FYI: I've established another journal site. This one is focused more on my adventures in fitness and food, so check it out if you want.

http://faradayflux.blogspot.com


:)

Seeing as how I hardly ever post anything of substance (since fluff and random crap is so much more fun), I'm about to make a change. Read of it what you will, but I thought that I needed to write all of this down now, while I was thinking about it and everything is sort of swirling around in my head. Maybe this will lend some coherence. Maybe this will be more self-indulgent whining. Whatever it is, its time to let it out and finally be done with it just sitting around in my head.

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Since many out there in cyber-land haven't seen me in a while, I thought I should post pictures. You can see them under the cut. This is the result of my changing my not-so-healthy student lifestyle and getting my "rear in gear" so to speak. So far this year, the loss has amounted to 80lbs. Sometimes it seems a little surreal, even to me still.

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I need to start not waking up at 3:30am every day. It is not helping. I'm all for early rising, but this is pushing it, even for me. I just can't seem to stay asleep very well lately. My random schedule doesn't help, but this is just nuts!

FYI: Sitting in a freezing cold jury room for 4 hours is not a good way to start the week. At least I didn't get called to actually serve on a jury. So I'm in the clear for at least a year. Civic duty was never so much fun ;)

And why is it that everyone I know seems to be getting either married or engaged lately? Is there something in the water on the west coast? Can some of it make it to Denver, so I can at least get a date?

Its a slow morning. Yoga doesn't start until 9am, so I'm getting going later than normal (normal is me out the door by 5:30am to hit the gym). We'll see if yoga is the missing link, so to speak, in my fitness regime. I need something less intense than 7-day-a-week cardio. Sunday is a day of rest, right... yoga should be more like rest, I think. We'll see what happens in a few hours.

I had this weird urge to make zucchini bread last night. So I went to the store,picked up the ingredients, and made it. I also added a bag of dark chocolate chips too. The results are more chocolate than zucchini, but its not bad. Most of it will be traveling to lab tomorrow, since I really don't need to keep it all around here. I did freeze some for myself, but the majority is going to leave. I like to bake, but at this point, I don't lick the bowl or eat all of the leftovers anymore. It takes a lot more willpower than I imagined not to lick the bowl. That was my favorite part growing up. I would make cake just to eat raw cake batter (Salmonella be damned... I never once got sick, knock on wood). I guess I've been feeling somewhat domestic this weekend. I rearranged all of my furniture in the front room and the bedroom. I cleaned the kitchen and moved stuff around in the cabinets (to make things more accessible). I went grocery shopping three times (there is always something you forget to pick up on the first trip). I did find some great tomatillo and avocado salsa at Williams-Sonoma (made by Rick Bayless, no less, the guy from the PBS cooking show). It tastes good with baby carrots :)

And today is work. I have to finish figures and legends for a future paper. I've been putting this off for so long. There has been limited motivation, probably because I feel like I'm being asked to do a bunch of disparate things at the same time, and that there is not enough focus to go around and make sure they are all done right. Planning is needed, so that I can get back on track. I'm learning, now I just need to prioritize and get my work done, so I can move on and graduate at a reasonable time.

Going through a bunch of old family photos had made me nostalgic for childhood. I'm trying to get my mom's photos in albums (instead of the giant RubberMaid container that they have been living in). So I'm going through them and sorting by category (or at least what I think is a category). The upside is that I get to keep any doubles that I find and want. The downside is that my entire dining room table is covered in photo piles for the forseeable future. Not like I eat on it anyway, but still. Its the thought.

Its crazy how much can happen in a single family in a few months time. My Great Aunt passed away last week, in a situation similar to my Grandma's earlier this year (they were sisters). I'm not quite sure how I'm supposed to respond to any of this. Emotions during a time of stress just sort of lie flat within me, and nothing really gets bad. Maybe because she isn't immediate family. I do remember crying a lot when I first found out about my Grandma. Not so much this time, which is odd because she and the rest of the extended family out here have taken care of me since I moved to come to grad school. My Great Aunt even found me my apartment before I moved. Dad and Aunt Julie are coming out for the reception/service this Friday. Really, why is it that you only see family when there is a crisis or a death? No in-between lately.

Well, I got the book yesterday afternoon, and it was finished by yesterday evening. The HP world has come to an end. A good end I think. But it is still a bittersweet goodbye. I really liked reading the books as they came out. It was fun to be a kid again with all of that excitement. What will occupy me next?

In a few months you would think that so many things would happen, that I would have a book-full of interesting stories to tell. But I don't. I do have a few updates, but how interesting they are is up for you to decide. To me, everything seems relatively normal.

My Grandpa stopped by on his way back to CA from his month-long road trip. I'm still impressed that an 84 year-old drove across the country on his own. But it was good to see him. He even got along with my cat (who did manage to wake him up both mornings he was here). If there is anyone to look up to, it is my Grandpa and how he is just going on and making the most out of life since my Grandma passed away. He has plans to drive to North Dakota to go hunting in October, and may even come back here in November with my parents for Thanksgiving.

I've been successfully going to the gym since April. As of this week, I've lost 50lbs and two clothes sizes. I'm just happy that I can go hiking now without getting completely out of breath. I'm not quite at my goal yet, but I'll get there eventually. Right now, I'm just trying to continue with the waking up really early to go work out. My trainer has way too much energy, but it helps keep me motivated.

According to the eye doctor, my eyesight is worse because I do too many up-close and focus-required things, so my eyes get strained. Now I have to get custom contacts and lenses because my astigmatism is way off (lets just say that most contacts work to a -2 astigmatism, and my eyes are at -4). But I did get my new glasses today (cute, small, rectangular, and red). They look nice, and I can see! Things are less fuzzy than they used to be, which is good. I hope to keep it that way.

I leave next week for a vacation to Great Sand Dunes National Park in Southern Colorado. I am so looking forward to hiking and getting a tan by the pool. I haven't had a real vacation in over three years. I need this one badly.

So, it's been a while. Such is life and how it goes for me with any regular writing habit. In reality there is no "regular" writing habit, its more like a trickle writing habit.

Update since two months ago:
Still in the grad program. I will be a student forever. Enough said. I need to make some more progress, though. I feel like nothing is being done any faster or getting results, and I'm starting my 4th year in a few months. Yikes! Productive summer, here I come (I hope).

I've joined my local 24hr fitness and have been going to the gym regularly for the past couple of months. It has made a huge difference. I am more awake, have much more energy, and haven't had a soda since I started. I've also lost about 25 pounds so far. And my trainer has way too much energy for 7am in the morning.

I just got back from a microbiology conference in Toronto on Friday. I presented a poster, and won a travel grant. It was good. Toronto is a nice city, and I think I walked all over downtown at least twice in the time I was there. The CN tower is pretty cool, you can see the entire city from the top. Its a taller version of the Space Needle in Seattle. There was a huge (5 story) mall a few blocks from my hotel, and I bought lots of good Cadbury chocolate and other candy that you can't find in the U.S.



Now that I'm back, I'll have to get back into focused mode again. But tomorrow is a holiday, so I have one more day to not be so busy.

my flight has been delayed by almost 2 hours, and i have been at the airport (or will have been, by the time i finally get to leave) for about 5 hours. this is so annoying. and i have no clue yet as to why the flight is delayed in the first place, although i do know that this is the third time the flight schedule has changed.

anyways... thanks to all who called or left me messages about my grandmother, i appreciate all of the support. everything is OK, my family is doing well, and the funeral went as well as can be expected. i've been at my grandparents' house for the last week with my parents and my aunt and uncle, cleaning things out and taking care of grandpa (who has a surprisingly good sense of humor). now its back to normal life. if my damn flight ever manages to leave lax.

It never fails that just when you think things are going well in life, something happens to bring you crashing back down to reality. My grandmother passed away yesterday morning. Granted, she had been sick and in the hospital for a while, but it is still a little shocking to hear those words, especially over the phone. I'm flying out to CA on Monday morning for the week (thank god for a boss who didn't bat an eye when I said Friday that I would be going). It sounds like my Grandfather want all of us grandchildren to be pallbearers, which I haven't quite let sink in yet. This is a little surreal, even more so since I'm not gone yet and am trying to get things in order to have nothing going on here when I leave. I am also now very appreciate of good friends, one of which said immediately "what can I do" when I told her what was going on. It makes times like this a lot easier.

Indoors, of course :( But I'll be done within the hour and get to go back outside in the warm, nice sun for a while. One of the things Denver does right is sun. When it is nice outside, there are hardly any clouds, and all you feel like doing is lying out and soaking it up (with sunscreen liberally applied, of course).

Let's see, and update, of sorts...
1. I am going to my first scientific meeting in May in Toronto Canada.
2. For said meeting, I just found out I won a travel grant, to help defray some of the insane plane ticket and hotel costs.
3. I've been rearranging furniture and cleaning out closets lately int he apartment (I know, big shock, my rearranging things). I think I've started to confuse the cat.
4. Maya (the cat) is good, and likes sleeping on my desk for some strange reason.
5. The Japanese Gardens in Denver's botanic gardens is my new favorite place to sit in the sun. There's even baby koi in the pond!
6. I really want to find a copy of this Irish drinking song that Abby played for me once, but of course i do not know the band name or anything helpful. It's driving me crazy.

That's it for now... it's almost time to go sun-worship :)

Again with the very long gaps between posts. I really am the worst person I know at updating people about the boring goings-on with my life. Like anyone actually reads this, but I like to think that they do. It makes me feel better when I actually sit down to type something longer than a couple of sentences. So, here it goes (again)...

Lorraine will be here tomorrow. She finally caved and is coming to Denver to see those of us who live here and have all already gone to Seattle to see her since we moved... no guilt added, none at all ;) Because of this, I am spending my entire Sunday in lab, but that is par for the course, so I can't complain too much, especially since I pretty much get to take both Monday and Tuesday off. I believe the plans for tomorrow night include meeting up with Kate and going out for dinner, drinks, and I think some dancing at Monarch (Lorraine is a little obsessed with the Real World: Denver). Tuesday morning who knows, and Tuesday afternoon we'll go up to Ft. Collins to see Karlen. Not really a vacation for me, but it will be nice to see everyone, considering I haven't seen Lorraine in over a year, and Karlen or Kate since before Christmas.

Lab life is going OK. There is a committee meeting in a week. My first first-author paper was published this month, and I'm going to the ASM conference in Toronto in May. Now if only I heard back about the damn fellowship, things would be better. Oh well, can't have it all, I guess. Kristi is leaving lab for a teaching job at Regis U. I'm trying to get her to join the monthly dinner out gang (Jenn, Jamie, Liz, and myself) now that she is going. I really liked having her in lab, so hopefully we can keep in touch. Although we do get a new post-doc in April, so the changes keep on coming.

Unfortunately, there is no guy news to update on. It's been a drought lately. And I haven't had the energy to go out and try to do anything about it. I'm getting too complacent with my life these days. I really might become the cat lady (although I still only have one, so that isn't going too far yet).

I think that it is for now. I need to get some actual work done while I'm giving up my Sunday.

I realize that I have not written anything since before Christmas, so here is the update:

Made it out of the blizzard. I wasn't able to fly to CA because my flight was cancelled, but I did drive out to CA with a friend who was already driving out to LA. We drove straight through, starting Friday morning at 10, and I got to Lancaster and my grandparents' house at 3AM on Saturday morning.

The overall vacation was busy, as usual. I saw quite a few relatives, watched a lot of "What Not to Wear" and generally slept in. I love the holidays, but next year I plan not to do so much, as I spend most of my vacation in the car. I got to see Abby in Salinas for New Years. And I was able to actually fly back to Denver. Back into the snow.

Speaking of snow. We've had 4 weeks in a row of nasty cold or snowy weather. I am tired of it all. I like snow, but I also like for it to melt soon after it falls. This is just nuts. I am not a fan of ther perpetual white ground. And just when it starts to melt, it decides to become frigid and below zero, so nothing melts and it all turns to ice. Not fun. I am ready for summer. Bring on the warm sun!!

Since coming back, I gave my first research in progress talk, which went well, actually. Or at least everyone tells me it did. I seem to have forgotten everything that I said. All I remember is stanind up and talking for a half an hour. But at least it is over.

Next on the list, helping with new student recruitment, doing my committee meeting, preparing for lab meeting, and trying to get lots of experiments done in between. Right now I am sitting in Starbucks, trying to get some work done, and staring outside as the snow flurries continue. Did I mention I hate snow now? And driving in it.

After a very long walk around the neighborhood...


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Photographic proof of the blizzard of '06.

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OK, it's a blizzard. And I have to walk home in the snow. And hope that my flight will be able to leave on Friday at some point. I love snow, but not when I have travel plans!!

Ok, I've done it. I pulled out the suitcase and started my packing pile. And I don't leave for two weeks. Is it that obvious that I need a vacation? Unfortunately it will be a working vacation, as I have a presenation and an abstract to work on while I'm gone. Maybe that's why I am ready to leave now, since I know I won't have complete freedom.

Oh, and "Shut Up and Sing," the Dixie Chicks documentary, was really good. I loved it! And they are such an amazing band. So much better than they used ot be. And now they've earned my respect even more, after having seen the movie.

I sound exactly like the title of this post implies. The various members of my lab have been traipsing about with illnesses the past two weeks, and they finally caught up to me. Sore throat, stuffy nose, headaches, body aches, and an attention span the size of a goldfish... that is me for the past few days. I wish that I could curl up in bed with some tea and trashy daytime talk shows, but I've been hauling myself to lab the past few days because of things that were already scheduled to be done. Damn commtiments.

At least now I have an excuse for not paying attention and wanting to fall asleep at my desk.

It has been a while since I actually posted anything not a survey or a picture or something like that. I've been a little preoccupied lately. The past month seems to have vanished very quickly, and I am realizing that there is a lot more to finish in the next few weeks that I thought I could have the luxury to procrastinate on. There go my next couple of weekends, although its not like I had any pressing plans or anything.

So, what has been going on? We're trying to publish a paper, so my projects are on hold while experiments get done for the paper. I have a fellowship proposal due in two and a half weeks (yikes!). My apartment looks terrible and I have a sink full of dishes that I have been trying to avoid for the past week. Unfortunately, in a small kitchen you can only ignore the sink for so long before you need to clean it just to make space again. Payday can't come fast enough. I am spending my Saturday's altely in lab trying to get things accomplished that I manage to not complete during the week. I haven't slept decently in over a month, making everything so much more irritating and exhausting than normal.

This is that stage of grad school where I have so much to do, and no idea of how to get any of it done in a reasonable space of time. Actually, I think that is all of grad school.

I have been able to see some decent movies lately. "The Departed" and "The Prestige" were both good, The endings of both were a little unexpected. At least for me.

I am trying to get some decorating done in the apartment, but I need some time to just clean the whole thing first. I haven't done that in a while. I am trying to paint all of my pale wood furniture a wine-red color. I have one shelf done, and three more to go. It could take a while. But I like the color.

Maya is doing well. All she ever wants is for me to feed her or scratch her tummy. I still think she looks like a dracula cat with her fangs. Already dressed for Halloween, that one.

We had a lab trip to the pumpkin patch. The pictures are below. It was fun. I bought way to many little pumpkins. My big carved one already dried out, so it isn't around anymore. Maya thinks the little ones are play toys. I found one of them on the floor the other day.

I am ready for vacation. I have my ticket home for Christmas already, and Maya's kennel appointment is made. Only two months more. I need a chance to get away and sleep and re-charge for a while. It's been too long. And my last trip home was too chort to do much of anything.

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