Saturday, July 31, 2010

Farmer's Market

For nearly 2 whole days we are completely roommateless. It's kind of strange. And very nice. We took the opportunity to clean out the roommate's bedrooms. They haven't been cleaned probably since we moved in over a year ago. Or at least that's the way it seemed judging by the amount of dust and dirt. The guest bathroom was also in need of a deep cleaning. Seriously, who lets the toilet get so bad that there's a stain around the rim? Gross! It seems ridiculous that we have to clean up after our 21 year old roommates, but I guess not everyone is as responsible as we are. We felt that it would be rude for our new roommates to have to clean their room before they even move in. So we cleaned it. It took us about 4 hours to clean two empty bedrooms and a bathroom. Half of me was annoyed that our old roommates were so rude, and half of me was just glad that we could get in there and do it ourselves. We do have rather high standards compared to other people.

This morning we went to a farmer's market. It's the largest one in Colorado, and it's just 5 minutes away. It was so much fun! There was live music, and tons of booths set up. There were local farms selling the typical produce, and also people selling homemade soap, an entire cow, organic dog food, homemade jellies and jams, and even a vineyard! We also got to try some goat's cheese that was just made yesterday. For lunch we got a pizza that was made completely fresh from all local ingredients right in front of us. They crushed up fresh tomatoes, sprinkled some mozzarella on top, and topped it with basil. It was the best pizza I've ever had! I love the idea of buying local produce. I would much rather give my money to small local farmers than huge industrial farms in South America or Mexico. The food has to travel a much shorter distance so it's more environmentally friendly and fresher too. We can definitely tell the difference- the tomatoes, lettuce, and onions taste amazing. Since we discovered the market 3 weeks ago, we haven't bought a single vegetable or fruit from the grocery store. It also encourages us to eat seasonal produce, which is more healthy too.

With our local produce Daniel cooked pad thai for dinner tonight. I was a little apprehensive because I don't love thai food in the first place, and it sounded too complicated to make ourselves. But it was delicious! It tasted just like the stuff we get at small thai restaurants. There's something so satisfying about eating homemade meals. Daniel and I love to cook. We almost never eat out- except for sushi. I really prefer to eat at home most of the time. You can better control how much you eat, and what's in the food you eat. We can choose to use less salt and less butter in our recipes.

On a completely unrelated note, Daniel and I have finally come to a sort of agreement about our future plans. With graduation so close, we have been discussing our future a lot. Mostly our careers and family. It's been really difficult to figure out how we are going to time everything. I want to have kids right away, while Daniel wants to wait a few years and enjoy our time as young single people. He wants to make some money, and spend it on things that are not children. But on our flight to Chicago, he told me that he was beginning to think my plan was a better idea!!! After thinking about it a lot, he agrees that we have had plenty of time to be just a couple. He also understands that more than anything, I want to be a mom. So we have sort of come to a tentative plan: I graduate in June 2011, the wedding in December 2011, Daniel graduates March 2012, and we have kids about one year later in the Spring of 2013. I know that seems like we're planning way too far ahead, but it's really only 3 years away. Well, 3 and a half. That's not long at all! In the time between my graduation and us having kids, I will work full time. Daniel will hopefully get a job soon after graduation so we will have some money to support kids. Then when our kids are older, maybe when they start Kindergarten, I can go back to school. I can get my master's, PhD, PA, or whatever. I think this plan will work well because I won't have to worry about balancing a very important career with being a mom. I can just plan on taking a few years off and when I'm ready to go back, I'll have a brand new career. While I have young children, I can work part-time as a research tech or something similar to what I'm doing now. I just can't believe that Daniel has agreed to this plan! He has finally realized that my career is completely secondary to my family. Although everyone tells me how smart I am and that I can do anything I want (including be a doctor), all I want is to be a mom. I'll worry about the big fancy job later. Now I wonder what my parents will think about this plan. My guess is, they won't like it very much.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Chicago!

We're back from Chicago and it was an amazing trip. My sister is the best. She completely spoiled us. I could tell it meant a lot to her that we came and she wanted to make sure we didn't regret it by spending too much money. So we got to do all the fun touristy stuff without worrying about how much it costs. On our first day, we went on a lunch cruise on Michigan Ave. off of Navy Pier. Half the boat was taken up with all the interns at Allstate. We got to meet some of Nicole's friends and got a great view of the city. It was incredibly hot and humid that day, so we didn't want to be outside too much. Then we went to Millennium Park and shopping on Michigan Ave. It rained really hard, so we took cover for dinner at the Grand Luxe Cafe right on Michigan Ave. Then we walked to Buckingham Fountain. On every hour, music plays and it lights up with all different colors. Since the sun set, it was much cooler and nice to be outside.

Saturday we went to the Field Museum, more shopping on Michigan Ave., and dinner at Rosebud. That was an incredible dinner. Every food was absolutely delicious. At the Field Museum there was an exhibit on DNA and these big glass windows where you could "watch real scientists working." There was a guy in there and I recognized what he was doing because I do it in my lab all the time. We use the same exact kit. It was cool to be able to explain exactly what was happening. After dinner we went back to Millennium Park for a free concert with the Grant Park Orchestra and Choir. It was a very emotional and powerful piece written about Jews during WWII. That night the weather was so beautiful too.

On Sunday, we had our Chicago style pizza lunch at Giordano's. It was crazy busy, so we put in our names and then did some more shopping for about 45 minutes until we got a table. That was really good pizza! One piece and I was full! We went to the contemporary art museum which would have been really boring except that Nicole knows how to make anything fun (mostly by making fun of the boring tour guide whose answer to just about every question was "I don't know"). Then we took the train North to the Second City show. We got there early enough that we got seats right in the front. And what was really crazy is that sitting at the table with us was a girl who also grew up in Scottsdale. And graduated from Horizon High School. And played the clarinet in marching band! She graduated just before we started there, but we had lots of mutual friends and we had actually heard of her since she was drum major. On Monday, Nicole had to work so we were on our own. We went to Lincoln Park zoo before heading to the airport to come home.

The best part of the weekend was hanging out with my sister. We have so much fun when we're together. I was quite surprised that we still think on the same wavelength. I can still predict what she's going to say, and I still know a lot of her likes and dislikes. We haven't lived in the same city for 3 years, so that's kind of strange, but it makes me happy too. We're still as identical as always :-) I was really sad on Monday. It sucks that we only see each other every few months. We absolutely have to move closer to each other in the next few years.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

My Future Career

This week I have had a lot of opportunities to talk to people at work about their career choice, and how they got to where they are now. Most of the people in the lab are Ph.D.s. One guy, Ken, is in the process of getting his Ph.D. right now from UC Denver. When I stayed really late on Monday it was a great chance to ask him about the process. I was really surprised to learn that you actually get a stipend while in school. It's not much (about $25,000) but it's enough to live on for sure. And I would be doing basically what I'm doing now- except earning my Ph.D. and getting paid more. It takes 4-6 years to get your Ph.D. and unlike other fields, in science you usually go right from your undergraduate without getting a Master's degree first. I could potentially become a Ph.D. candidate one year from now. How crazy would that be? I think I'm capable, but the big question I have is if that's really what I want to do. I mean, do I want to do research the rest of my life? Because besides teaching at a university, that's about all a Ph.D. does. And if I truly want to move back to Scottsdale, what kind of jobs are there? Not very many. And I don't think I would go to school in Arizona either. Which would mean staying here, or moving somewhere else. But how incredible would it be to have my Ph.D. before I'm 30 years old? But how worthless would it be to have my Ph.D. and stay home with my children? I'm completely torn. A month ago, it wasn't even on my list of options. Now it definitely is. So I'm going to think about it some more, and ask more questions.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Working Late

What a crazy week this has been. It started on Monday with a close to 14 hour work day. Right about the time I was getting ready to leave, I was asked to help process mice. With 10 mice left to do, at about 30 minutes a piece, this added quite a few hours. I thought I would be home at about 7, so I called Daniel and told him to hold off on dinner for another hour or two. Then at like 9pm, he decided to just go ahead and cook dinner and bring it to me :-) Isn't he amazing? He is so supportive. Judy was really excited to meet him too. I was absolutely exhausted. I didn't get home until almost 11pm. So I slept in the next morning and got to work about an hour late. I also left about an hour early. Then on Wednesday, I got to work and after only about 30 minutes, I thought I was going to throw up. I was going to try and stick it out and see if I felt better, but that seemed silly when I could just come back if I felt better. So I went home. I felt really terrible about missing a day of work, but what good is it to be there if I couldn't do anything because I was so nauseated? It passed fairly quickly, and I was actually able to eat lunch and dinner and keep it down. So I worked the rest of the week really without incident. I logged a lot of hours, even with the sick day in the middle of the week. I was busy!

On Friday, the whole lab was invited out to wish one of the secretary's happiness on her maternity leave. We all went to a nice French restaurant down the street for happy hour. I was really nervous about going. I haven't been to any purely social activities with my co-workers before, and I didn't know how I would fit in. I also don't know the secretary very well so it seemed silly for me to be at an event in her honor. But Judy really wanted me to go. So I went. And I had a fantastic time. Everybody got at least a little tipsy (including me). I thought I would only go for a couple hours, and ended up there for 4 or 5 hours. We had appetizers and drinks all paid for by the boss. I really enjoy hanging out with everyone in the lab. I fit in so well. David, the head boss, was there too and I thought it was really great to gain some visibility and for him to see me interact with everyone as an equal, and not as a student. I was the only student there, actually. The only bad thing is how guilty I felt about leaving Daniel at home. It really wasn't appropriate to bring him since everybody went straight from work and nobody else brought a date. So I'm gone all day every day, working really late hours some days, and then Friday comes around and I'm out until almost 10pm. I just feel terrible that my job is going so well. He is so great though. He's supportive, and encouraging, and he told me to go out and not to worry about him. He takes care of everything at home. All the cleaning, running errands, and cooking dinner. I'm so lucky. I try to remind myself that there will be a time, perhaps in the near future, in which our roles are reversed. And I wouldn't want him to be guilty. I would be happy that he is enjoying his job, and successful at it. So in the meantime, I'm going to do the same: enjoy my job, and work as hard as I can to be successful.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Just Call Me Ms. Fix-It

Every weekend this summer has started with no plans, but somehow I always end up feeling like it wasn't long enough. There's the inevitable laundry, grocery shopping, house cleaning, and yard work that takes up most of Saturday. The grocery shopping part is going to take even longer now that we have to drive to a Costco that's 20 minutes away. The one just down the street no longer carries the chicken that we like, nor the salmon. Really the only reason we go to Costco is for beef, chicken, and fish. If 2 out of the 3 aren't carried in stock anymore, what's the point? So now we drive further to a Costco that actually carries the stuff we like. Then on Saturday night Daniel and I were discussing how high our utilities bill was this month. Now that it's gotten really hot, we have to turn on the air conditioning. Unfortunately our roommates are not as careful as us about their use of energy. They regularly leave lights on and windows open. It's very frustrating. Another large part of the problem is that the upstairs is very warm when the basement is comfortable. In an effort to fix that (without increasing our energy bill) we decided to install a ceiling fan in the living room. Little did I know what a project this would turn out to be. It involved rewiring a light switch to add another switch. This in turn involved climbing up into the attic (which was like 200 degrees) to feed a wire across the ceiling and down to the light switch. It took us 3 trips into the attic (me once and Daniel twice). After the third time, we finally fed the wire through. Then Daniel climbed down and went outside claiming he was going to throw up from the heat. I sprayed him down with the hose, and we got back to work. Almost 5 hours later, we have a fully functional ceiling fan in the living room! I'm so proud of us. I'm so proud of ME! Not only did I climb around in the attic, but I patched two very large holes, repainted those holes, used a screwdriver, climbed on a very tall and wobbly ladder, and figured out how to put together a complicated fan. It would be so much easier for me to just make Daniel do it since he's the guy and his Dad taught him how to do all this household stuff, but I forced myself to pay attention and get involved and help. Good thing too, because even with the two of us it took all day.

Though I don't have children or a career yet, I'm already feeling pressured to pick between the two. Everyone who knows me even a little bit knows that I am ready to start a family NOW. I have been ready for years! I'm in college so that I can get a career that will allow me to support my family. Being able to support children has always been my motivation for going to college. But all of a sudden, I'm feeling a tug in the opposite direction. This summer has given me a feeling for what it is like to work full-time. This is as close as I've ever come to knowing what it will be like when I graduate. And I absolutely love it! I love my work. I love having a reason to get out of bed in the morning. I love the feeling of independence when I am driving to and from work, and the satisfaction of earning a pay check. I love the challenge of proving my abilities and learning new things. I have pushed myself to go above and beyond to impress my supervisors. I even volunteered to go into work at 11pm on Friday night so my boss didn't have to. Daniel is so proud of me because he feels like I am well on my way to a fantastic career. And he is so driven in his own life to work his way up the corporate ladder. It seems like every decision he makes is with his future career in mind. For example, he's president of Theta Chi because it will give him leadership experience to add to his resume. He expects that I feel the same way. He thinks that if I play my cards right, I could be a Ph. D. and be a world famous research scientist. He, and his family, and my family, constantly tell me how smart I am and that I can do anything. But what if what I want to do is have kids? The fact is, it's just not as important to Daniel. He sees children as a bonus once our careers are settled and we have a little extra money. At least that's the way I understood him. His plan is to work really hard for long hours and get promotions and raises until he's the CEO. Then he'll think about having kids. Whereas I see my career as just a way to earn enough money so that I can spend time with my family. There is a little part of me that really wants to climb the corporate ladder too. I would love to have the title (and paycheck) that goes along with earning my Ph. D. I want to be the best at what I do, and earn recognition for that. But if it comes down to choosing, I have to have children.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Best Day EVER

So I know I already blogged today, but I have to add more.

I just got off the phone with my grandparents. They are amazing. The best grandparents in the entire world. They are so supportive. They were thrilled when I told them how work was going. And completely out of the blue, Grandma told me that she wanted me to go visit Nicole in Chicago and she is willing to pay for my transportation there. As in, my grandparents are paying for my (very expensive) flight to Chicago! This is a HUGE relief. I was really apprehensive about spending so much money for a long weekend to visit Nicole. I was going to spend it anyways, because when else could I get a trip to Chicago for only the cost of a flight. And I'm dying to see my sister. She has visited me so many times, and I have never visited her. So it's time. I literally bought my flight and within an hour, Grandma and Grandpa offered to pay for it. I don't want to come across as loving my grandparents because they give me money. That's not it at all. If I never spoke to my grandparents, but I got a check in the mail every time I needed it, it would mean nothing. The fact is, my grandparents support me and encourage me in everything. Their love for me is absolutely unconditional. And my relationship with Nicole means so much to them that they want to help me so I can go visit her.

Work is Fantastic!

I am so excited because I got recognized in a big way at work! It will take a little explaining....

So yesterday was our monthly "journal club." Everyone in the lab is emailed a journal article to read ahead of time and then we all meet to discuss it. The article is usually something relevant to our research. In the meeting was everyone in the entire lab, including the head of the lab David Schwartz. He basically IS the lab. Without him, we don't exist. He started up our lab about 2 years ago. He secures all our funding, he hires everyone, he is the boss and makes all the big decisions. He is a very important person in the entire medical/research community as well. Right now he is thinking about becoming head of the department of medicine at University of Colorado. That is a HUGE job! Basically anything with his name on it is highly regarded in the scientific community. I haven't had a lot of interaction with him yet. Though he is the head of the lab, he is a very busy person. He isn't actually in the lab very often. More often he is in meetings, in his office, or at conferences. To me, he seems kind of like a rock star in the research/medicine world.

So, back to the lab. We're all in journal club discussing this article. I brought up a point that David thought was really relevant and important to our discussion. We ended up going back and forth and discussing it for quite a while. He thought it was a great point and agreed with me completely on it. By the way, none of the other student interns said one word during the entire meeting (or any other meeting for that matter). So I had a feeling that I kind of impressed him. I was willing to speak up when none of the other students were, and I brought up a relevant, interesting, and valid point of discussion. My direct supervisor, Judy, told me at the end of the meeting that she loved how I asked questions and participated. I went home feeling very proud of myself.

Then, at work today, Judy told me that David was impressed with me. She said that after I left for the day, David went to talk to Ivana (Ivana is Judy's boss and David is Ivana's boss). So David went into Ivana's office and told her that he wanted to keep me. As in, when the summer is over or when I graduate, he wants to hire me! This wasn't a job offer of course, it was just him speaking to Ivana. But that is AWESOME!! Even more so, because I have made it clear to Judy (who has then told Ivana) that I really want to work here after I graduate. And Ivana told that to David! Judy also loves me and she really wants me to stay on. We work really well together and I just fit in so well in the lab. So I impressed my boss, and her boss, and her boss on top of that. Even if I don't end up getting a job in the Schwartz lab after graduation, any recommendation letter with David Schwartz's name on it will count HUGE getting me into PA school or any other graduate program.

So as you can tell work is going amazing :-) I absolutely love it. I love all the people, I love the work, I love what I'm doing. So much so, that I volunteered to go tomorrow night at midnight. That's the thing with research- when you have a time point you have to hit, then you have to do what it takes. Since I live only 10 minutes from work (Judy lives almost an hour) it will be really easy for me to pop in, take care of the time point, and go home. It will only take 30 minutes at the most. And as Daniel pointed out to me, when you want to move up and get a raise and get a promotion, it's things like this that put you ahead of everyone else. The other students are not speaking up in meetings. The other students are not volunteering to come in at midnight.

Another thing I did today to further my career, is that I volunteered to help Laura take care of our mouse colony. David Schwartz recently fired a research technician. His job was to take care of our mice. He put in orders, kept things organized, and kept track of our mice. It appears that he stopped doing his job some time ago. And when he stopped doing his job, a certain strain of mouse was allowed to breed out of control. The result is that our lab now has thousands of mice that we will never use for research. We didn't ask for these mice to be bred, and we have no use for them. Now there is a huge room somewhere in the Biological Resource Center with mice that are just sitting there. Some of them are 2 years old! That is ancient! We usually use mice when they are 8 weeks old. And for every mouse that sits there, the BRC charges us. National Jewish has a full-time staff whose job it is to clean cages and take care of everyone's mice. They charge us to take care of our mice until we need them for research. With thousands of mice just sitting there, we are being charged $18,000 EACH DAY for those mice that we will never use and don't even want. All because this research tech didn't do his job and make sure that mice were not breeding uncontrollably. That is just ridiculous. David was very upset when he found this out. So tomorrow Laura and I are going to the BRC and getting rid of any mice that are not specifically designated for a current research project. It will be a massive undertaking.

I love my job :-)

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

4th of July Weekend

At the last minute I decided to fly out to Phoenix last weekend. I had been kind of lonely since Daniel was out of town and I was sick, and I didn't feel like spending another 2 days by myself. I had Monday off for the July 4th holiday anyways, so I could spend almost 3 whole days in Phoenix. My dad was so excited, he offered to pay for the flight. So on Friday I got home from work at about 5pm, and by 6pm I had a flight out of Denver at 9:15pm. Unfortunately, that 9:15pm rapidly turned into 10:45pm and eventually 11:30pm. My roommate drove me to the airport, and agreed to feed Jackson on Saturday. And my brother got the long weekend off too, so he was flying to Phoenix. I was so excited to spend some time with him, and see my parent's new puppy! Rocky is so adorable. He is the same breed as Spud and he's only 10 weeks old. Watching him made me miss Spud so much. Australian Shepherds are great dogs.

I was also happy to have something to do for the 4th. I had no plans in Denver, and it was doubtful that Daniel would be back in time since he was flying standby. But in Phoenix, I got to see some of my favorite people! We went over to the Bulkeley's house. Their house is up on a hill so we could see the fireworks at a nearby church really well. Even though I traveled over the weekend, I don't feel exhausted or anything. I still had plenty of time to relax and enjoy my day off of work. It's been a strange couple of weeks. I took 2 days off because I was sick, and then the holiday off, it feels like I've missed a lot of work lately! I'm feeling especially stressed out about money lately for no real reason. I'm making more now than I ever had since I'm working full time. But I also have a lot of expenses. Traveling is the biggest expense- though I can't turn down a trip to Chicago to see my sister for basically the cost of a flight. I also just bought a TV. Our current TV is leaving when Eric moves out on August 1. That was a huge deal for me. Spending $500 is just not easy at this point. Because all my basic living expenses are covered by Grandma and Grandpa, I feel guilty buying anything but the absolute bare necessities. The fact is, I'm making money now, and my family doesn't expect me to live on ramen noodles. I did a ton of research and found what I think is a great deal. Panasonic 42" plasma TV for $499. I couldn't find that price for a 42" anywhere online, so I jumped on it. My brother also went with me to look, and he said it was a great deal. I trust him because he sold TVs for a couple years at Circuit City. Then I remembered I had to buy a TV stand too. So that added another $100. I hate spending money. And our utilities will also go way up starting this month since our promotional first year with DirecTV is now over. But at least it will be split 5 ways once our new roommates move in.

Work is kind of slow for now, so I'm going to try to get out to Chicago in the next week or two. The ozone machine is still broken, and we don't know when it will be fixed. It's difficult to conduct an experiment on how ozone affects the immune system, when you don't have ozone. But I just can't bring myself to book the flight. It is going to cost close to $700 for both me and Daniel. That just kills me. But it will be totally worth it.

Daniel was absolutely amazing today. While I was at work, he cleaned the whole house, planned our meals for the week, went grocery shopping, exchanged my jeans for the right size, did research on where to buy TV stands, played with Jackson, and looked over my preliminary powerpoint presentation. I so appreciate what he does while I'm at work. It makes my life much easier that these little things are done when I get home. He is the best! :-)