Marching on

I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted, but so it has.

I guess nothing truly noteworthy has occurred.

I've been working at the U now for almost a month (crazy) but nothing has really come to fruition as far as my experiments are concerned. Part of that is because the breast cancer cell line I'd been using kept getting contaminated. Since the other scientist in the lab had a similar issue with this line, we finally decided that they were probably contaminated when they were frozen down, so we needed to get new ones. The other issue I've had is the fact that I'd never run a Western Blot before and the first time I ran one by myself (never having even seen it done in the lab) I inadvertently skipped a crucial step. So that's back to square one as well. Sigh.

In other news I finally decided to join a gym. I ended up choosing the University Rec Center. They have everything (like the RAC at home) - racquetball courts and swimming pools among others. That was the first selling point. Then I found out they can just deduct it out of my paycheck (~$11/paycheck). That, plus the $20/month reimbursement program, made it practically free. The final selling point for that facility was that I have to walk right past it to get to my bus home, which means it's harder to find excuses not to go.

Of course, right after joining, the weather turned amazing. I mean the last week it has been in the 70s in Minneapolis! In March! It's unheard of, but so wonderful. On Tuesday and Wednesday I walked home from work. On Thursday I walked to work, and on Friday I walked to and from work.

Actually Friday was a crazy day. It was a University floating holiday, so I walked in to work, did a few hours of stuff, then walked home. But instead of walking straight home I walked down along the river to Marshall/Lake, and then over to my house (about twice the distance of just walking home). And then I got my bike out of storage, inflated the tires, and rode it to the library. After that I got even crazier and decided to take Addy for a walk. It might not have been bad, but I decided to take her all the way to Sybylla's house. Don't get me wrong, it's not a ridiculously long walk (10ish blocks), but it is with a cat who refuses to walk or even ride nicely. Basically, Addy got freaked out, and I did not help by rushing her along on a long walk (I wanted to make sure we got there and back before the sun went down).

On Saturday (St. Patrick's Day) not much happened. Nathan and I had steak and potatoes off the grill (yummy).

Today (Sunday) I was lazy. I spent the majority of the day watching movies on TV and Hoarders on Netflix. I kept thinking about going outside and enjoying the weather some more but then getting lazy. The 9 miles I walked on Friday (I mapped it out) made my muscles sore. Not so much my legs, but my lower back.

I also really need to get my bike fixed, but instead of taking it to the local bike shop as I originally planned to, I decided to order a new bike chain (and chain tool) off Amazon and attempt to fix it myself. We'll see how that goes...

Finally, in 3 days it will have been 4 years since my Northwest trip in Australia. It's amazing to me how fast time has gone by and how much has changed in those 4 years. I feel older and more mature (no kidding right) but also like not that much has really changed. I'm still as confused as ever about my future!

I'm going to be volunteering at Como Zoo this summer! I got approved to work in the bird area, informing guests about the birds at the zoo. Not sure how it'll go, but I'm sure it will be good for my future! Now I need to get the rest of my classes done, take the GRE, and start applying for vet schools. And time keeps marching on

Soaking wet feet

Curious about the title? It's not nearly as interesting as it sounds (although to be fair it doesn't actually sound all that interesting, does it?). I'll get to it shortly...

Flash backward to me getting home from Cancun (a sad day indeed). While it was nice to be back on familiar turf, I definitely could have stayed much longer (a month or two, at least until the weather here turned decent).

Anyway, I picked up my kitten, who I actually did miss quite a bit, and then my last days of freedom commenced.

On Friday night Nathan and I semi celebrated Valentine's Day. Not knowing what to get guys for V-Day, I had prepared by getting a digital photo frame for him. Unfortunately the one they sent me originally failed to turn on, so I had to return it and send in a new one. This meant of course that, since they shipped it via UPS, I had to drive over and pick it up. I did this on Friday, went home and made sure it worked, and then loaded the pictures I had picked out onto it. Back in the box and fast forward to Nathan's. Oh, I had also purchased him a hand painted black and white tile of a palm tree/ocean while I was in Cancun. It matched the ones he got for himself in Cozumel, but that was a "I was traveling, this is what I got for you" gift. He in turn got me 12 red roses and a dinner at Olive Garden (why is the food there so delicious??). We also went and saw Mission Impossible 4 after our dinner at the cheap second run theater in Hopkins.

On Saturday I went with Nathan to Petco, where the dog he'd been fostering for just 2 weeks (Nix) got adopted! Happy and sad, but mostly happy. Headed home just in time to meet Vicki to pick up my rats and then we both met up with Sybylla at the Riverview Theater (actually we drove around the surrounding neighborhoods looking for her walking in, spotted her, pulled up alongside and yelled "Get in!" if you want to be precise) and saw Sherlock Holmes 2: Game of Shadows. It was pretty good - actually better than I remembered it (we saw it when it was in regular theaters as well).

Monday was my first day of work. I showed up to talk to HR at my scheduled 8:30am appointment, and when she was done she asked if I knew where/what to do next (assuming I did). Unfortunately, I did not. So she sent me to get an ID badge and gave me the lab number and my PI's (principle investigator, "boss") office number to call afterwards. I got my badge, called the numbers, and no response. So I found a computer and emailed the PI (Martina), as well as leaving messages on both her and the lab phone. I figured out where the lab was (12th floor Moos Tower) and went there, but the door was locked. So I hung out on the 2nd floor in Moos Tower, randomly emailing and calling again. This went on for a good 3 hours, never contacting anyone. During that time (~11am) I went to Noodles to eat lunch. After that, I gave up and walked the 2.1 miles home. It was a decent walk, I only wish there was a bus that took that exact route (it's so close as the crow flies!).

On Tuesday I tried again, arriving at 8am, and getting ahold of no one. Eventually though I got in touch with Yoshie (another scientist in Martina's lab) and got the grand tour, etc. I also learned that they work 9-5 and Martina took Monday off (it was Presidents Day after all).

The week progressed, me learning various techniques (although more in theory than actual practice). I thawed some cells to start my own cultures and cell lines, but unfortunately they got contaminated with yeast when I inadvertently used tainted PBS (the autoclave tape was a lie...).

The weekend was fairly low key, I made enchiladas on Friday and brought them to Nathan's for dinner (they were tasty). On Saturday we took the bus from my apartment to the Millenium Hotel for Chris' sister (Lisa)'s wedding. A nice short ceremony, decent food (prime rib was okay, also potatoes cut into the shape of mushrooms, why? I have no idea..., cake was meh). Watched people dance, give toasts, etc, then headed home.

So far this week has been pretty slow. On Monday I discovered the cell contamination, so I tossed those and started anew. Tuesday was slow, just checking on the cells and coming up with a plan (doing some Google searching for protocols, etc). When I got home I watched Toy Story 3 and nearly cried again. I may have to hang on to Netflix...

Today has been fast and slow. The morning flew by, I had cells to split and freeze down as well as an impromptu meeting with Martina regarding my project. What is this project you ask? Well I'll tell you!

Cancer, as we all are probably aware, likes to move, spreading and creating havoc where it goes. There are many proteins that cells have that help them move, and my project focuses on one of them. Basically, I take breast cancer cells and knock out that protein (so the cells are unable to make that protein), and then see if they can still move/migrate.

Of course it is going to take many steps to do this. The first thing I have to do is prove that I can actually knock out that protein. Luckily for me, the lab has already done it to ovarian cancer cells, so I just have to let them teach me how to do it and then run a test proving the protein is gone. The next step is seeing how the it affects the cell movement, a bit trickier. This is the step I had to do research on to find a good protocol, but I think I've got it figured out. That will happen in petri dishes for the most part. The last step (at least for our lab) is then trying it in a mouse, to see if the cells that have the protein knocked out already still move as well as seeing if you can just give the mouse the treatment and halt the cancer spread.

I hope that makes sense, it actually helps me to type out/explain the overall project. Makes it seem a bit easier than the daunting task it originally appeared to be.

After the morning rush I went to meet Sara for lunch. She decided not to eat with me (the pooper) but I got Chipotle and we had a good talk, then walked back to Moos Tower together.

But what about the wet shoes? Where does that fit into the story?

Well for the past week and a half I have been taking various bus routes to and from work, with various amounts of walking thrown in because Washington Ave is closed (so I have to walk a bit to get from the bus stop to my building). For two days so far it has been a nasty slushy snow-covered walk, and my boots are just not up to the task. I never manage to realize it ahead of time, but by the time I get to work or home my boots and socks are soaking wet and my feet are freezing. That is the situation right now, my poor feet are quite miserable.

Cancun and Xel Ha

So I drove home (Rochester) on Thursday after leaving Addy with Nathan and Luna & Evaine with Vicki. Hung out with my parents, watched them procrastinate packing, and hanging out with Belle.

On Friday I took Belle on a 2 hour walk - to the dog park and back. She had a blast but it was freezing in the wind and the next few days my legs were in pain. That night Megan came home as well and we hung out.

Saturday I only played fetch with Belle, but she still got a bit wiped out. Megan and I had a lazy day, until we went to Target and got matching dresses (we're nerds/I couldn't find a good color).

Sunday both Megan and I went on a walk/fetch with Belle, then came back up to Minneapolis where we picked up Sara and all hung out at my apartment until late. Went to bed, and Megan woke me up twice during the night talking in her sleep. The second time I woke her up asking her why the poop she was talking to me at 2:36 am.

We woke up at 3am, Sara drove us to the train station, and Megan and I caught the train to the airport. Had to wait for what seemed ages for the AirTran people to finally show up to work (4:30ish), then waited at the gate for our plane. Had a long day of hanging in airports, riding planes, standing in lines, and waiting for people to show up so our shuttle to the resort could go. Met up with mom and dad at the resort, dropped our stuff at our room, and went on a tour of the Grand Mayan (huge!). Ate dinner at one of the restaurants (I had fish tacos), then hung out poolside until bedtime.

On Tuesday we got up with the sun and tried to catch a sunrise over the water. Unfortunately it was really cloudy so it wasn't very impressive. Went and napped next to the big pool by the ocean for a bit, then transferred to these cool chairs with head shades next to the sand pool. Read books and just hung out there for a bit, until we decided to get margaritas (happy hour). Then we broke out the cards and played 13 rounds of golf (card game) while enjoying margarita after margarita. By the end, mom and I were pretty smashed. It hit Megan later and I still don't really know how far gone dad got. We packed our stuff up and stumbled back to the rooms where we made sandwiches and dropped off mom. Then, when it finally hit Megan, dad took the two of us on a walk to see the flamingos and the crocodiles. Back to the rooms for a nap, then got up and went out to dinner again - different restaurant. Enjoyed the live music, bought some hand painted souvenir tiles, and then headed to bed.

Wednesday was an exciting day at Xel Ha eco park. The all inclusive park was a blast - we ate too much food, went snorkeling, tubing through mangroves, cliff jumping into the ocean, saw dolphins and manatees in captivity and iguanas, coatis, stingrays, birds, and fish in the wild, rode the zip lines, hiking through jungles, snorkeling in underwater caves (cenotes?) and overall having a great day.

Thursday was a slow sad last day, we basically spent the morning reading poolside, ate leftover pizza and sandwiches, and then packed up and headed to the airport. Long day in airports and airplanes, then back home in Minneapolis.

So this update, especially for a vacation one, was pathetically low on details, but I'm kind of tired and not really in the mood to go all out. Sorry for that. Either way, the majority of the story is told in the 637 pictures I took on the trip - about half of which are posted on Facebook.

Adios mis amigos.

Vacation time

Had my last week at WuXi, was a very busy week. On Thursday after work a few coworkers there and I went out to Buffalo Wild Wings for happy hour (yummy boneless wings!).

On Friday I went out to Parkway Pizza with Vicki and Sybylla. Good food but we did have to wait for a table. Because of that we got free drinks! Hooray. Afterward we went to my apartment and watched Princess & the Frog and Rock-a-doodle. We also watched/played Sims 3 (waaay too many options!).

On Saturday Nathan picked up a new foster dog (Chance was adopted) called Lix. I decided immediately that that was a HORRIBLE name. I mean it really just sounds terrible, who names a dog that? Anyway, we renamed her Nix, and she's pretty cute. Mostly black, fluffy, and smaller than Jackie. She's a super cuddler, just loves to snuggle up with you wherever you are.

On Sunday I had a Superbowl party - made cheese dip, lil smokies, and pigs in a blanket and Sybylla, Vicki, and Nathan came over to watch the game/commercials. Sybylla and I also played some card games as well. It was decently fun, I was surprised that Nathan insisted on watching the entire game instead of playing cards with us, especially since he originally suggested playing a board game during it. We also arbitrarily decided which teams to support, Vicki and Sybylla had the Patriots and Nathan and I had the Giants. At the last second our team came through with the hilarious touchdown, it was pretty fun.

Monday was pretty low key, I pretty much spent the entire day (that I was awake for) doing laundry.

On Tuesday I decided to go skiing. I went to Buck Hill for the early bird special, 10-2 for $13. It was decently fun, at least the actual skiing part of it. I somehow forgot that the majority of ski time is actually spent on the chairlift, and riding the chairlift alone is incredibly boring. So I got bored fairly soon, but it was still a good choice.

On Wednesday I went out to lunch with my former coworker Katie. We went to Taco Bell (delicious) and just caught up with things. After that I ran a few errands and watched tons of Hoarders and Confessions: Animal Hoarding (I may be addicted - but my apartment is super clean!).

Finally, today I spent running more errands, cleaning things (the rat cage), and now just waiting to hear from Vicki. She's coming by to pick up the rats to take care of them for the next week. Addy is already at Nathan's (not very happily) for the week so the apartment feels really empty. I'm hoping she'll cope well with the other cats and dogs there. As soon as the rats are picked up I'm heading down to Rochester to spend the weekend at home with Belle, and then Megan and I are flying to Cancun on Monday! Super excited - I'll try to update as soon as I get back!

Viva Mexico!

So on Friday I finally gave WuXi a final day - after hearing from the U that they wanted me to start on Feb 20th. So that's going to be exciting.

I honestly don't remember what all happened over the weekend.

On Monday and Tuesday night, Nathan came over to my house and we painted - he painted small models and I painted on a canvas. I also tried to take him out for McDonald's (I know right, big spender me) and their card readers were down so I couldn't use my gift card (courtesy of Katie, it was a parting gift on my last day at the VA). Plus I had no cash, so he ended up having to pay. So much for that.

I also discovered that I won't get the University employee discount for this semester, and the last day to drop courses for a full refund was on Tuesday, so I ended up dropping my physics course. It was a tough decision to make, but considering it will save me over $1400 I really couldn't justify staying in the class.

After making that money saving decision, I also decided to pull the trigger on purchasing a plane ticket to Cancun! My parents' are going down for a week, they got a timeshare down there, and Megan and I are going to join them for 4 days. Unfortunately the shortness of our trip is because the flight was the cheapest, even one day longer cost $100 more. I'm super excited to get down there somewhere warm and just relax, and the week before I start my new job.

Work this week was literally painful, I labeled so many tubes and plates that on Tuesday my index finger was in physical pain. I ended up having to use my middle finger, and it was just sad. The end of the week got better, but next week will be bad again I'm sure.

Yesterday (Friday) at work we got Baja Sol catered in for lunch. It was to celebrate a record month for the lab - apparently in December they had over half a million $ of work contracted/completed. Kind of insane. Last night I spent far too long at Nathan's house watching Once Upon a Time, a really entertaining show.

Today I slept in, and that's almost it. I really can't think of anything else I really accomplished other than reading, watching TV, playing with Addy, and filling my car with gas.

So overall not much to update on, but hey I tried.

I'm no early bird

So I've been working at WuXi Apptec for almost 2 weeks now, and finally starting to get used to the early schedule. And by that of course I mean I'm not at all.

The first week was the worst, I couldn't convince my body that it needed to go to bed and actually sleep at 11pm, so I lay awake tossing and turning and trying every trick I knew to try to fall asleep (curling up on the Lazy Boy in the living room worked once, but not the second time), usually to no avail. So I'd get a few hours of sleep, have to wake up around 6am, work a full day, and then get home exhausted and fall into a 2+ hour nap. Of course, waking from that, I then couldn't fall asleep at a normal time for bed, and so the cycle continued.

On Wednesday I decided to take the job at the U, and so informed my recruiter. Have I talked about the recruiter at all? I'm not sure but I'll give a brief blurb as to why I'm not a fan.

So this chick (Tammy) contacted me about the job at WuXi, didn't really get a lot of information about it other than what I could find on the internet about the company, but I interviewed and got hired. Unfortunately, when I was interviewing I was informed that they were actually looking for people to fill 2 positions, and while I was technically interviewing for one, they thought my qualifications ranked me more towards the second. So while they were explaining the job duties to me, I sort of mixed them up in my head and got the idea that the slide reader job was going to be a mindless sitting at a microscope for hours staring at slides job that would last 4-6 months, but the lab assistant job would be more interactive, cell culture, mouse work, etc. and that was a permanent position. So when Tammy informed me I was hired for the second, I got really excited, thinking that I was getting a permanent full-time position. I accepted, and when I went to fill out the paperwork with her, she informed me that it was a 3 month temporary position. I was like wait a minute hang on wtf? Of course I didn't actually say that because at the time I was desperate for a job and would still take it (I'd take any sort of extension on the receipt of paychecks). But I wasn't happy about it. Fast forward to my last Friday at the VA (6th, a sad day) and I get an email from Tammy asking if I'd had my physical yet. I was like no, you never told me I needed one, come on! Replied, and then she got back to me saying she was wrong, I didn't need one. This is after other phone messages and emails addressed to the wrong person and with the wrong information, etc. Fast forward again to me informing her about my decision to quit WuXi and go work at the U. Part of my decision to do so (aside from the benefits, tuition reimbursement, less hectic/industry related tasks) was the stability of having a job for longer than 3 months. When I told Tammy I was leaving, she stated "well the WuXi job is becoming permanent, does that affect your decision?" And I just sat there and was like, well it would have been nice to weigh that information into my decision, or to have known about it ahead of time! I still probably would have chosen the U, but still! Why withhold that information?? So it became another part of my decision to leave in that I would no longer have to deal with her or any recruiter (at least for now).

On Thursday I got a text message from mom telling me to call her ASAP. At the time I had just started my lunch break so I called her right away. After some random idle chitchat she finally got to the reason she wanted me to call her: Belle was sick. There was some sort of dark mass growing on her chest and the vet in Rochester was afraid it was a really aggressive cancerous tumor. She suggested taking Belle up to the U of MN in St. Paul for more advanced testing. Also on Thursday I talked to the WuXi people about my leaving, and wondering if they still wanted to bother training me in or just stop paying me (ie quit now). They decided to keep me on as grunt labor, labeling things, making slides, sorting inventory, etc.

So on Friday I took a half day off from work and went and met mom and Sara at the U. While there I found out that her "tumor" had started leaking pus and blood and the vets at the U were thinking it was probably a really bad infection. They had to do some tests and so we three went to B-dubs for lunch. Right after we ordered they called to tell us they were done taking samples and were more and more convinced it was an infection. So we ate and then headed back to the U, picked up Belle, talked to the vet, and got her prescriptions. She was in high spirits, I think she was a little dismayed at being cooped up and bandaged all around her midsection.

The weekend was pretty uneventful. Nathan and I went and saw In Time at the cheap Hopkins theater - I actually really liked it, it had a very interesting concept.

On Monday I didn't sleep again, but it was worse than ever. I was awake easily until 4:30 and was woken up by little miss furball at 5:43. So I decided that I did not care enough about WuXi and my new grunt duties to kill myself and took the day off as a sick day.

Tuesday was mostly uneventful, other than that I decided to (we're getting into some possible TMI here) weigh myself and had an unfortunate realization. All those pounds I'd dropped when I went through that depression era were back, and with some friends. I decided that something needed to happen. So I started looking at gyms to join and thought they were all too expensive, plus there was no accountability to get me to go regularly. Then I saw a WW ad on TV and decided what the heck. I signed up for a month.

On Wednesday I had a WW meeting, and while shorter than I expected, it actually did seem pretty helpful. Here was a place where I would be accountable for my actions during the week and if I didn't do something, someone else would know about it. It's like having homework that you have to do or you won't pass the class. So I'm trying it and we'll see how it goes.

That's about it so far, my job has been okay but not spectacular. It is nice getting to know new people, but I really think the atmosphere of working in industry is just not for me. It's all about high throughput and more paperwork than I thought imaginable and just getting massive amounts of things done (this afternoon I spent the entire time making 350+ slides, the morning was spent labelling 100+ petri plates). That kind of volume just makes me shudder.

Plus, getting there at 7am is killing me slowly from the inside. Today I took an accidental 2 hour nap. I did manage to get gas, cash in my winning lotto tickets from who knows when, and put some $ in the bank before I got home, but the rest of my night has been unproductive.

Oh and my physics class started - got the wrong book at first but it's on its way, and my lab kit arrived (5 different colored Slinkies!).

Time to hit the hay... and try to sleep

From Drought to Flood

So a few weeks ago I was desperate to find a job, applying here there and everywhere, wishing I could just get an interview somewhere and cursing my pending unemployment.

Today I have a temporary job, another job offer, and an interview for yet another job.

And of course I'm all worried about how to break it to my current job that I have an offer for a better job and of course if I should accept the better job or hold off to see if I get the best job (still have to set up the interview for that one).

Update:

I found out more info on the job I was still going to interview for and it doesn't sound like a good fit for me. Which means that I'm accepting the position at the U that I interviewed for back in October.

I'm nervous, but excited.