Hilarious, Amazing Wedding Processional

I will not be doing this, but this is freaking AWESOME!

friends are the BEST

I miss my old lab. I miss the people I worked with, I miss my boss, and I miss my project. I am going to visit them tonight for a night of ridiculous before I go visit my family tomorrow for a day of fun in the sun (or as much sun as we can get - it's supposed to be cold). It is amazing how good those kids that I worked with make me feel! They are so excited to see me, and every time I talk to them they tell me they miss me. We've been emailing back and forth and the new Mrs AL uses so many exclamation points and lots of YAYs in each email (she is quite a bit like me in how she expresses her excitement). She really just makes me so glad I met such great people, and it's hard to find people you like that much, especially at work.

I'll also say that putting together a list of friends to invite to the wedding is tough. I would like to invite every friend I've ever known, even though we haven't been in touch for a while. I'm fortunate enough that some friends I was unable to put on my list are coming as other friend's date, so I will still get to share our special day with them. But, the neat thing about making the guest list, is the realization that we get to claim so many wonderful people as our friends. Making the guest list really made me feel so blessed to have so many great friends. And when they are so excited to see me, it makes me feel even more blessed!

2 weeks and 1 day until I'm Mrs. S. H-M, PhD... so so many years in the making!

reunion

It's been 10 years since I graduated from high school. A LOT has changed in the past ten years, a lot has stayed the same. Luckily I'm still a redhead (though these gosh darn white hairs keep poking up out of nowhere, jerks) and I've actually learned how to manage my hair much better than I did back then, and it's long again (too long... sis-in-law will be chopping it back to grazing my shoulders on Aug 2). I'm glad I chopped my hair off right before junior year of high school, it gave me confidence that I never had before that. And I have been able to keep that confidence and run with it. I finally finished school, just 6 months shy of our reunion, but I am a Dr now (even if it's only a Dr of Philosophy, I'm still a doctor!). Having not stopped going to school since HS graduation (and I still feel like I'm in school, even though I'm not taking classes-I don't have a real job yet). I have always been on the fence about whether or not I would attend the reunion (depending on whether or not I was actually done with school, cause I did not want to entertain the line of "you're STILL in school?" questions), but now I cannot go (San Francisco will be on my mind, or maybe something else honeymoon related). I am slightly disappointed, but, at the same time, facebook has provided me with being able to find out what people are doing now, so I don't need to go! I miss some of my friends from high school and wish we'd stayed in touch better. But I would rather have a mini-reunion of those wonderful people who helped make those awkward years go faster.

What else amazes me is how little I remember about what happened in high school. A close friend once told me your brain starts leaking when you're 25. When she told me that I was not yet 25 and convinced it happened before 25. Now that I'm beyond 25, I cannot pinpoint when my brain began leaking, but it sure does drip a lot. Info just falls into the abyss and even when I'm reminded of events later, I still don't remember when those things happened.

And the little 20 yr old boy that is following me around trying to learn biochemistry and confusing everything I say said "Whoa" when I told him my 10 yr reunion was this year. Cruising for a bruisin, he is.

public v. scientists

The bloggers over at The Intersection, who have just announced they've moved their blog, Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum, have just released a new book called Unscientific America.  It is about the "two cultures" that exist, scientists and the public, and what has cause this disconnect between the two. I have not yet read the book, but I plan on it (as soon as I get my rear in gear and open an account at the library).  They blog often about their book and I feel like I have learned a lot since starting to read their blog.  But, just released (amazingly good timing for Mooney and Kirshenbaum), is a study by The Pew Research Center, in conjunction with the American Association for the Advancement of Science,  in which they polled the public and scientists and compared their answers of the same questions. Now, this article is rather long, and does get confusing at times (there are a LOT of percentages), but the main message is very clear: the public and scientists view the world and the sciences very differently.  One question that displayed a huge difference was the comparison with science in the US vs. the rest of the world.  49% of scientists say that US scientific advancements are the best in the world (which I tend to agree, but it is stiff competition) while only 17% of the public says that the US is the best in science.  Combine the 'best in the world' category with 'above average' and 94% of scientists polled have put the US scientific advancments in the top tiers while only 75% of the public has done so.  This then makes me wonder, what is the public using to come to this conclusion? And what can be done to better inform the public of how awesome science and scientists in this country are? Rhetorical questions that I cannot answer but I really would like to be able to because answering these questions could be the first step in solving the problem.

I was entertained by the GQ ad posing rock stars with scientists, but that ad did nothing for informing the public about what scientists actually do (not to mention the lack of scientific diversity was extremely disappointing).  The campaign is to convince the next generation to go into science, but the ad is more focused on the rock stars instead of the scientists.  Maybe future ads will focus on what the incredible research is. If they weren't planning on it, maybe they should reconsider. 

I went to visit Adam's work this week and one of his coworkers asked what I do. I responded, "I work in the med school in a lab." One of Adam's other coworkers chimed in, "She's trying to cure cancer, no joke." It was really neat for me to have someone else brag about what I do, I know I don't.  I recently heard that only one in ten people knows a scientist. I find this sad, but I'm glad I can be a scientist for people to know. 

P.S. My attack dog is on a mission to kill the fly in our house - she's such a good girl, and absolutely hilarious.

P.P.S. you can always tell when I'm working on writing a paper cause I tend to blog instead.  :)

Y-O-U-R means your!

Tonight one of my favorite episodes of Friends was on TBS, "The One with the Jellyfish."  The reason it is one of my favorite episodes is because, towards the end, Ross screams at Rachel, "Y-O-U-apostrophe-R-E means 'you are', Y-O-U-R means your!" I come across this mistake WAY too often and it always makes me want to yell that exact thing! 

The fight between Ross and Rachel starts at about 6:10 minutes, and my favorite part is at about 6:55 minutes.

updates!

I have been a very bad blogger lately. No reason, other than I have been doing other things:

1. Wedding planning! We're getting down to the home stretch 1 month and 1 week to go! I have made boutonnieres for the boys (which I want to post to show off what cool things I did, but haven't taken photos yet). I am working on programs, not completely sure how I want them to be yet - or how I want to arrange them - or what to include on them. I am also thinking about what other paper things I need to make for the big day.  And I need to get yummies to put in the favor boxes. And I need to order the flowers - not a big deal, but I do need to order them, I love being low maintenance in that I just want white roses and I can order them from an online wholesaler for very cheap (works out to $0.67/rose). The only reason bridezilla is now present in my mind is because our "photographer" just informed us that his nice camera is broken and his plan was to take our wedding photos on a crappy digital camera. I would like to shove that camera to where the sun doesn't shine - or at least smack him over the head with it. But, I've asked someone with a fancy camera to save the day but if he cannot, I will try to see if I can rent a good camera for our "photographer" to use (and I will put "photographer" in quotes to describe him from now on because he no longer deserves the title of photographer).  I'm also working on making a few other things, but they are top secret!  Dress fitting was this morning - only a bustle and steaming and I won't get my dress back until 1 week 1 day before the wedding. Makes me a bit nervous, but, as the seamstress put it, less time for the dress to get wrinkled that way! 
   
2. I am working on a fellowship application. Luckily it's only 5 pages + 2 pages for figures and not including references.  Spitting out a 5 page paper is a piece of cake, but being succinct and still getting the point across is difficult.  I also need to write something about being committed to cancer research for the rest of my career (which I think every biochemist wants to be committed to cancer research, research just doesn't always go in that direction - when I started my PhD I was doing cancer research, at the end it was HIV drugs and laminopathies).  And I have to finish it by mid-July to give time for boss to review because it's due August 12 and I will be on honeymoon until August 10. And my boss will be in China from July 30-August 12 (so perfect).
3. I'm on the lookout for stories about animals kissing and other displays of affection. Also to be found by mid-July. If anyone knows of any cutsie animal PDA stories, I would love to hear them!
4. Trying to think about honeymoon plans... anyone with must do ideas for San Francisco, I am all ears!
5. Can I just say that 2009 is like the best year ever! With graduation and our house and our wedding, I may be a little bit crazy lumping it all in one 8 month period, but it really has just made this year incredible. Love it!

want to post something...

I want to post something, but I'm not sure what to say!

I've been in wedding planning mania mode and I don't want to be the type of girl that can talk about nothing but her wedding (though it is so much fun for me!). Everything's about ready, I need to order the beer and the guy at the liquor store is on vacation. I've been really crazy about looking at DIY blogs and such, getting ideas, and trying them out to only be disappointed that they don't look nearly as cool as on the blog. My most recent escapade was making tissue paper flowers - I don't know if I made it too small or just suck, but I'm not a fan (the original can be found at http://www.i-do-it-yourself.com/2009/04/diy-tissue-paper-carnations/). I was hoping to use these to decorate the stairs of the history center. I have toole to drape along the railing but am not sure what to use to secure the toole to the railing. So, I'm still looking since my tissue paper carnations suck.
I'm super psyched about our honeymoon - there's going to be a Georgia O'Keefe / Ansel Adams exhibit at the SF Museum of Modern Art (www.sfmoma.org) while we're there that I cannot wait to see! I've been letting my hair grow out for the wedding and it's driving me bonkers! It gets caught on all my bags when i put them on my shoulder - I'm not used to hair being pulled out of my head every time I use a purse! I will be begging my sister-in-law to chop it off on August 2! I cannot have my hair drive me bonkers all over San Fran!

Other than that, work is okay. I'm still frustrated, I don't think it will change. I have gotten more used to some things and other things are driving me more crazy. My boss still doesn't listen. The most recent moment in which I decided he's out of his mind was when he wasted $50 because he could admit that I was right but couldn't admit that he was wrong. I convinced him that ordering something other than what he wanted was better, but then he just ordered both. It's very unlike my old boss, who would NEVER waste money - not even $2, and had no problem getting input from the graduate students on what to order. We're the ones who do the experiments, shouldn't we get the materials that make the experiments easier??

The wonderful Dr. Isis has a super interesting post up right now about scientists and rockstars. GQ recently did an ad for Geoffrey Beane suits of scientists posing with rock stars (the Rock SOS campaign is for Geoffrey Beane to donate and increase funding and awareness for medical research, which I am totally behind, you can go to http://www.rockstarsofscience.org/ to sign the petition). There has been much speculation in the blogosphere about what wrong with the ad - specifically that the scientists are all white males - but Dr. Isis finally weighed in her opinion and, while I agreed with others, I think Dr. Isis really hit the nail on the head (http://scienceblogs.com/isisthescientist/2009/06/how_gq_got_it_all_backwards.php). The pictures are of scientists worshiping the rockstars instead of the rockstars worshiping the scientists. Or, maybe worshiping is the wrong word, how about rock stars recognizing the awesomeness that is contained within the scientists??

For not knowing what to say, I sure did babble on for a while!