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