Resolutions

2013, I'm ready for you.

I will climb 5.9s well by the end of the year.
I will learn how to sail.
I will consciously try to make decisions that bring me happiness.
I will try to let go of grudges and mishaps and honest mistakes. Because let's face it, I'm the only one ever still dwelling.
I will try to communicate with my boss more effectively.

2012 was good but I'm ready to move onward and upward!

Coffee addict

I've been living on coffee and takeout to prep for my quals. I can't wait for it to be over. At least I have a killer view :)

Yep.

PNW

I think I finally love it here.

I've decided to become a climber instead of a skier. I'll let ya'll know how it goes!

Life, a fatal human condition

I heard an amazing talk yesterday by Charles Sabine. He emphatically drove home the point that we are all fragile, our health is not something to be taken lightly, and that we have the power and ability to change the world around us. He pointed to HIV/AIDS as an example of a social movement leading to huge medical advances. HIV/AIDS is no longer the fatal sentence it once was and we should take that movement as a lesson for other diseases.

Since starting grad school I have seen talks by amazing scientists doing incredible work. I have been settled into my lab ready to do incredible work, only to stall out at the day-to-day tedium of taking care of my cells and troubleshooting my assays. I have started to question what I'm doing here and what I'll be able to do when I get out (the bigger question being "if" I ever get out). I've been terrified of this path into science knowing the longer I stay here the harder it will be to leave. At the very least, I'm certainly not studying myself out of a job.  It has been too easy to lose sight of the bigger picture of what my project will accomplish.

So it was refreshing to see a patient reach out to us, a patient who's just any other person in this world, reminding us why we do the work that we do. Saying, "All humans are capable of far more than they could ever believe."

Seattleites

Saw a fox on my way to work. Oh Seattle, even with the rain you find some way to make me smile.

Hobbies

I hope if I go out enough someone will let me crew their boat in a race next summer

Yellow

My room is a heinous shade of yellow and I don't know how to fix it. Then again, maybe I will love it once the grey winter sets in. Or I should just repaint it. Like now. And hire people this time.

Excerpt from my professor's email...

We all missed class today because in the last few weeks we've been having class Tuesday Wednesday instead of the normal Monday Wednesday, so we just assumed that this week it'd be the same with no class on Monday.  Except the professor just sent an email that ended with: 

Ergo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergo), today when I walked into our 1:35 class at 1:36 I proved a longstanding conjecture:  "no one, absolutely no one listens to me"

Oops. 

I do like how he included a link defining ergo though... (probably for all the international students)

Serendipity

I accidentally snapped this when I was trying to put my phone away. I have permed eyelashes now!

I love veggies

The purple ones turned green when they cooked!

CSA

My tomato is SO RED AND JUICY

Sunset

Seattle is pretty.

I'm bad at blogging now, but meet my summer project:

This little guy and I are running a 5k in 12 days.  I'm screwed.

Don't worry, he's not actually mine.  I just raised him.  I haven't betrayed Mika or become a puppy hoarder.

Moving day

I'm surprised my life can fit into so few boxes

CSA week 1

I started my CSA! I already ate the asparagus, cherries, strawberries, and apples from my box. Today I used the radishes and yogurt from the box to make radish curry and baked chicken.

I like the chicken but next time i'm goi to marinate it with giant ginger chunks instead of tiny ginger bits so I can pull them out later. I really don't enjoy biting into ginger.

We ran a 5k

36minutes for me!!!!

Pack Forest

UW owns property out in the middle of nowhere near the base of Rainier called "Pack Forest" for short. It's actually really pretty out here albeit somewhat boring. When we arrived it was raining tho. Some of the heaviest rain I've seen since moving to Washington. I even saw lightning for the second time ever since moving out here.

I truly miss Michigan summer. I don't miss the humidity but I miss being hot and I miss the epic thunderstorms.

I'm out here for a conference on islet biology. I had a nice long chat with my post-doc. It has made me feel more comfortable about the fact that her and our lab tech are dating.

I neglected to bring my own soap. I didn't realize it was going to be quite so "rustic". I hope the other conference people don't notice!

12 days

We haven't had rain in 12 days! Is it sad that that's the most exciting news I have to report??

Today Hummus Brother came home after finishing his first year at Michigan (woo!) and promptly got attacked by his own personal Michigan cheerleader.

  Her feet aren't even touching the ground.

My dad told me in the original legend of Mulan, the story ends with her winning the war and her parents being really excited for her homecoming.  Her parents then order her brother to butcher her dog for her welcome home supper.

In reality, it was probably a big ugly dog, since in Ancient China, dogs were often treated like livestock, but now when I imagine it, I imagine Mulan eating Mika.

I wish they had put that in end of the Disney movie.  All the little kids would've been stunned.

Inner dinosaur

I decided to try out that whole statement nail thing. I think I just gave myself a Barney-colored manicure though -_-

Jewelry

My dad gave me this ring when I got into UMich. (I got nothing for getting into Michigan State). I mentioned this to my boss and he said, "Make sure he gets you a bigger rock when you get your PhD"

Good morning!!

Omg spring

Signage

I think I found the place where signs go to die

Daily Prompt: What do you need, right now?

To get out of class.

Food.

Coffee.

Mah dawg.

Sunscreen. I am ROASTING in Hotlanta.

In no particular order.

Rainy days

I hate this drawbridge. Who is even boating in such crappy weather???

One-Minute Writer

I've recently discovered a blog called The One-Minute Writer, and their tagline is "You have 1,4410 minutes a day. Use one of them to write."

One of the daily prompts was:

If you had a (literal) chill pill, when would you need to take it?

to which I say,

Right now.

While thinking about my upcoming midterm and all the stuff due in school.

While taking my upcoming midterm and doing all the stuff due in school.

When feeling uncertain about the future.

Umm, right now.

‎"You can accept or reject the way you are treated by other people, but until you heal the wounds of your past, you will continue to bleed. You can bandage the bleeding with food, with alcohol, with drugs, with work, with cigarettes, with sex, but eventually, it will all ooze through and stain your life. You must find the strength to open the wounds, stick your hands inside, pull out the core of the pain that is holding you in your past, the memories, and make peace with them." —Iyanla Vanzant

HAHA LOOK WHAT I JUST FOUND

Tiny Tower

I've been playing Tiny Tower the game all too much recently. I've been playing it so much that when I saw the construction site today all I could think was,"OMG real live Tiny Tower!!"

I like this quote

"When people walk away from you, let them go. Your destiny is never tied to anybody who leaves you, and it doesn't mean that they are bad people. It just means that their part in your story is over." -Unknown

Engineer solution

I wasn't ready to eat my banana yet but it started opening when I ripped it off the bunch. I don't think this is a recommended use for scotch tape...maybe it should be

Experimental Dinner

I don't have much left in my fridge right now...

So I combined kale, steak, and quinoa with a miso dressing.

AND IT WASN'T AN EPIC FAIL! :D

I feel so accomplished.

It looks pretty ugly tho, so no pics for you!

Happy New Year!

A glimpse at hot pot from last night :)

Snowmageddon

SNOW DAY!!!!

But I'm a grad student which means the only perk of today is not having to go to class.

Snow!

I hope the city doesn't shut down!

Sunset in Seattle

Sweets

Boyfriend left a cupcake on my desk for me to find when I got back from class!

Bulk sizing

Who thought it was a good idea to buy clementines at Costco?

New Year Thoughts

Today I sat on the floor of Barnes and Noble with two of my high school friends smashing a pink peppermint candy pig with a small metal mallet. Apparently a new years tradition of one of the small towns in Upstate New York is you go around the circle and say one good thing that happened in the past year and you smash the pig (which you put inside a velvet bag) with the mallet after your statement. We started this activity at a restaurant but realized we were making way too much noise, so we meandered over to the Barnes and Noble religion section (seemed like the quietest spot in the store), plopped down on the carpet, and started smashing. It was pretty fun, though with only three people, you can only go around so many times before you run out of things to say.

I have jury duty tomorrow. Let's hope I don't get picked. It's also supposed to have a high of 15 degrees tomorrow. Fuck.

Happy New Year, everyone. Here's to 2012 bringing great things. Like me finishing my novel. Just kidding.

Happy new year!!