Martine

To interrupt my long hiatus from writing on lj, I thought I'd announce that I'm defending my PhD tomorrow!

http://lunchinabox.net/2008/02/22/how-to-make-an-octodog-octopus-hot-dog/

They're so cute!

Protein Synthesis: An Epic on the Cellular Level

For those MIT folks who don't read Benoc's blog (and for those of you who just enjoy science) This entry gave me great amusement just now.

Sigh. 2 exams down, one more to go. I guess I probably should start studying, but I think I might go and take a walk instead.

This is really funny

http://homeland.gov.safenow.org/

Now back to your regularly scheduled journal club presentation preparation. If only the "fMRI for Dummies" site wasn't down right now...

My Dad left a valentine for me in my mailbox.

It certainly made my day after the craptastic exam I took this morning.

I finally have an excuse to buy someone pee-pee teepees!

(and a justification for buying from uncommon goods, which means I'm buying the DNA jewelry.

There is nothing better than taking a break from studying for your super obnoxious exam on monday than going to El Coyote with 2 great friends, eating some empanadas and sharing a pitcher of Sangria with basically only one other person.

Except maybe that it is 9:15 and I'm at home in my pj's slightly (or maybe more than slightly) toasted, and Dave is in South Beach staying at the Ritz and eating at some fancy steakhouse. But at least I don't feel like I need to study all that much more, and I bet there is some girly movie on TV that I can enjoy....and a brand new bottle of grey goose that will go down quite nicely right now.

After a friend summed up my explaination of the MIT mystery hunt as "Oh, its just a big MIT nerdy puzzle fest, right?" I decided to go ahead and buy this necklace, which arrived today, along with next years christmas cards, as I resolve to actually send them this year. I think it will replace the necklace that I used to wear all the time that got stolen when my apartment got broken into....

And for more upscale occasions, I think that this one will be on its way to my house shortly.

I must say that my trip back to boston was everything it could be and more. I loved seeing the traces of me scattered around the institute from the posters I designed ~4 years ago, to the note that was actually moved from one lab computer to another when they upgraded., and of course, having underclassmen whom you've never met actually look up to you and think you're cool is pretty nice too. It was nice to get a feeling for where I've been, where I am now, and where I'm going. I ran into lots of people I thought I'd never see again, and though there were a few people who weren't around, I imagine I'll see them again eventually. So, for those of you that I did see this weekend--thanks for all the fun, I had a blast. And of course, I have an extra bedroom, so if anyone ever finds a need to come down to Cincinnati, you're more than welcome to stay with us.

Of course, now I'm really behind in my school work, but hopefully I'll be able to be pretty productive today and somewhat catch up. Unfortunately, I'm definitely taking too many classes this quarter, and I've got 4 pretty intense projects to work on in lab, so I need to figure out a way not to spend all my time in lab (which is way more fun than studying) and actually keep up wiht my classes. And on that note, I'm going to start reading the papers for last week's classes.

In less than 5 hours (weather permitting) I'll be in boston. Yay for last minute fare deals!

If you're there, and want to get together, call my cell phone. I'm leaving monday morning.

Here's a picture of the finished tree (and presents) that I don't hate.....shooting good pictures of lit trees is rather difficult with my camera.

Anyway, I hope everyone's holiday events went well! Mine was a bit on the crazy side (it is nice to have both families in town, but that means that I went to 5 events yesterday)!

Erin, Dave and I went to cut down a tree this weekend in order to make our house ready for christmas....

I'm too lazy to post all the pictures here right now, but you can see some others on flickr. And, as soon as I manage to get a good one taken with the digital, I'll post a picture of the finished product.....

Friday, I drove up to columbus just to visit the penzeys store. The damage to my credit card was minimal (I do own at least one or two things from every page of the catalog already), but the damage to the credit card's of the friends who went with me was rather severe--and they're just getting started. I now at least know the approximate net worth of my spice collection. Yum. If you ever get a chance to visit one of their stores, I'd highly recommend it. Actually, I really went up to columbus to sort of help a friend of mine move, but we spent so long at the store and at a local indian buffet that I didn't actually even make it to her house before I had to go.

After coming back from columbus, I then went to a birthday party for myself. Well, actually my family usually gets together early friday after work anyway, but birthdays are just an excuse to have cookie cake. I'm most excited about the gift certificate for a massage that I was given. Apparently this woman (a family friend), does the kind of massage where she uses her feet to massage you while hanging on to a bar on the ceiling. Plus, she uses hot stones, and the one hour massages usually last about two hours. I'm going to try and make an appointment for next week.....

Yesterday Dave and I went up to the Air Force Museum at the Wright Patterson Airforce Base to finish up some of the things that I missed when I went with Erin and Josh last June. And of course, no trip to the museum is complete without a trip to Young's Jersey Dairy I must say that the Butter Toffee Ice Cream was an excellent choice. Though the batting cages were sadly closed for the season, Udders and Putters was still open, and I scored a respectable 52 to Dave's 53. No holes-in-one this time (but there was one that should have been).

On the way back, we stopped at Trader Joes for some goodies to go with all my new spices, and hit Zip's Cafe for dinner with Evan and Dave, followed by watching Anchorman, which was alright, but didn't quite live up to my expectations. And, it turns out that our DVR is not completely broken (though I'm still hesitant to watch the gilmore girls episode that crashed it to begin with), so I did get to watch at least one of the shows that I missed last week when studing for exams this morning.

And today, the beautiful weather of yesterday has been replaced by rain and gloomy clouds, which is just as well because I need to actually do work. I was going to go out and take pictures for my aunt and uncle's christmas cards, but the weather is proving to be a damper in the plans. Which I suppose is just as well, because my camera is sadly not working at the moment. I'm hoping it is really just a battery issue (I'm pretty sure the battery is low) but the thing makes all sorts of very unhappy noises when I turn it on (so I switched to my Dad's forty year old Canon, which has never let me down). I guess I should probably go out and get a new battery and see if it fixes the problem, but I hesitate to spend $45 dollars on batteries that may not be the problem....

Ah well, its time to go teach myself some stuff. You've got to love professors who, on the first day of their lecture series say "By the way, you're responsible for teaching yourself the material in chapters 10-13, and it will be in your best interest to learn it by tomorrow" (which was last tuesday--I'm a little behind)

In addition to having to replace my favorite brown shoes, this morning I discovered that it is truly time to replace my black doc martens. I've only been wearing them 1-2 times a week for the last 9 years or so....

The problem is, they still look great. Somehow I managed not to scuff them and they look like they are only a month or so old. But the last two times I wore them, my arches started really bothering me halfway through the afternoon. And with my foot problems, that is something I just can't tolerate. I thought maybe they could be rescued with some insoles--but alas, that did not fix the situation, as they didn't fit in the shoe very well. At least they are the standard black docs, so I'm not worried about finding another pair just like them, although I doubt I can find them small enough for me without buying online. Good thing I know my size.

Today's sadness is only rivaled by the day junior year at MIT, I threw away my black boots that I had bought from an Express sidewalk sale when I was in 5th grade. I wore those things to death, and there finally came a point where shoe polish did nothing for them. Sadly, I've never been able to find a pair of boots that I like as much (and are as comfortable, and cheap--I think they were $20).

That, and apparently the walgreens by my house doesn't sell matches. Which means we have to make yet another stop tonight in our quest to not have the lamest decorated house on the street.

I should work...but first I think I'll select the design for my pumpkin.

-Jasmine saying a new word (She now says "hello" when you answer the phone). Its been forever since she's learned a new word. She did it for the first time yesterday, and got so excited after she said it.
-Doing way better than the average on my stats exam (and hopefully on my other two exams, though it will be awhile before we get those back.
-Going down a pants size (but sadly remembering that even though old navy pants fit me in most every dimension, they have made the "short" lengths about 4 inches longer than I need). If I go down one more size, I can wear my old navy "short" pants from a few years ago that are actually the right length.
-Yesterday's "study session" that involved shoe shopping at DSW (and finally getting those brown shoes I've needed for months) and dinner at the Cheesecake factory (let me recommend the Thai Lettuce Wraps and the grilled eggplant sandwich and the caramel vanilla latte cheesecake, and splitting all of those things between 3 people).
-My daily "lunch dates" with my great uncle (my great aunt is in the hospital, so I've been making sure he eats during the day).
-Working with my aunt reaffirming my desire to go into medicine, even though I'm having a much better time being a grad student.
-Meeting a new neighborhood dog named Sandy who is reallly friendly and likes to shake paws.
-Ripping out all of our dying landscaping, and thinking of what to replace it with.
-Realizing that I still remember the glycolytic pathway and the TCA cycle from last year.
-The gorgeous weather

There is only one problem with feeling prepared for exams so early--the utter lack of motivation. I could just stop studying and feel comfortable, but yet this quarter is going to be rather important for me....and I know that getting two extra points now, could make a difference later on. I hate being such an anal student....

Ah well...I haven't invested in multiple highlighter and pen colors yet.

Maybe I'll go make dinner. That's at least somewhat productive.

-The starbucks guy accidentally putting an extra shot of espresso in my latte at 7:30 this morning.
-My 8 am professor inserting explicatives in his lecture on electrophoresis
-My 9 am professor whining like a 4 year old when he didn't think he could go back a slide
-My 10 am professor telling us exactly what would be on the test on wednesday
-Food from the hospital cafeteria that actually tasted good, and wasn't just french fries
-My 1 pm professor making a crack about getting a pizza delivered when someone's cell phone rang, again. I can't understand how if 2 other people's cell phones ring in the first 15 minutes of class why you wouldn't make sure your own phone was off. I miss my early years at MIT when almost no one even owned a cell phone...
-Jasmine wanting to take a bath when I got home, and getting me totally soaked in the process
-Feeling like I could take my wednesday and thursday exams tomorrow, without studying another second.

I can now turn my head to the left, and about halfway to the right. Tilting to the right is still absolutely out of the question, but tilting to the left is ok. Forward and back are generally ok, as long as I'm sort of tilted to the left...My face is no longer completely swollen, although the right side is still a bit puffier than the left. My right shoulder is still lower than the left, but at least I can raise my arm now (and can finally dress myself, wash my own hair, tie my shoes, etc)

After all my dealings with modern medical science this week, I have to say that the only thing that really helped me was a trip to the chiropractor. Well, I'm sure the muscle relaxers and anti-inflammatories helped, and the good pain pills were nice too, but 4 hours after my first chiropractor's visit, I could turn my head. I can't help but wonder what shape I'd be in now if I went to the chiropractor earlier. Now, I know that the electrical muscle stimulation (which I could certainly get with more "traditional" medicine) helped a lot as far as the muscle spasm releasing action goes. But the fact of the matter is that friday injuries are a bit problematic when trying to schedule next day dr. appointments, and my chiropractor opened his office over the weekend just for me. And I like being a little more proactive about my recovery than "Take these pills and you should feel better in about a week. Oh yeah, the muscle relaxers will make you tired, so take them 3x a day, before bed" He wasn't kidding about the sleepy part--I fall asleep within about 45 minutes of taking them. Combined with the fact that I'm rather unfunctional on any sort of serious pain pill, I'm only taking Naproxin now, so I can go to class, work, and be able to drive my car.

That being said, I'm glad to be able to wash my hair again (Dave has an interesting technique), and I must say, it really sucks when you can't put on your own bra, or appropriately adjust it. I'm trying to get caught up with school stuff now, although I'm still not quite "with it" so I'm not sure how effective I'm being. I vowed not to get behind this term....too late! This weekend isn't going to help much either, with a friend and Dave's brother being in town..

And I can cook again. I made chili tonight. It is quite good, if I do say so myself, especially since I totally winged it. I think its at about my limit of the spicy scale though, those chipoltle peppers in *spicy* ancho sauce were quite spicy--even though I rinsed a lot of the sauce off. I'm glad I didn't put the whole can in.

I'm working on the data analysis for a huge study at work. All told, it will probably have over a hundred subjects, most with multiple scanning sessions--thats a lot of data. We set up a new data storage server just to handle the data. Of course, this study has been going on for several years, so I have to deal with lost data, changes in experimental design, bad datasets that were never marked as such, and other annoying factors. That, and the preprocessing steps are very very tedious, especially when dealing with so many subjects, and when other people steal the cpu's I need to do the processing. Thankfully, the two other grad students I'm working are starting to be able to work semi independently...except for this afternoon, but I can hope that one day I'll be able to work for more than 10 minutes without being interrupted....

My brother left for boot camp on Monday (navy). Apparently all of his good friends (about 8 of them) either skipped class, forged notes, or convinced a teacher to let them out at 10:30 am so that they could see him off. That's really cool.

Hmm...time for some drugs. Despite my progress, I do think I kinda overdid it these past two days...

1. I am utterly in love with my hairstylist. I know that by tomorrow morning, the lovely hairdo that I'm sporting will be gone, and I'll never be able to recreate it again, but for now, it looks awesome. I really should get my haircut more than every 8 months or so...Too bad I had nothing planned for tonight except for reading a few good articles on lithium spectroscopy.

2. This month, I spent more on gas than food, clothes, and entertainment combined. Granted, dave pays for most of our "entertainment" expenses, but I pay for all of our food and household supplies.