True Compass

Over Christmas break, I have been reading True Compass: A Memoir by Ted Kennedy. I am not a reader of biographies, but after Kennedy passed away, I watched a few of the shows that were dedicated to the life of him and his brothers. I was intrigued. After waiting patiently for my turn to check out the library book, I got it just in time to read it over the break.
It is FANTASTIC. I've always heard about the tragedy that surrounded the Kennedy family, but to read Ted's feelings during it all made me feel like I was there. A family of 9 children - 2 died in plane crashes, 2 were assassinated, one was mentally challenged and doctors convinced the Kennedy's a lobotomy would help her - leaving only 4 to properly grow old together.
Ted's stories about campaigning for his brother Jack for the 1960 presidential election were great. My favorite was Ted going to a rodeo and convincing the crowd to vote for his brother by staying on a bareback bucking horse for 6 seconds. Reading about the assassination of Jack made me cry. Lyndon Johnson's efforts to pass the Civil Rights Act for which Jack had laid the foundation was amazing to read about, almost made me feel like I was there. It amazes me that it was only passed in 1964 and changed the US so much that we are now living in a different country. A better country. There were so many other bills passed that were part of the Civil Rights Act that I didn't even realize were necessary. States used to be able to charge a poll tax, making people pay to cast a vote, preventing the poor (and often minorities) from bothering to voice their opinion on who they wanted to represent them. Ted spearheaded the passing of that law, preventing states from making people pay to vote. The stories of Ted and Bobby working together in the senate, representing Massachusetts and New York, respectively, were wonderful stories that showed how much fun the two of them had while expressing their LOVE of their country. When Bobby decided to run for president, two major parts of his campaign were ending the war in Vietnam and Civil Rights. Bobby was in Indianapolis the night that Martin Luther King, Jr was assassinated. He was speaking to a group of minorities and his advisors told him to not announce the Dr. King had been murdered. Bobby did not agree and told the group the horrendous news. He then championed them to rise above violence and bring about civil rights through peace. Riots broke out all over the country that night, but not Indianapolis. Bobby's assassination two months later really tore Ted apart, making him retreat into his work.
Following the Civil Rights battles of the 1960's, Ted's major cause was healthcare. It is a shame that he is not still alive to see the efforts being made to pass healthcare reform, but he knew that Obama was going to make every effort possible to make it happen.
I loved this book. I recommend.

Big News!

This is my 150th blog post, and I'm going to use it to announce that I am 12 weeks pregnant! My first trimester is almost over, and it's been pretty easy so far. I have certainly had symptoms of pregnancy, but not as bad as I've heard. I've been nauseous at times, but there has been no vomiting, so I am a happy girl. My due date is July 4 (maybe we should name the baby Yankee Doodle :) ?) And we are not going to find out the sex of the baby. I want it to be a surprise! Of course, the betting (with no money) has begun on if we're having a boy or a girl. I just want a healthy baby, boy or girl doesn't matter to me! My sis-in-law Rachel wants me to have a boy because we can get all the hand me downs from my nephew, but she wants me to have a girl because she wants to buy lots of super cute girl things! Adam is starting to think about how we should decorate the baby's room, but I'm just thinking about what I should eat next! We are super excited and I am just working on taking care of myself!

compliments from students

I have been teaching at a small school for 8 weeks now. I am teaching Clinical Chemistry to medical lab tech majors, a lot of which has turned out to be anatomy (and I've never taken anatomy). It is a challenge, but I am learning lots while I go along. And my students like me! How do I know? Below are some quotes direct from their mouths

1. "That makes sense. Why couldn't YOU have been our teacher for [insert course name here]?" They have said this for more than one course. They actually say this a LOT.
2. "I've been taught PCR before, but that was the first time I understood it."

Alright, I'm out. But those two really make me feel good. Especially the PCR one. I know that PCR is tough, and I worry that I will talk over their heads. But for PCR, I didn't! I'm really enjoying teaching, I really think I'm getting the hang of it, and on Thursday I get to talk about Amino Acids and Proteins (my favorite!).

long time no blog

I has been quite a while since I blogged something. Anything. I've been super busy with my postdoc and being adjunct faculty and applying for jobs. Lots of jobs. I had an interview yesterday. It went well (or at least I thought it did), but I haven't heard anything yet and he made it sound like he was going to call me last night if he wanted to schedule a second interview. So now I'm hopeful my phone will ring while constantly checking my email to see if he's sent me a rejection email. I keep going over the interview in my head wondering what I might have said that would make him not want to hire me and I cannot think of anything. Granted, the other people he interviewed may be just a better fit for the position. But I would be great! Sigh. Maybe he'll still call me. No news is good news, right?

my wedding flowers

So, I had an awesome experience planning my wedding. The entire process was super fast and easy (especially considering I only planned it in 5 months), but I am super proud of my flowers. So much so, that even more than two months after the fact, I'm still excited about it and am now finally blogging about it.
I arranged all the flowers myself, and ordered the flowers from SunKing Wholesale Flowers. I ordered 250 assorted white roses for $169. Yes, that works out to about $0.67/rose. Yes, that is an incredible deal and too good for me to pass up. The flowers were delivered on Wednesday for our wedding on Saturday. I put the flowers in three buckets of water and stored them in my parents air conditioned bedroom (which is the coldest air conditioned room in the universe, I swear).
On Thursday evening, my mom and I dethorned the roses (just used a pair of scissors and chopped off the sharp tips of the thorns) and removed most of the leaves.
On Friday morning I arranged my bouquet and bridesmaids bouquets. I just made circles around a center rose, for the bridesmaids bouquets I made two circles around the center rose and three circles for my own bouquet. I wrapped a rubber band around the stems at the base of the flowers, trimmed the stems so that they were all the same length, and wrapped the bottom of the stems with another rubber band. I then wrapped the stems with white ribbon, securing the beginning of the ribbon with the top rubber band and the bottom with a white headed pin.
Photo by Fetcho. Just to add to my secret to saving money, something I had forgotten about but it so obvious in this photo is my hair clip - which is an antique brooch I bought on ebay and used fishing line to attach it to a small comb. Total $12. :)

My mom collected small vases at garage and rummage sales all summer long (she spent less than $30 on all these vases, some more than others, some matched and some didn't), and I had 30 vases to use for centerpieces. Since I ordered SO many roses, I was able to add three roses per vase.
Our ceremony and reception were in the same room, so all the centerpieces were on a single table during the ceremony and my wonderful family placed the flowers on the tables after the caterer arranged the tables for the reception.
This is the table of flowers before the reception (photo by Fetcho):
I also lucked out with our caterer, Classic Cafe, Inc. The food was absolutely fantastic and they were by far the best price I've ever seen for a caterer.

I am still so excited to be married, and I had so much fun planning and making things myself and just being a DIY bride (and I miss being excited about getting those amazing deals and ideas). Now, I just need to get my act together and work on thank you notes!

Free food

I have worked with a couple of undergraduate students this summer. Often, in graduate school and now in my postdoc, there will be vendor shows or other occasions that provide free food. As a graduate student, I learned very quickly not to turn down free food (well, I still wouldn't eat meat, but...). There was a vendor show with free food over the summer and I brought over these undergrads to get the free food. Well, it turned out the free food was cake and donuts. These undergrads did not partake in the free food because they wanted to eat good lunch food. I realized two things: 1. These boys do not understand free food. 2. Mommy and Daddy always gave them money so all food for them is free. And, one of these undergrads eats more food than I think I've ever seen anyone eat in my life. He's 6'6" and I don't think he's even 200 pounds. He's a rail and he eats two meals every time he eats. I really couldn't believe it when he didn't take free dessert. I ate a free donut, and it was my lunch that day. Why am I telling this story? Because, once again, Jorge Cham hit the nail on the head with today's comic from PhD Comics:

monday afternoon hilarity

i am having a major case of the mondays. i am disgruntled about the lab, about the people, and about the fact that way too much equipment was broken while i was gone. and that people don't bother to tell me. so, this may give some explaination why i was so entertained by the following:

i was searching different companies for kits to do baculovirus expression of protein (which i have never done before). companies always include a picture of the product to help sell said product - this works for shoes, this works for biotechnology. imagine my surprise when a kit for expressing protein with baculovirus was accompanied by this:

Apparently, blue feet with French manicured nails are the key to successful baculovirus transfection. what a bummer, my feet aren't blue, and not that talented.