiscing with my roommate over the careers I wanted to have growing up. Here's my list, what's yours?

(In order from youngest to now)
1. Veterinarian
2. Astronaut
3. Pilot
4. Volcanologist
5. Microbiologist

Whew!

So, to update the checklist from earlier,

- cell bio proposal written, revised, and turned in - check!
- lab meeting presentation - check!
- oral defense of cell bio proposal - Tuesday AM
- take-home pathogenesis final - next Friday
- Spring break - not soon enough! ;)

I just gave lab meeting for my rotation, and now I'm so tired. I wasn't nervous until this morning, and adrenaline kept me going through the actual presentation. Although, I was stumbling over my words a lot (nerves), and I failed to answer some of the questions. Correction, I attempted to answer the questions, but I just didn't understand what they were asking sometimes. All in all, it was okay. Everybody said I did a good job, but don't you ever wonder what they really think? I mean, rarely will people tell you that you sucked. I think that 's why I always take compliments with a grain of salt. (Translation, compliments make me uncomfortable).

Well, this rotation is over. So long toxoplasma. How would I rate it? Definitely a 150% improvement over my last one! But this one wasn't perfect either. The research is very interesting, and I like the people but it's not quite as sociable as I would like. Last time, it was too sociable, but this time not quite enough. My mom said that they could just be waiting for me to institute some social togetherness. I replied, "Hmmm," in a doubtful tone. I'm not quite sure where I see myself, lab wise, but this is a possibility. Now, I just have to find out what the PI thinks when we meet tomorrow to go over how my rotation went.

Much thanks to Sandeep for the use of his lab desk the last couple of days, and to Jon Jones for letting me listen to his playlist. You gotta love Bob Marley and John Legend!

Peace out until later, peeps!

Hmmm...

On the Today Show (my favorite morning show), they're doing a segment about genocide in Sudan and Chad. It never ceases to boggle my mind that people can think that they are "superior" to others, and that they have the right to exterminate an ENTIRE race because they are different! Equally disturbing was a comment made by one of the correspondants covering the genocide. He said, "Rape is an instrument of war." Wow. What is wrong with the world?

If you don't have something nice to say...

We all know the old adage "Think before you speak" or "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." Well, today I forgot those simple sayings. I had no intention of saying something mean, but it just slipped out. How do you know when you've done something wrong? You feel bad about it, and I felt bad almost before the words were out of my mouth. Never fear, I sincerely apologized, but I still regret not thinking before I spoke.

It's been a while

Life has been busy and it will only get busier. Let's review the checklist...

1. Recruitment weekend (including chauffeuring recruits around, giving a housing tour, and lots of conversation) - check!
2. Grad student formal with my roommate - check!
3. Last cell bio critique - check!
4. Cell bio written proposal - hmmmm, I wish I could say it's a work in progress, but so far it's been a work in procrastination
5. Finish lab work/rotation - getting there
6. Prepare and give lab meeting
7. Microbial pathogenesis final
8. GDAW (Graduate Diversity Admit Weekend) - hmmm, still thinking about this one
9. Cell bio oral defense
10. Spring break - bring it on!! too bad I have to get through everything else on this list first!

I may be slow in updating as school takes over my life....Pray for me!

perpetual dance party?

Today Gus (the post-doc I'm working with) and I brainstormed about where our project is going and to do a little trouble shooting. (Okay, it was really him talking and me asking questions, but whatever). We got custom made sandwiches at the med school cafe. And not having eaten there before I was perusing the list of options while humming and dancing to my own tune (a normal occurence). I looked over at Gus and he was laughing at me (not for the first time)! He said that he just realized that there is a "perpetual dance party going on in my head." I thought about it for a minute and then promptly agreed. I'm so used to being around people who know me and therefore overlook my constant humming and grooving, that I forget that to relatively new people, this might be an unusual occurrence. Oh well!....what tune are YOU grooving to? ;)

What kind of shoes are you?

Ballet shoes- beautiful, graceful, and creative,

you enjoy dancing writing and music. You are

often very poetic and sometimes dramatic.

Even if dancing isn't your thing, you are

still very creative. You keep to yourself

aside from a few close friends that you can

relate to. You find your own ways to express

yourself and don't have a need to br

surrounded by tons of people. A small group

of friends is fine.


What Kind of Shoe Are You?(new and updated results!!)
brought to you by Quizilla

Hmmm, what a chuckle!

Cupid Quote

I nearly forgot that it was Valentine's day on Tuesday, but the campus newspaper "The Daily" ran a special ad entitled "How doe S--- students feel about Valentine's Day?" There were the usual grumbles about how it sucks to be alone on V-day,and the opposite "let's love everyone" comments. However, my particular favorite was this..."Cupid tried to pierce me with his arrow, and I capped him in the ass with a bullet!" It had me laughing all the way home!

Pleasantly Exhausted

So it's Friday and for once the week wasn't so stressful - busy, but somehow not direly stressful. I even went to dance class tonight - a slightly more advanced one than ususal and it was good but I am now pleasantly exhausted. On tap for the 3-day weekend?...

...some shopping. My roommate and I are going to the grad student formal in two weeks and we're going to check out the dress selection at the mall. I don't technically need a new dress as I have about 4 or 5 that I've collected over the years, but what they hay...maybe it's time for something different. On the most recent update about the formal, they listed the attire as "creatively black-tie." What does that mean? I think I'll be on the look out for something short (not too short!), flirty, and in a halter style. Shoes are covered, but what about handbags?

...some studying. Well, I am in school and I can never seem to get away from the constant work. But I have learned "all in moderation" means studying, too.

...some "life" as my sister calls it. This means laundry, grocery shopping, getting an oil change, etc.

...some Olympics. Unfortunately, I haven't watched as much of the winter olympics as I've hoped, but maybe I'll get some in (and then again maybe not).

...a non-date with my speed dater. Yep, that's right folks. I got an email from one of the guys at the speed dating event from last week. We've decided to meet up for dessert (interesting choice and infinitely more appealing than the coffee/tea/soda option) on Sunday afternoon. We're meeting at a sufficiently neutral place, the CoHo on campus, and my roommate will be ready to give me an emergency call on the cell if it looks like a bust. Hmmm, we'll see how it goes.

...and finally, some sleep?

Quote of the Day

"I don't need a break! I never need a break! I'm a professional damn it!" - prof this afternoon during microbial pathogenesis

What a wonderful way to start the day!

So I just got back from ballet class and I feel so good! I'd forgotten how wonderful dance can make you feel, and ballet is a great way to start the day!

A week in review

Whew, there's been a lot this week, but it's finally Friday and I can just chill. (I apologize for any run-on sentences...my brain can only take so much on a Friday evening).

This week was a little stressful because I had two assignments due at 9 am this morning. Those of you in school may scoff at me, but what can I say - I'm a grad student. I'm usually pretty good about organizing myself in such a way that in a week when I have multiple assignments due at the same time, most things can be completed in a timely fashion. I say mostly because, as is becoming the trend lately, I start early on one assignment and get it completed, but when it comes to the last assignement my discipline starts to fall by the way-side and it takes me twice as long to get tht one assignment done as it does ALL of the assignments preceding it! Does this happen to anyone else? It's like your energy just whittles down until you're just barely scraping by. Anyway, one assignment for this week was a written critique of a cell bio paper looking at the mechanism underlying the substrate ordering in protein degradation by APCs in mitosis. It was actually pretty interesting, but so long. I was very proud of myself when I completed it by Monday night. However, my last assignment wasn't finished until midnight yesterday. For this assignment we had to come up with an original idea that addresses a key question in cell bio, research it and write a "letter of intent" detailing the question we would be investigating (including background) as well as 2-3 aims and the experiments we would do to investigate these aims. (This letter of intent will eventually morph into a written proposal with an oral defense worth 40% of my total grade). I had the hardest time coming up with an idea/question to ask! I really wanted to do something related to my rotation project so that any research I had to do would directly benefit me for my rotation presentation. But, my rotation project is very heavily pathogenesis focused (as it should be for someone in microbiology & immunology), and so I had to use the basic principles of my project but apply them to a more "cell bio - like" processes. Hmmm, easier said than done. I really wanted to look at miRNAs (rotation project) and their regulation of the cell cycle; however, my school doesn't appear to have a subscription to those journals with good papers in them for this topic. Of course, I found out yesterday as I sequestered myself in the library that there's a neat feature called "doc express" that will obtain any journal article that the school doesn't have a subscription for. Great! But it takes 3-5 days to receive the article. Did I mention that my assignment was due the next day? So, I decided to look at miRNA regulation of apoptosis instead. Everytime I came up with a good idea, I did a lit search and found out that someone else also had this idea and published their results in June 2005. Anyway, long story short. I came up with something, but who knows if it's good. I'm just glad that the assignment is turned in for now (and can only hope that my topic/question won't come back to bite me in th butt later when it comes time to write the proposal and give the defense).

Second interesting thing of the week...speed dating! So, it was my roommate's 25th birthday on Wednesday and she really wanted to do speed dating. For all of you that need a speed-dating refresher course, it goes something like this: there are equal numbers of girls and guys and you talk with each guy (or girl) for 3 min. In that time you have to decide whether or not you want to pursue an interest in this person, but no personal info like last names, phone numbers, addresses, etc can be exchanged. At the end of the night you put a check by the names of the people that you are interested. Only if you and your "interest" have checked off each other's names will you get their personal info (determined by the mediator). As it so happened, there was a speed-dating event on campus on Wednesday night and we just so happened to secure to spots (although that was in doubt for a while). Let's just say this - it was "interesting" and it takes all kinds.

Third thing. Tonight is the start of the Winter Olympics in Tourino!!!! I'm so excited! This is my treat for the week. Surprsingly, not many people here are into the Olympics. I had a rather lively discussion with my roommate about the purpose of the Olympics and why everyone should be excited about it. Well, let's just say that we've agreed to disagree. I've discussed the Olympics this week with nearly everyone I know and I'm the only one who knew that the Olympics started today let alone was excited about them! When I asked the new post-doc in my lab if she was an Olympics fan, she begrudginly said yes but quickly declared that she was not an "Olympic fanatic." When I queried her about what makes a "Olympic fanatic" she said, "someone that absolutely HAS to watch the Olympics." Well in that case, I'm a self-declared "Olympic fanatic!" I just love the Olympics, and the winter olympics more than the summer ones. I will watch ANY winter olympic sport, literally, but my all-time fav is short-track speed skating, People are always surprised when I say that. I think they expect me to say figure skating, and while I like figure skating, short-track speed skating is what really rocks my boat. It's so exciting - face paced and dangerous! I love to watch for the moment when the atheletes make their move and send people crashing into the ice. It's just great (as long as I'm only a spectator of course)!. The opening ceremonies tonight should be good. I've heard a rumor from the TODAY show that that roller blades are involved. So cool!

I realized this week that my rommate and I have (or will) become somewhat of social butterflies this month. We had games night last weekend. We did speed dating this week. We're going out to dinner and to the Vagina Monologues on Saturday ngiht. We're going to the ballet in two weeks ("Rodeo" choreographed by Agnes de Mille will be performed and I can't wait to see it live!), and to a grad student formal just a week after that. (This is a lot for us, but we're definitely looking forward to it). Well, I've finally run out of steam and my stomach's starting to growl, so I'm going to grab some food and chill before the opening ceremonies begin. Good Night and Good Luck!

Mrs. Fields I'm not

I have a weakness for cookies. I absolutely love them! For some people it's chocolate, for others it's cake, but for me it's definitely cookies! I think I developed this passion for cookies in college when I discovered Mrs. Field's cookies at the St. Louis Galleria. Finally, someone got innovated with the non-chocolate cookie! As I am allergic to chocolate, my childhood was plagued with only one cookie option - sugar. While tasty, it quickly grew old. I know, I know, you're saying "but what about peanut butter and oatmeal raisin?" Well, I hate peanut butter and I don't like raisins. (I know...I'm so picky, but I prefer to call it "selective!" ) Anyway, at Mrs. Field's I discovered rainbow-sprinkled covered sugar cookies and my favorite, butter toffee. Alas, when I graduated and left The Lou and returned to a place where the only Mrs. Field's came in chocolate varities in the grocery store instead of at a specialized kiosk. After 16 months of Mrs. Field's deprivation, imagine my excitement when i discovered that the school hospital cafeteria sells real Mrs. Field's cookies! Only a short walk away from my lab....ahh, heaven!

I was in line at Boston Market one day (I didn't feel like cooking dinner) when I noticed cookies placed so conveniently by the register. There were 2 kinds: the oh so predictable chocolate chip and a suprising oatmeal scotchy cookie. Intrigued, I investigated further. This Oatmeal Scotchy contained butterscotch chips (hences the scotchy part) and some kind of nuts (walnuts or pecans or something). I couldn't help it...I bought one. And the next time, I bought two! They were so good! Definitely my new favorite cookie! I sometimes dream about them during the middle of the day and even contemplating getting in my car and driving to Boston Market just to buy cookies! (Ludacris, I know, and I don't actually go JUST to buy cookies...I'll usually buy dinner, too!). Anyway, I was at the supermarket one day and saw Betty Crocker's oatmeal cookie mix was on sale and had a great idea. I would make my own oatmeal scotchy cookies! So I purchased the butterscotch chips and crushed walnuts and followed the directions on the back of the package. Well, much to my dismay, I've discovered that I am no Mrs. Fields! I guess I'll just have to stick to Boston Market and Mrs. Fields for my cookies fixes.

Let the Good Times Roll

In the words of Ray Charles, we "let the good times roll" on Friday night. Games night was a huge sucess! We must have had close to 20 people come throughout the night and had a steady 11-13 people for each game. We played Taboo, Cranium, 90's Trivial Pursuit, and even got in a short game of the Disney's Scene It. And the best part is that everyone had a good time! It was pretty science-heavy people wise and I even met a new science person (who loves to go dancing...I see an outing in our future!), but we 2 additional musicologists show up, too, although I can't say they were a huge help during the humming tasks of Cranium! As far as snacks went, we bought way too much stuff! We only ended opening 1 bag of chips, 1 bag of pretzels, and 1 bag of candy. The leftovers have gone into what we have designated as our "games night cupboard" for next time. I think we will definitely host games night again and maybe we can also think up other fun themed nights for the future. Hosting a get togethers is a lot of fun!

Let the Games Begin

I just about an hour the second ever JP and KH "Games Night Extravaganza" will commence. My roommate and I tried this last quarter and it was an abysmal failure. We invited 15 people and got 2. So, what is Games Night Extravaganza you ask? Well, it's simple..you gather some friends together, gather some snacks together, and settle down for a relaxing (and competitive?) evening of board games. I our original thinking was that this would be a great way to bring together friends from our respective programs (KH is musicology and I'm microbio) and meet some new people. (Heavy emphasis on the meet new people aspect - we're trying to expand our horizons and our network of friends...okay, basically, we're just trying to meet people!). Not discouraged, we decided to try this Games Night thing again this quarter - only this time we invited almost everyone we know! In fact, ever since last time, I've been collecting a mental (and email) list of people I've met through various occassions to invite to tonight. I think the invite totat this time around was around 30 people. (I was going to invite the second-years in my program, but as there's 14 of them and limited space in our apartment, they will have to wait until spring quarter). So on Sunday the invitations went out via email (last time we did the evite thing, but suprisingly, it wasn't such a resounding success...go figure), and we waited with baited breath over the week for RSVPs. At first there were a lot of "Thanks, but no thanks" type of responses, but by midday today (the day of the party!) we've had increased our numbers to about 20 people! I can hardly believe it! We'll see how many people actually show up but keep your fingers crossed! I'll let you know how it goes! Oh, and by the way, the games we have for tonight are:

Scrabble
Monopoly
Cranium
Taboo
90's Trivial Pursuit (harder than it sounds)
Scene It - movie version (a fun new DVD game)
Disney Scene It (I can't wait to give this one a try)

Oh, what a beautiful January?

Of all the months in the calendar, January is my least favorite. Okay, I actually hate January. Why you ask? Oh so simple...It embodies the after-Christmas blues and the weather is either very rainy or snowy and frigid. But this year is different. January in California is gorgeous! It has a rained a bit, but not much. Mainly the sun shines and it's in the upper 50's to low 60's. I have absolutely no complaints. On this last day of the month, I can hardly believe that January has come and gone. Perhaps January will continue to rise in the rankings.

And We're Dancin'...

I want to give my big sis major kudos for going to a hip-hop class today! You go girl!

As for myself, I have also returned to the wonderful world of dancing! Last week I took my first ballet class in about a year and a half and it was great! It was a challenging first class back but so much fun. Oh, how I love to dance! Don't you?!

Marvelous Monday Blues

What a bummer of a day. It started off well - I was in a "Marvelous Monday" (I'll save that story for another time) frame of mind. The weather was beautiful despite the weather man's predictions of clouds and rain. It was warm (upper 50's) and the sun was shining. I was listening to my new Ray CD (from the movie) as I walked to the bus stop, and I was even awak in my 9am class (at the beginning anyway). But after that things started going down hill.

About 45 min into the lecture my energy ran out (thanks to my late night reading my "non-science" book), and it was a struggle to focus on the molecular mechanisms of motility - myosins, actin, kinesins, dyneins, and all that jazz. (And I must say as a side note that I find the idea of motility really interesting, but the actual details and mechanisms just do not float my boat). Bottom line was I didn't make it. I saw the prof looking at me a couple of times, and I swear she knew that I was barely awake b/c I know that I had the bug-eyed look of someone who is desperately trying to keep their eyes open but is only barely succeeding. Somehow I made it through the 2 hour lecture and was there was a bounce in my step as I headed off to lab.

Today was supposed to be the day before our first "big" experiment. It was prep day. I was all excited b/c today was going to mark the beginning of 2 weeks of doing experiments and being busy. However, when I walked in the door, Gus told me (and not for the first time) that he had made a mistake. Evidently, the reason why our cells weren't growing so well was because the plates we were growing them in were not actually TC (tissue culture) grade, and thus something in the plastic was killing our cells or at the very least making them extremely unhappy. So he called up a supplier and got TC grade petri dishes and passed our cells into those. The good news is that this hiccup will produce only a short delay in our plans (ie. instead of starting the big experiment tomorrow, we'll start it on Thursday). The bad news is that there's nothing for me to do until Thursday. So it appears that this will be yet another week of doing nothing in lab.

I was also supposed to meet a friend (okay, well more like an acquaintance) for lunch today. I ran into him last week and he suggested lunch later that week, but I had lab meeting and seminar during the noon hours for the rest of the week. So I suggested Monday. He even emailed me back yesterday confirming lunch today at noon in the Clark Center. So today, a few minutes before noon, I head off to Clark with my lunch in tow (I'm a poor graduate student). I assumed, since the weather had turned kind of yucky just like the weatherman predicted, that we would be eating inside the little cafe. So I went inside to wait. I sat down and unpacked my lunch and waited. And waited. And waited. I was starting to get a little self-concious about sitting alone at a table (not eating mind you). I had specifically chosen a seat that faced outside so that I could see if he arrived and was waiting for me. But nope, he was a no show. Eventually, I just ate my sandwich and left...a little piqued. I had been stood up, and to make matters worse, it was raining and I had no umbrella.

When it rains, it pours, right? And it usually comes in threes. Well, I'm waiting for the third shoe to drop. (Until then, I'm off to my next 2-hour class of the day...whoopee. And I need a nap!).

Now we're rollin'...

Ah, today was the first day of something even close to resembling lab work. I was elated! After two whole weeks of sitting around "pretending" to read science papers (although I must confess that some actual reading was done during the first week...but the first week only!), watching cells grow, and watching toxoplasma invade (only interesting the first 99 times), I was more than ready to do something, anything! I was even going to ask Gus, the post-doc I'm working with, to give me a cloning project to work on (now you know the situation was dire!). But today, the cycle of lassitude ended and work began.

To make a long story short, my rotation project involves looking at host cell miRNA profiles in response to Toxoplasma infection. (miRNAs are small, non-coding, regulatory RNAs that generally function to repress translation of their mRNA targets). This project involves a lot of cell culture, RNA extractions, and microarrays. As I have limited experience with these three things, this project should be pretty interesting. Anyway, today we had a test run of the assay/protocol that we will be using, and I can see that organization and labelling will be key.

As I've rambled on here, I've forgotten where I was going with this, but let me just say that I'm glad to finally be doing something! (I hope your day was productive, too!).

Thought for the day

You can't let your insecurities rule your life.

Musical chairs

I was at my departmental Happy Hour (they call it "Social Hour" here for some reason, but we all really know they mean "Happy" Hour) last week when I got in a conversation with a fellow first-year grad student from another department. It was an enlightening conversation for many reasons, but one of the topics that resonated most with me was the issue "belonging." "Let's face it," he said. "S_____ isn't a welcoming place. There's no space!" He was refering to the appalling lack of available lab space for the research sciences here. Evidently, space was so tight in his previous rotation that he did not even a lab bench let alone a desk or a place to sit. He complained that every day he would sit at someone's desk until that person came and then would move to the next open seat -- musical chairs. While I was lucky enough in my last rotation to have share a bench with someone who virtually did no lab work and to have my own desk, I definitely empathize with him.

When I started at the CDC in August 2004, I was totally devoid of personal and professional space as well. There was no free space in the entire branch ("labs" are split up into "branches and sections" there)! For TWO WHOLE MONTHS I had no place to sit!! I would literally play musical chairs all day long and, when everyone was at his/her respective desks, I occupied a lone folding chair in the middle of a very crowded office (desgined to hold four people, but was crammed with seven). I couldn't help but be upset. I mean, if you didn't have space for me, why did you say I could come?!? It took me the better part of 5 months to finally feel as if I "belonged" in this group, and I truly feel that the delay at the beginning contributed significantly to my feeling of exclusion.

Ironic, wouldn't you say, that I now find my self in a similar situation again. I am on my second lab rotation, and yet again there is a space crunch. Today I played musical chairs among 2 desks in a small office, and when both of those people arrived I tranisitioned to the step-stool by the trash can. Eventually, even that was taken (needed to reach the printer placed way above average eye-level height...whose brilliant idea was that?), and I relocated to the floor. Despite my current lamenting, I don't feel as quite out of place as I did before. Perhaps this is because I know that I am just a rotation student and as such, I am not there all day every day, but rather for those short stretches of time in between classes and seminars. Although I did briefly wonder why my PI (Principle Investigator - the person whose lab it is) said it was okay for me to rotate at this time if there is no current space available? (AND they're expecting a new post-doc next month! I wonder where she will go? Will she replace me on the step-stool?) New Fact Learned Today: Space is definitely something to think about when it's time to make a decision about which lab to join. Anyway, my long rant was just to emphasize the fact that personal space - a space where you can sit, or dump your stuff - should be a neccessity not a luxury, and that if you want to create an inviting atmosphere where people can feel like they are welcomed and belong, please give them some space!

Plunger, please

I had my first plunging experience last night. No, I did not plunge off the side of a steep cliff, and I didn't plunge into a huge body of water. I used the toilet plunger! Shortly after going to bed, my roommate knocked on my door to say that something was wrong with our toilet (nothing disgusting). It would fill up with water when you flushed it, but the water only trickled out the drain and instead of refilling, the bowl would almost empty! We were both sort of puzzled as we stared at the toilet. Up to this point, we had avoided any major maintenance issues with our apartment (thankfully). So we were a little unsure about what to do. It was way too late to call maintenance, and it wasn't really an emergency situation like if our toilet had overflowed. And if our toilet had overflowed, K at least knew how to fix that, but what to do with a toilet that won't fill? At a loss, I spied the plunger sitting negelected in the corner. (Housing supplies every apartment with a plunger and everyone always prays that they won't actually have to use it. I mean, generally situations that require a plunger are not pleasant experiences!). So we gave the plunger a try. It took a couple of tries, but eventually, when we flused the water resumed its normal level. Hooray for the plunger! Crisis (ok, not really a crisis, but work with me here) averted! I've never had to use a plunger personally before so I was quite proud of myself for having crossed this milestone. ;)

the little things

Sometimes it's the little things in life that make us really happy or turn a bad day into a great one. For me, it's the sun shining, a beautiful day, a great song on the radio. I'm a firm believe that one should not underestimate the power of music (and this coming from a non-music afficionado). Music can take a rainy day and turn it into a sunny one. It can make your toes start tapping (and dancing can't help but make you feel great!). I think that one of the best things is not have to wake up to an alarm in the morning. However, if you must subscribe to a timely schedule (as almost all of us must), then waking up to music in the morning instead of that incredibly annoying beeping noise can definitely start your day off right. Nothing gets me out of bed and salsa dancing quicker than hearing the Miami Sound Machine on my radio in the morning. Today my inspiration came from popping in my new Christmas CD (christmas music is great ALL year round!), the Sounds of the Season, and hearing "8 Days of Christmas" by Destiny's Child followed by "Refuge" by John Legend. What music does it for you?

It's a small world after all

You've heard the phrase "It's such a small world," and it's true. You meet people that know people you know or have done things that you've done, etc. My small world occurrence is as such...I am starting a new rotation this quarter and I had lunch the other day with the post-doc with whom I'm working. We were talking about our various career paths (his obviously more extensive than mine), when we discovered that we both had worked at the CDC for a year in between college and graduate school. Low and behold it was the same fellowship program: Emerging Infectious Disease Training Fellowship! He was a Class III or IV fellow while I was a Class X. I've never met someone else who has done this fellowship outside of my immediate fellows and those that stuck around and got jobs at the CDC. Thus, it's so surprising that I should find one period, let alone one 3000 miles away from Atlanta and at the same university, in the same department and lab in which I currently find myself! Needless to say, we had a good time lamenting about the pitfalls of working in public health. Speaking of which, this post-doc, Gus is his name, had a newspaper clipping of great one-liners tapped up by his desk. The highlighted one was pretty funny and pretty apt as I used to work in the influenza branch on avian flu while at the CDC. It reads as follows: "If bird flu mutates to an easily transmitted human flu, as predicted by evolutionary theory, will the religionists who don't believe in evolution refuse the vaccine?" (Just to clarify things here, there is NO vaccine that works currently available despite what you here on the grapevine and a pandemic of avian influenza is a matter of when NOT a matter of if).