Just Another Blog

Why I haven't been posting

2009-12-09T15:41:00.000-08:00

I've been trying, for what seems like forever, to finish my experiments, which seems fruitless (they never end), so I can graduate with my PhD, which seems like a pipe dream. It takes something pretty monumental for me to commit to a blog post these days (Facebook status updates are another story and get more and more wacky the longer I've been in the lab). My life can be summed up like this:

I have had lots of late nights (this pic was taken 8 hours before I actually left the lab that night):

Doing lots of experiments with yeast (some might call this yeast bingo, and in a way, I guess it is)...

I've taken to speaking directly to my yeast cells, and suggesting how they should act...

I have been surviving on Cupcake Mints (and Coke, and vending machine food, and other things that won't be mentioned here though they are entirely legal, I think)...

When Saturday night gets dull, it's time to try new glove colors (the purple won, btw)...

When my experiments don't work, I tend to blow off a lot of smoke...

...Okay maybe that one was the power plant running some switchover, but it's an apt metaphor anyway.

And everyday I have to remind myself every day of who I am, that no matter the outcome of this experiment or these last 6.5 years, it's more important that I hold onto that than anything else.

So that's where I've been. Now back to the bench!

The day she defended

2009-09-06T20:39:00.000-07:00

Today was the memorial, "celebration of life" party for my friend Johanna, who passed away this summer. It was a lovely, lovely party. And it was hard. I could feel her absence like something carved out of my chest.

While watching a picture slide show, a colleague and I started talking about the day she graduated with her PhD. Just six months ago, it was such a happy, celebratory day for all of us in the lab. It's a special day anytime someone completes their doctorate, but given the challenges Johanna faced the entire time she was in school, it was a very special day when she defended.

And the last few months were some of the worst for her. The drugs burned her skin, made her fingernails fall off, robbed her of the energy and vitality that were her trademarks. And yet, somehow, she gave one of the most gorgeous defenses I've ever attended.

I stayed up really late the night before, and I made her a little banner. Just wanted to do something special. I don't often indulge my creative impulses lately, mostly because I've felt like all my creative energies should go towards my experiments and forwarding my science. But this felt like something I really wanted to do, and should do. None of us knew how little time we had left with Johanna. I look back and wonder how it's even possible that someone completes a PhD, and dies of cancer four months later.

I certainly didn't know that little banner would find its way to a memorial shelf, amongst sympathy cards and the piece of paper for which she worked so hard and would get to cherish for so little time - with "all the rights, privileges and honors" it bestowed. I wish that little piece of handcrafted art hadn't found itself there... I wish it would have gone in a box with so many other mementos, of a life long lived, to be thrown in a landfill someday after those mementos and that life had been long used up. I wish she got more than five years of marriage to someone who loved and cherished her as much as her husband did, and does. I wish that he got more than five years with her.

I guess the truth is, that no matter how pretty we are, no matter how hard we work, no matter how many honors or how much love is bestowed upon us, we have the time that we have. No more and no more less. It seems phenomenally unfair sometimes, but like it or not, that's how life works.

And if there is anything I could take from knowing and loving Johanna, it was to live it and love it all. While cleaning out my email inbox I found the following message from her. She unreservedly made fun of me for my reading choices while I was writing my thesis; they were all trying to get me to read Twilight instead (and ultimately succeeded).

On May 27, 2009, at 10:22 AM, Johanna Eddy wrote:

Read Twilight and escape. Did Liz pass it on? I know it sounds silly, but once you get through the beginning where you are thinking to yourself “Why the hell am I reading this teenage girl book?”, it’s a lot of fun.

Johanna

From: Nicolle
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 10:28 AM
To: Johanna Eddy
Subject: Re: forget the drugs...

This could be the root of all my problems. Before bed I have been reading There is No Me Without You, a sometimes depressing, sometimes infuriating, sometimes tear-inducing account of the AIDS orphan crisis in Ethiopia. Hmmm.

Nicolle

From: johanna...
Subject: RE: forget the drugs...
Date: May 27, 2009 10:48:31 AM PDT
To: nk...

Yeah Nicolle, just heap it on yourself!!! It’s hard to top sick poor orphans, but maybe next you can read about domestic violence, global warming, financial meltdown, animal abuse, and please watch Bambi over and over (but only the part where mom is killed).

Left to right: Johanna, her cat, and her cat kissing Liz, the last time I saw her healthy, when Liz and I took cupcakes and a Twilight DVD over to her house for a girls movie night.

The last time I saw Johanna, she was sick as hell. She didn't open her eyes and barely responded to anything. We talked to her anyway. And when I told her if I were a vampire, I'd bite her right now and make her healthy and immortal, she laughed. For all I know, that may have been the last time she laughed. As sick as she was, her smile was the same.

It's that smile I'll always remember.

Whatever cheers you

2009-09-01T10:36:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you need a bottle of LB and a lab tape flower to cheer you up. And sometimes it cheers you up even when it was left for someone else in the lab.

My lovely friend Johanna

2009-07-29T14:33:00.001-07:00

A dear friend and colleague lost her battle with breast cancer this week. I am beyond sad.

Please consider making a donation to the American Cancer Society in her honor. The ACS funds cancer research, which was both an endeavor of and a benefit to my friend Johanna.

Exciting news on the vaccination front

2009-07-22T14:34:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I picked up the Seattle Times at our lunch table and saw an exciting article about a breakthrough in creating a malaria vaccine. Not only is the news exciting, but the reporting wasn't half bad either. (Generally I find science reporting rather careless, with statements that are totally inaccurate.) The official press release is here, and as far as I can tell, the PNAS article is not yet available online (I'll link here when it is).

The scientists responsible for this breakthrough utilized a genetically modified Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite responsible for causing malaria. They mutated two critical genes in the malarial parasite (would tell you which genes, if I could find the article). Mutation of these genes blocks the proliferation stage after a parasite infects the liver, thereby priming the immune system without causing disease. This vaccine conferred 100% immunity in mice; meaning that they were no longer susceptible to the disease-causing form of malaria when later re-infected.

Like the polio vaccine, this strategy uses an attenuated (weakened) version of the pathogen. In contrast to other malaria vaccination design strategies, which utilize portions of the P. falciparum organism, this strategy involves actually infecting a person with a parasite (albeit an attenuated version). The "attenuated whole-organism" vaccination strategy probably makes the vaccine much more effective at priming the immune system and protecting an individual from malaria. Also, the vaccine likely won't require other co-factors (needed to trigger an immune response) to be included.

However, utilizing an attenuated pathogen for vaccination might leave one concerned about the possibility of the weakened parasite reverting to a form capable of causing disease. Could the parasite undergo enough mutation to make itself dangerous again? This is a distinct possibility, however, the fact that two critical genes were deleted makes this outcome unlikely. And in any case, given the number of people who die from malaria in economically-challenged tropical climates, the slim possibility of reversion might prove to be far outweighed by the enormous benefits of general protection. According to the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute website, over a million people die each year from malaria-related disease, 75% of which are African children.

Another question: who will pay for vaccinating people in the developing world, those who would most benefit from this vaccine? Surely Bill and Melinda can't carry all the weight. Those of us who enjoy traversing around the world to places like South America and Africa aren't likely to be a large enough market to offset the costs of vaccine production. This question may be putting the cart before the horse (since we don't yet have a vaccine), but nevertheless must one day be answered.

Regardless of potential problems, this blogger finds the news of a promising malaria vaccine to be very, very exciting. Clinical trials are slated to begin in 2010, and though it may take many years until we know about the safety and efficacy of this vaccine in humans, many of us are looking forward to hearing the results.

Measles outbreak in San Diego

2009-05-05T13:23:00.000-07:00

This news is a year old, but it's a nice study demonstrating 1. why I think that whether or not you vaccinate your kid is very much my business, and 2. why I find it completely abhorrent that people refuse to vaccinate based on what they read in the popular literature (e.g. earthy crunchy mother magazines):

CDC Study on San Diego Measles Outbreak

Ph.D. thesis: DONE!

2009-04-29T17:32:00.000-07:00

Yippee!

2009-04-08T19:25:00.001-07:00

She won!!! (See the #1 voting spot)

Do as you are told

2009-03-23T12:10:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine has come up with her dream assignment. It's extraordinary, and beautiful, just like her.

Shutter Sisters Dream Assignment: Picture Hope from LittlePurpleCow Productions on Vimeo.

All we have to do is spend two minutes to vote, and we can send her on this dream assignment.

So, as my mom would say, do as you are told:

Go here and register.

Then go here and vote.

I will post again in this space when she wins!

A sign of the times

2009-03-16T20:34:00.000-07:00

Magazines on my kitchen table...

It reminded me of the Sex and the City movie, when Carrie looks down at a pile of magazines and the one on top says something about the $330 billion question being when the real estate bubble would pop. It made me laugh, because by the time the movie came out, it had obviously popped. We started our trip to Kazakhstan the day we saw that movie, and when we got there, there were sky scrapers in mid-construction, cranes silent in the air, because the American mortgage crisis had affected their economy too.

(these are some of the more finished of the bunch)

It's a wild time to be finishing graduate school and looking for work.

This weekend, we went to Roche Harbor...

2009-02-17T05:48:00.001-08:00

...for probably the most pampered Valentine's Day I have ever had. It was fun. :) We should have had a photo taken at our dinner on Saturday night, all dressed up, but we have become notoriously bad at getting pictures taken. But we did pony up on Monday morning and took a few...

Old limestone quarries:
Me at the marina:

Tom in front of our hotel:

The marina in the morning:

The smallest post office ever:

My birthday, nearly a month later

2008-11-15T22:33:00.001-08:00

My 30th birthday started out with waking up at Aimee's house and leaving at 4am for a 6am flight. Well, actually it started the night before when she agreed to do production on my course, not getting home until after 11, then getting up a very brief number of hours later. Then we got kicked off our flight because of electrical problems. Here we are shortly before our flight got canceled (don't worry, we got on another one an hour later):

Some shenanigans later, we all ended up at Disneyland. Here is Tom, Aimee, Donna, me, and Lisa outside Hollywood Tower of Terror:

And Ryan, Donna, Lisa and I outside Disney California Adventure:

Two girls are excited before dinner... (and one is looking for something in her purse!):

This is the best picture taken of the group of us before dinner, which unfortunately was taken by Tom (so he's not in it):

Someone has pictures of the group of us at dinner, and it's not me. I do however have a picture of a decadent birthday desert and a bag from Tiffany and a glass of wine:

After dinner we went on roller coasters. This is me and Julie (left and right in front) on Space Mountain:

This is Aimee and Donna, then Kelvin (meditating or something - apparently he hates roller coasters) and Kimberly, and Lisa and Tom:

There wasn't much more after this. We went home and crashed for a few hours, then we spent the weekend reinventing an enterprise. Such a boring, colorless life I lead... ;-)

Gratuitous photo post!

2008-09-30T20:54:00.000-07:00

Two kids on a ferris wheel:

Things I love... of which I have photos on my iPhone.

2008-09-24T17:11:00.001-07:00

One: my friend Meg, who just adopted two girls from Ethiopia. I got to meet them last weekend at Martha's birthday party. Being with them reminded me that all is well in the world.

Two: my friends, here Kelvin and Ryan.

Three: the amazingness of the people in my life. This was the view from a very fabulous boat tour fundraiser my friend Lisa coordinated to both celebrate her husband Will's 40th birthday, and to raise money for a school in their neighborhood.

Too bad no one got a photo of me auctioneering that night. I had a glass of wine in me and decided the job they were doing auctioning off a cake wasn't good enough... and channeled my Uncle Larry (who auctioneered at a livestock market my family owned in Nebraska for many many years and now auctions antiques) to get the job done. Didn't do half bad, if I can say so myself: $75 for an almond cake.

Life is busy but good around here. :-)

Visitin' in the UK

2008-08-07T11:11:00.001-07:00

So these photos are now getting out of order. I've skipped entire days in Kazakhstan, and a trip to Buckingham and Rage Buggy racing in Tregaron (Wales). But this is my blog, so I'm doing it the way I want to, dammit. :0) Without further ado...

Tom goes out on a ledge. We were clear out on the south-western tip of Wales. Perhaps someone else who was there (*ahem*) can remind me of the name of the town, because right now it's failing me...

Nicolle pretends to have a baby in her belly... or maybe is just having digestive problems. Yeah, that trip to Tregaron? They fed us much fresh-butchered meat. It took weeks to recover. Here I am, trying to be kind to my guts, in the hopes they'll be kind in return.

Sometimes your favorites change, sometimes they stay the same... Since college there has never been more fun than gallivanting with the fabulous Bryony and Tom. I daresay we had so much fun together that this is the reason both our Polish friend Joanna and I now have beaus named Tom. Anyway, we stayed with them for several days in their fabulous flat in Swansea. They cooked the best meals ever -- I need to go spend a week with them just to learn how to cook. Here we are outside some castle ruins.

Said castle ruins... I was so mad someone ruined them. Apparently it was done purposely way back when to avoid bandits and robbers from setting up shop, but I am not used to this whole "ruins" thing. It made more sense later in the day when we visited abbey ruins that had been destroyed to use the stone for building when resources were scarce during WWII. But here, I just desperately wanted to know what it was really like (I've been reading too much period fiction).

A few more photos of Kazakhstan

2008-07-29T11:53:00.000-07:00

Tom and I in front of the Bayterek. There is an ancient myth that a bird lays the egg of knowledge high in a tree, beyond human reach. But in Astana, it appears it is within reach, high in the Bayterek (Kazakh for "tall poplar tree").

The presidential palace, as taken through a bus window. Isn't this a surreal photo?

The politics in this region are interesting. Most of the "Stans" (countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union) aren't doing so hot, economically speaking. Kazakhstan is an exception to this rule, and how they've done this has been under pseudo-democratically elected Nazarbayev. Roughly 97% of the populace votes for him every election, because historically they'd be facing death if they didn't vote for Stalin, sooo... And yet, he seems to be doing a pretty great job of bringing the country onto the world market and into relative wealth. The oil, gas, and copper resources are probably their biggest asset and cause for ascent, and those companies are state-run. The next 20 years will be interesting ones where this country is concerned, and I predict they'll find a place on the map - which is ironic consider the size of the country (larger than the U.S.) but nevertheless, people have no clue it exists.

The presidential palace face-on, and I'm sorry but I have no recollection what those two gold buildings are on either side of the palace...

Okay, back to my lab work...

A few photos

2008-06-25T18:04:00.001-07:00

Here are a few photos from our recent trip taken by my college friend Annie. Neither shows much of Kazakhstan, but those are coming soon. (We had a technical glitch and I ended up not coming home with copies of our photos.)

Smoking a hookah the first night we were there. We were in an outdoor restaurant in the huge central presidential plaza that houses the gorgeous offices of the state-owned oil and gas company on one end, and the presidential palace on the other, with the bayterek in between.

Yuliya and I at a restaurant, our table was in a little outdoor hut. They had the best vodka of the whole trip at this restaurant. And when we went to leave, we gave the waitress a fright... she hurried ahead of us so she could meet us at the door with a (translated) "walking stick". Which is a shot of vodka for the road (and pickles and sticks of gum, on the side).

Tom and I at the wedding. Talk about an intense affair. Yuliya's family kidded her for continually referring to it as "the event", but it really was. The woman who MCed (flown in from Siberia) had us going all night long... dancing, costumes, impromptu jazz (for that all the Americans were roped in), and on and on and on. You haven't been to a wedding until you've been to a Russian wedding, I've decided.

More later! I mean soon! Sooner or later!

Dear Universe...

2008-05-22T21:00:00.001-07:00

Dear Universe,

I'd love some active protein for my experiments. Not a lot, just enough to do the experiments. I've been putting in my time -- 70, 80 hours a week, been here at 7a.m. on a Saturday barely out of bed, putting my whole heart and soul into these darn little bugs that are supposed to be making me some PROTEIN. I've worked hard and figured out the purification strategy, now, could you just have it be active? Universe, if you could just throw some serendipity my way, I'd be mighty appreciative. Might even mention you on my acknowledgment slides in my Ph.D. defense. Now how would you like that? Betcha you'd like it a lot. I'd like it too. Can we be friends?

Love,
Nicolle
...aka, the tired, hard working, ready-for-vacation-but-has-a-committee-meeting-when-she-gets-back, still hopeful after all these years graduate student.

QOTD

2008-04-10T12:25:00.000-07:00

From my college .plan file:

All great human deeds both consume and transform their doers. Consider an athlete, or a scientist, or an artist, or an independent business creator. In service of their goals they lay down time and energy and many other choices and pleasures; in return, they become most truly themselves. A false destiny may be spotted by the fact that it consumes without transforming, without giving back the enlarged self.

--Lois McMaster Bujold

Kazakhstan

2008-04-07T22:44:00.001-07:00

Tom and I are going to Astana in June. My dear college friend Yuliya is getting married. If you didn't know where Kazakhstan was before, don't worry, you're not the only one...

lately

2008-03-21T21:00:00.000-07:00

Things have been stressful lately, but despite the stress, I still believe I live a pretty charmed life.

Waiting for the bus this afternoon:

Glitter

2008-02-27T22:36:00.001-08:00

The only thing you see next to Hillary Clinton's name in the media these days is "attack". Why not "glitter"? This whole campaign is really informative on the bias of media.

Pancakes

2008-02-26T16:30:00.000-08:00

Though it was nearly two weeks ago, it deserves a post... Some friends and I held a pancake breakfast and raised nearly $400 for the Lwala Clinic. Check them out here and here.

Here are some photos of the event:

HRC rally

2008-02-09T17:00:00.000-08:00

It's been an exciting week of politics. I was quoted in the Seattle Times. And boy did we have fun at the rally -- see my sign in the middle of this photo:

I don't think HRC is going to take Washington, given the preliminary news from the caucuses, which my roomie and I also attended today. But it's been fun nonetheless. And my heart still belongs to Hillary.:)

Hillary

2008-02-06T10:15:00.001-08:00

This is worth reading.

CDS

2008-01-22T18:05:00.000-08:00

This was probably the last photo taken while my lovely white scarf, my adored leather gloves, and I were all together. The last couple of weeks have been insane and true to form, I've lost things in the interim. *sigh* But -- we had fun at Cirque du Soliel! And I am finally getting around to posting the picture.

Reason #312 Why It's Great to Have a Handy Boyfriend

2008-01-03T08:31:00.000-08:00

If you haven't heard me bitch about the pigeons, you haven't known me long (or well). But now, pigeons no more! I will sleep until 8am on weekends without awful noises coming from the eve next to my bedroom! Plus, they can't get into the eve at the front of the house anymore either. WOOT! Tom thought we should make a sign out of chicken wire that says, "Pigeon Hotel Officially CLOSED."

Also, there are shelves (finally) hung in my bedroom and a new fluorescent light in the kitchen. My boyfriend is the BEST.

Photos of the roof work (which scared me, having him that high up on the ladder, but all went well):

Oh yes he did

2007-12-11T20:51:00.000-08:00

And I was tickled pink. Actually, I am every time I see the card on my desk.

My sisters are clamoring...

2007-12-09T10:42:00.000-08:00

So here's a new post. Full of insightful ramblings, witty insights, and clever nuances.

Or maybe just a picture of my new (fake) Christmas tree.

And the stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Me and Aimee is CUTE

2007-11-12T09:00:00.000-08:00

Taken at a dinner party Saturday night:

Friday silliness

2007-11-09T12:33:00.001-08:00

Follow your spirit, and, upon this charge
Cry 'God for Harry, Nicolle and Saint George!

Which work of Shakespeare was the original quote from?

I am SMITTEN

2007-11-04T17:12:00.000-08:00

I led my first Self-Expression and Leadership workday yesterday. 16 hours, in patent leather red heels, in front of 50 phenomenally inspiring people. They will all be taking on projects in their communities over the next three and a half months that would knock your socks off (and theirs, too). I have been training for 5 years to do this, and I am totally in love with it, with my participants, and with my coaches.

And my boyfriend. :) Who sent me these lovely flowers that opened slowly over the course of the day and now are home on my kitchen table:

Aaargh, Matey! It's Halloween!

2007-10-31T10:10:00.001-07:00

Give Me the Words

2007-10-30T14:22:00.000-07:00

In the last Self-Expression and Leadership Program I co-led, a guy created a project to raise money for kids in Guatemala City who live off the city dumps. They raised 10.7K after costs... quite a feat. This link takes you to a slide show of his project, Give Me the Words. I'm so proud of him.

I thought for sure I was Miranda, but...

2007-10-30T09:08:00.001-07:00

Which Sex and the City Character Are You?
	You are Carrie. You know what you want out of a relationship and you're not afraid to keep moving until you get it. Wit and charm are your biggest turn-ons, and you like guys who appreciate you for your mind as much as your body. You have fun playing the dating game, but secretly you just can't wait to find the guy who sweeps you off your feet and carries you into the sunset.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

Weekend Highlights

2007-10-29T08:26:00.001-07:00

Tom was in town this weekend, for my birthday weekend. I took some photos on my iPhone... never the best quality, but it's convenient. Highlights of the weekend included a Dorothy and a Scarecrow going out on Saturday night:

Also, Gasworks Park on Sunday:

It was such a beautiful weekend in Seattle. Here was the view from Gasworks:

All in all, a weekend that deserves no complaint. I love having Tom here.

San Diego Fires

2007-10-23T08:40:00.000-07:00

This is the approximate distance from houses that were confirmed as burning in the Rancho Bernardo area, to Tom's sister's house. That would be, two miles or less.

View Larger Map

Still no word on whether or not their house is okay. What an awful disaster.

Update 10/29/07: Their house made it and they are home, safe and sound. Yay!

Favorite Vacation Photos

2007-10-17T13:17:00.000-07:00

For some reason, some of my most favorite vacation photos are the ones Ryan and I took using my iPhone on the plane. First of all, I think it is great adventurous fun flying with someone else. I do it so often on my own, and enjoy that too, but it's a real treat to go with a friend. So without further ado...

Two CUTE dorks take their own photo:

Also, drink Bloody Marys while watching Battlestar Galactica on an iPod:

And when that gets boring, play hangman while each listening to one ear bud from an iPod... and dance in their seats to such tunes as Brittany Spears, High School Musical 2, etc:

Pumpkin Mickey

2007-10-15T21:17:00.000-07:00

I am too darn busy this week to want to deal with the plethora of Disney photos. But here is one that's pretty darn great, if I say so myself. It was the evening we went to Club 33, hence the fancy duds.

My Birthday

2007-10-11T09:24:00.000-07:00

People have been asking what I want for my birthday. What I want is a brilliant research-in-progress talk, and an even more brilliant committee meeting where they are thrilled with my progress and don't request another meeting for at least a year. All of those things are happening in the week of my b-day.

However, if you doubt your capacity to contribute in those regards (sigh), see the added Amazon wish list button on this blog. This is by no means The List of Must-Have Items, but rather a list of things I'd love. I hate it when people don't register for their weddings or baby showers, it's so much easier to go off a list then to think up something I think they might like. So, by extension, I'm sharing my list with you. :)

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far

2007-10-09T21:40:00.003-07:00

HSUS MySpace Page | Take the Quiz!

May I just mention that my mom's name is Kathleen, and she goes by Kitty.

Splash Mountain

2007-10-09T15:32:00.000-07:00

Because most of the vacation photos we took were on Ryan's or Tom's camera, I still don't have many to post here. However, while you wait, enjoy our snap shot of Splash Mountain. That's me, Julie, Tom and Ryan from front to back.

The Feminine Mistake

2007-10-08T09:01:00.001-07:00

I've been gone the last week on vacation (photos forthcoming!) and have been reading this book:

Can I just say, wow. This book isn't perfect but one thing it does well: put to rest any fantasies I might have had about being taken care of by a man. I'm not much one for the Prince Charming fantasy, but being in a relationship seems to take the edge off of responsibility in a lot of ways. I'm much less stressed thinking about how to take care of things in the future. And maybe that's okay, but this book does convince me that one thing that is not okay is not having a plan always for how I will take care of myself and any children I may have. It will all work out isn't a plan. Neither is I'll just go back to work in 5 or 10 years after my kids are in school, not without amassing some type of professional and marketable skills in the meantime. Being a mom isn't a career... regardless of who I might piss off by saying so.

I grew up in a household like many described in this book. My mom didn't expect to have to provide for us on her own. In fact, she did some smart things by keeping her job and career even when we were young (she worked evenings so we'd only have to be in daycare a few hours a day). But even so, on her income alone it was extremely difficult to live and raise three children.

Several friends of mine are depending on their husbands to support them while they are raising the kids. I have no moral judgment about that choice, in fact, many days I'm envious. But this book convinces me that my instinct about such matters -- it would be a foolish choice for me to stop creating my career, much less leave work for years -- may in fact be the pragmatic one. It worries me for my friends. She makes the point that most at-home moms respond to divorce statistics with "that won't be me" -- but would you be willing to say the same if someone put a gun in your face and pulled the trigger, with only half the barrels loaded? Denial won't save us.

All in all, it's a book I would recommend each and every woman read. In the very least, it raises some good points for how to take care of yourself and your future no matter which path of relationship and motherhood you choose.

Shattered gels & tamborines

2007-09-27T12:10:00.000-07:00

Last night, after a 12 hour day, I got to the end of an experiment and made a mistake. Said mistake resulted in a shattered gel and ruined experiment. Note to self: do not remove vacuum pressure until gel is done drying.

But then I got home and there was a party there. My roommate's friend is now a Ph.D. and the celebration was at our house (I had forgotten). After a 12 hour day in the lab and disappointment over a shattered gel that was on the level of a 4-year-old losing her ice cream cone on the sidewalk (read: near tears) there might be nothing better than a party of fun people, wine, and stringed instruments including a banjo.

Tomorrow we are going to Disneyland. Stay tuned for some Mickey Mouse updates. ;)

meme-age

2007-09-25T12:53:00.000-07:00

In lieu of something more substantial, I give you a quiz result:

nicolle - a gallon of wealth - 2 heaping tablespoons of humor - a pinch of hotness Combine all stirring until smooth.
'What is your personality recipe?' at QuizGalaxy.com

And now back to my usually scheduled frenzy-of-work-before-vacation.

Straight from the UK...

2007-09-16T10:17:00.000-07:00

Bryony is here! She was my best friend in college (or best mate as some might say) -- we ran around for years together and stole cigarette breaks on the loading dock while doing our summer research projects before our last year at Mt Holyoke. Now she is here for just the weekend and we are having a really lovely time. Case in point, the Space Needle:

Today we are going to Pike's Place Market, and a bit of shopping, and after that, who knows!

Me and Meredith

2007-09-12T19:07:00.001-07:00

This is Meredith and me just before the beginning of the end:

That is, the beginning of my end. Meredith is too fine mannered a Southerner to drink like I did at our department retreat on Monday night. Frankly, I don't have a clue how I managed to get myself into the state I did. If I didn't know better, I'd swear some unassuming immunology student slipped something in my drink. As far as I remember, I didn't do or say anything too incriminating... though my memory on the subject is a bit suspect.

Yesterday was very rough. Today there is an air of recovery, but still an upset tummy. Lesson learned.

However, at least I wasn't the only one doing silly things:

Photos courtesy of my iPhone. :-)

I'm official

2007-09-08T23:30:00.001-07:00

righteous babe + baby...

2007-09-06T12:57:00.000-07:00

= it doesn't get much better than this.

Ani DiFranco Re-Records Both Hands

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PDA

2007-09-02T20:03:00.000-07:00

I finally did it! I bought an iPhone. Love doesn't even begin to describe it... And neither does PDA. ;-)

this & that

2007-08-30T09:19:00.001-07:00

Tom was here this weekend doing the advanced course at Landmark Education. We got to spend almost a whole week together! And, what made it even better, is that I got some great results in the lab last week, so I wasn't stressing about work (though I was at work the entire time he was in the course).

Then on Wednesday afternoon I received the following in the mail:

My boyfriend, who is the best boyfriend ever, sent me an extra power cord for my laptop so I don't have to cart one between work and home. A couple of months ago I was thinking of buying one but wasn't impressed with the price tag. He had a Best Buy gift card, and voila... it was like Santa Claus had come to town.

And speaking of dorky...

2007-08-20T11:24:00.000-07:00

This weekend we were at our friend Julie's birthday party. She has lost a lot of weight over the years, but still has some items of clothing left from her heavier days. Case in point: a sweatshirt she lent me on Saturday. The dorks below decided they could both fit into said sweatshirt.

Birds of a feather and all... ;-)

work-related

2007-08-14T09:52:00.000-07:00

Today I am inducing protein. This is very exciting business.

Okay, just kidding. It's not that exciting even for those who understand what I'm talking about. But it is necessary.

And in other work-related news, Tom's company worked on this product.

Someday, perhaps, I will produce things as useful as he does. In the meantime, I'll be proud of him and get back to making protein...

Taking Our Photo

2007-08-07T17:03:00.001-07:00

The trouble with taking a picture of yourself, or yourselves, is somebody always ends up looking dorky. Case in point...

I took the picture, Tom looks great:

Tom took the picture, I look great:

This is a very deep topic for my first post, I know. But I figured y'all could handle it. ;-)