The countdown: 3 days!

Today is another last. A leaves tomorrow, following his presentation to his lab. He's stressing out about this WAYYYYYYYYY too much. I gave my presentation yesterday and my whole lab was really supportive. They asked some good questions and we talked about how much stuff I've accomplished. It actually was a lot of fun. I got nervous, but at the same time, no one knows more about what I did than me. (except maybe BC, but she wasn't there)

This weekend was a little crazy. Friday night we went to Molly's for R's last night in Hanover, then we just hung out for a couple hours. I slept ALL day on Saturday. And when I say all day, I mean it. I literally got up in time to say goodbye to R, tell O that I didn't want to go to lunch and I slept until 6pm. Then I got up for dinner with everyone. We went back to Mollys because Murphy's was really busy. We sat in Mollys for FOREVER. It was really nice. I'd intended on working on my paper when I got back, but instead I went to bed. I got up pretty early Sunday morning and I worked a bit on my paper. Lunch was at Molly's at 1 with AB, A and O. After that, I walked into lab and worked for 6 hours on my paper. I finally finished my roughest of rough drafts around 1am and went to bed.

I didn't do much on Monday. I presented at lab meeting. I set up another lysis/PCR. I worked almost all day on finishing up my paper. My rough draft in its entirety was finished last night and I sent it to BC. Hopefully she actually checks her e-mail at home and gets back to me before I leave.

Today I've not done much. I ran my gel and am attemping gel extraction. I'm waiting my turn so I can run my product and see if it worked. If yes, then comes sequencing!
Well, I gotta get back to work.

Way Saddddddddddddddddddd.

I love my friends. :-)
I'm not ready to go home yet. :-\

The Internal Fire is Burning Today; A Changing Wind is Upon Me

So I have to admit that I surprise myself sometimes. I don't know when I became an adult. I spent far too much time in the bratty teenage stage, but somehow I managed to slip out of that and into my new role without me noticing. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I impress myself almost daily. I don't know what I did to deserve this opportunity this summer.

"The door to opportunity is always labeled
'push'."
--Anonymous

I know I'm smart, but I never see myself as being better than anyone, or more deserving than others. Sure, I work hard, but there are people who work harder. I see myself as average. Of course I'm unique and special, but at the same time I'm just a normal person who isn't sure where the road is going.

"God has entrusted me with myself."
--Epictetus

When did I screw my head on my shoulders and learn how to stand up for what I believe in? When did I find my identity? I still battle with who I am on a daily basis, but sometimes I see hints of my true self and I recognize them as me.

“If you don't stand for something you will fall for anything.”
--Malcolm X

I'm afraid of growing up. It's easy to be the same and not take new responsibilities. But that's not why I'm here. I've not been given this life to treat it as if it's fragile. I'm supposed to push the limits. I'm supposed to do things that are hard. How can the world change if people who are afraid just hide from responsibilities and opportunities?

"The act of acting morally is behaving as if everything we do
matters."

--Gloria Steinem

Each day is a new day, a new opportunity for me to stretch myself. A new chance for me to grow as a human being. I don't want to take anything for granted. I've been given a life to live and live it I shall.

"Fill your mind with the meaningless stimuli of a world
preoccupied with meaningless things, and it will not be easy to feel peace in
your heart."

--Marianne Williamson

My time in New Hampshire is coming to a close. I'm working on my final project....the dreaded end of summer report. I don't want to write it, but I want to write it. I want to have something that I can put my name on and say "Look what I did with myself!" I want something that Barbara can have and I want to do something she can be proud of. I want to grow and I want to take that step into the world of adulthood.

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than
the risk it took to blossom."
--Anais Nin

I struggle with this. Daily. I don't know how to grow up, but I also can't fight change. I like what is safe. Everyone does. No one likes to be put out of their comfort zone. But life is an adventure. And as my mom used to say, it's not the destination that matters, it's the getting there.

"As long as habit and routine dictate the pattern of living, new dimensions of
the soul will not emerge."
--Henry van Dyke

I know that some of my worries are pointless, but I can't help but stress out. I'm so afraid of failure. I'm afraid of being insignificant and not helping to change the world for the better. I don't want to be famous, I just want to make a difference. It's so difficult to walk away from these fears; I clutch them like my security blanket. It's easy not to fail if you don't try. But this has never been me. I can't do nothing just because I might fail.

We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the
ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.

--Mother Teresa

There are so many people that I want to make proud of me. I don't want to disappoint anyone. People tell me that if I try to please everyone that I'll never make me happy, and I've decided that that just isn't so. The people that matter most to me just want me to be happy. And so I make them happy by being happy. And knowing that I can make people happy makes me smile.

"Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love. It is
unselfish; therefore it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share
it."

--Mary Baker Eddy

I don't know what has got me so emotional these past few weeks. I don't know if it's the stress of work. The sinking feeling of homesickness I've been struggling with off and on all summer. The fact that I've been saying goodbye to new friends nearly every day this week. The realization that something about me wasn't good enough to make a relationship with me worthwhile. The constant battles between friends here in New Hampshire. The lack of sleep. The fact that I haven't been hugged since the fierce one I got as I stepped into the Pittsburgh Airport on my way to a new world. Missing nutrients. Or just the knowledge that I'm about to start my last year of my undergraduate degree, which means that an important portion of my life is about to come to a close and I have some hard decisions to make in the next year. It's probably all of these things. Each one a war of its own.

"You may feel like dwelling on your limits or your fears.
Don't do it. A perfect prescription for a squandered, unfulfilled life is to
accommodate self-defeating feelings while undercutting your finest, most
productive ones."

--Marsha Sinetar

I'm looking hard for guidance. Everyone has something to offer me and I'm greedy. I want someone to tell me what to do. I can ask God what it is He wants from me, but I'll never know enough. I want reassurance and I can't have it. Instead, I have to make due with what I have and continue down my road, knowing I'll have all the tools I need to get where I'm going.

"Don't be afraid of opposition. Remember, a kite rises
against--not with--the wind."

--Hamilton Mabie

I'm stronger than I thought. There's a bumpersticker on facebook that I just love. I'm sure it's a quote from someone, but I'm not sure who. You never know how strong you are, until being strong is the only choice you have. I found me. somewhere. And this girl, she's a fighter. I think I like her. :D

"Believing in fate produces fate. Believing in freedom will
create infinite possibilities."

--Ayn Rand

So I'm down to a week in Hanover and I'm terribly sad. I've had to say goodbye to several great friends. C's last night was Wednesday and tonight is R's last night. I'm not ready to say goodbye. Goodbyes are always hard.

"The beginnings and endings of all human undertakings are
untidy."

--John Galsworthy

So I am an adult. I've always suspected this, but after yesterday. After today. I know it's the truth. And I'm going to start tomorrow afresh. Tomorrow I'm going to do something different to change the world. Perhaps it's just by truly living, or smiling at a stranger, or being a shoulder to cry on, but I will be there to do it. :)

"Every morning is a fresh beginning. Every day is the world
made new. Today is a new day. Today is my world made new. I have lived all my
life up to this moment, to come to this day. This moment--this day--is as good
as any moment in all eternity. I shall make of this day--each moment of this
day--a heaven on earth. This is my day of opportunity."

--Dan Custer

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"The grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls."

--John Muir

A Day for Tears and Anger

Something about today makes me very happy, and incredibly sad at the same time. B goes home today. She's on the Dartmouth Coach headed for Boston and her flight leaves for Boise at 5ish. I had a great day yesterday. I've had a fantastic week actually.
The weekend was mostly good. There were a few things that made it less than fabulous, but overall it was decent. The girls all went to NYC and didn't invite me. I was really crushed at first, but I realize that they did me a favor. I didn't have to spend money! So Friday night I spent the evening bonding with the roommate. N's friend came down to visit and we went to Applebees for dinner. C and O came too. It was a quite enjoyable dinner. Afterwards we went to Ice Cream Fore You: the greatest place EVER!! We took Ben to tour the labs and then we came back to hang out for a bit. I went to bed late and got up late. It was fabulous.
Saturday was a great day. The boys took the GRE in the morning. I met them for lunch around 2. We went to Murphy's for lunch. Unfortunately, my meds have been making me nauseous, so I didn't eat much of my lunch. After that I came back to the room and watched more Buffy. I'm so ridiculously obsessed. N got back from her date with K just in time for us all to pile into A's and N's cars and head to AB's for a nice BBQ. She made us all such great food. Chips and dip, lots of fruit, shrimp, stuffed burgers and chicken for everyone else, cheese veggie burger for me. homemade ice cream pie. oh my word. the food was soooooo good. AB is amazing. We had a lot of fun chatting, and we played a few games of croquet. I love that game and now I want a set of my own. A is so good, but I am almost as good as him. He doesn't like that very much. Actually, he likes to be best at everything. He reminds me of Eric a little. He makes me laugh for that very reason though. When I first saw him after the GRE, the first thing he said to me was "you win. I concede." What a nerd. During the game, he decided that I am the Queen. *snort* As if. I just work hard and efficiently. And it's not a competition, but he doesn't seem to get that. :) I have to admit, I kind of like being best. Of course, I am always doing my best, I don't do it because I like being best. After we got back from AB's, a few of us got ready to go out. We went all over Hanover trying to find a place that would take us....C's friend didn't have an ID. Who drives all the way from New York without his driver's license? Apparently this guy. So we played cards in the basement of Mid-Mass for a few hours until I got seriously tired of testosterone.
Sunday was a fabulous day. I got up late and got dressed and everything for a day of fun. AB picked up a bunch of us and we went to Gile Mountain and hiked up it. It wasn't a long trail, but my chest congestion kept me wheezing the whole way. :( But we got to the top and I climbed this HUGE fire watchtower and took pictures of the surrounding mountains. It was super cool. Then we all hiked down the moutain and AB took us canoeing and we grounded our canoe and went swimming for a bit. It was a great day and I had a lot of fun.
Monday came way too soon. I went to work and came home from work and watched Buffy until it was time for Secret Life of the American Teenager. N and I commandeered the tv downstairs to watch it. Then I came back up and went to bed.
Yesterday was pretty hectic. I went lab, but I didn't really do anything. We had our final poster session at the end of the day. I got all dressed up and set up my poster. Everyone from my lab came. They're all such great people. I'm really *really* going to miss them. Actually, if I think about it any longer, I might cry. I talked to quite a few people that I hadn't met before. I actually presented to the head of the Genetics department, but I didn't know it was him until afterwards. I'm glad, because he's supposed tobe a scary man. Actually, he told me I did a nice job, and once I realized who he was, I decided that that was a compliment. :)
Our whole group, plus George and Eric and Sandy went out to dinner at the Norwich Inn. It was a really really cute place and the food was decent. I'm still not feeling so great, so I sort of picked at my food. The company was great though. We sat at dinner for THREE hours. It was a lot of fun. Afterwards, since it was B's last night, we went to 5 Olde to celebrate our last night together. It was a lot of fun. It was cheap rib night, so the bar was crowded. Actually, B got hit on by a drunk thru-hiker. Gotta love those Appalachain trail people. They're quite a group. We chatted with this other hiker and her kids. They've got 1700 miles and have 400 to go. I can't believe she pulled her kids out of school for a year to hike the trail. That's crazy.
Today I got a bunch of stuff done in lab. Perhaps I'll write about it later, but now it's time for me to go out with everyone again to celebrate C's last night. I'm not enjoying this period of goodbyes at all. Seriously, I might cry. I had to say goodbye to S today too....he's going on vacation. Lucky duck.
Anyhoo, I'll write again soon.

Just two weeks now. Almost time for me to come home!!!

Another day at the salt mines.
haha. makes me want sing.

Another day, another destiny.
This never ending road to Calvary.
...One. Day. More....

*snicker*
So I made it though another day. barely. I woke up and felt just fine. By lunch I was absolutely miserable. Stuffed up nose, sinus headache, upset stomach, nausea, heavy chest, labored breathing. rawr. it was super yucky. After lunch and another dose of meds and I felt pretty fine.
I wasted 3 hours of my morning being stupid. I did manage to set up my gel and run it, though I forgot that I needed to do it, so I didn't start right away. I got one of four samples to work! Hooray! Almost needless to say, the purification was a dismal failure. So I set the reaction up again. Lysis. PCR. Tomorrow I'll run the gel, then Stephane is gonna help me with the purification. BC is gone. She's done helping me out. She's being induced tomorrow. I can't wait to see her little boy. :-) It's a real shame that she's not going to see me through my last two weeks. Not much anyone can do about that though.
So I survived today. Got home around 7 and have spent most of the evening in bed watching Buffy. Just one more episode until I finish the second season. Then on to the third. It's really weird. I watched Angel first. So I know how the whole Buffy-Angel thing pans out. I don't like the scenes when they're together and I hate the scenes where Angel is the bad guy. I just wish that someone would find that stupid disc with the translation of the ritutal to give Angel his soul back. I like him better when he's got some sense of humanity. Also, I don't like David Boreanaz to be the bad guy. He's Booth for crying out loud. Plus, when he's nice, I think he totally wins over other Vamps. Team Edward? heck no! I'm Team Angel!! for sure.
Well, it's getting on that time. I need to head to bed to see if I can get some sleep so that my body can put itself right piece by piece. Go B cells! Go T cells! rah rah rah! dang, should have been a cheerleader...I would have kicked some major butt. *snicker*.
Another update soon...maybe this weekend if I can find a free second. It's gonna be pretty busy, and I'm pretty excited. :)

I've got a dreadful cough, sore throat, fever and a sinus headache; "mix in a little rectal surgery and it's my best day ever!"

Wednesday. Halfway through another week. Thankfully.
Somehow I've managed to get a cold in the middle of August. How? Beats me. I've been trying to get enough sleep and to eat as well as I can, but that hasn't seemed to keep me from getting ill.
Clearly I haven't been feeling well at all this week. Monday I was sluggish and yesterday I had a major migraine.
Sunday was super fun. AB and her friend Jared took me and O and C to a Manchester Fisher Cats game. We tailgated and then watched the game. They lost, but it was still a lot of fun. I enjoyed it greatly. The only problem about the whole day was that the car was not big enough for me and two big boys to be sitting in the backseat.
Monday, I set up my sequencing reaction and BC and I had all of my samples sent out to be sequenced. 7 samples, $42. yowzers. I wonder how much money BC has spent on my research. I feel bad that nothing has really come of it so far. Lab meeting was pretty short. We went around the table and discussed everyone's research. After that I did some paper hunting and started thinking about my presentation for journal club.
Tuesday was even more uneventful. I felt awful, but I still came into work. I set up another cross for my male mutant. He'd better start having more of those boy instincts of I'm going to be one very unhappy researcher. I chunked out a few of my old plates and spent most of the afternoon working on my journal club presentation. Class went smoothly. I presented my figure, fielded some questions and then came home to put my migraine to bed.
Today was a somewhat better day. Mentally, I was all clear. Physically, I felt like garbage. I had this disgusting deep cough for the early part of the day then the rest of the day, my chest just killed. yucky yucky yuck. First thing in the morning, BC and I went over the sequences I got back on Tuesday. One sequence didn't work out....something wrong with the gel or something. But my other control worked, as did the samples. So I have one mutant strain all set up. My triple mutant. <3 <3 <3 I'm pretty pumped about all that. Now I just have to do some more scoring, though that requires me to be able to look into the microscope for more than 20 minutes at a time. :(
Tonight was our careers dinner. George didn't tell me anything I hadn't already heard, but he certainly made me feel better about the whole process. No panicking. No fear. It was nice.
Tomorrow is BC's last day of work. She's being induced on Friday, which makes me really really excited. I'm really nervous about her being out of the lab though...I only hope that I'm capable of doing all the work on my own. We shall see.
It's time for me to go to bed. I shall update again soon.

It's been a while......

*huge sigh of relief*
The GRE is over. finally. No more GRE class, no more crazy Kaplan lady, no more stress!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, no more stress for about 36 more hours...then I've got a few projects I need to get started on.
The last two weeks have been crazy busy. Lots of work, lots of class, and tons of studying.
I don't even know where to begin to get caught up.....I got back from the leadership alliance conference with a head full of ideas for graduate school, a desire to start searching and a little bit of terror for the whole process. I have no idea how anyone ever gets into graduate school and succeeds based on the information that I got that weekend....I know they were trying to help, but all they did was scare the bajeezus out of me. I actually had a mini crisis after this weekend trying to determine if I was actually cut out for graduate school. I mean, qualifying exam? public defense? talk about make me want to vomit. As if the entrance interview isn't scary enough. But I can do it. I can do anything I put my mind to. Just ask my mom.
So when I got back from the conference I really started pushing hard. I'd work until 5, studying my vocab words at work, working out of my course book after work. I had class 4 days of 5, and that was rough. I actually enjoyed the ethics class though. The weekend was crazy full of studying. I watched some Buffy the Vampire Slayer while studying. Perhaps not the best of study tools, but it was good for relaxing. SURF paid for us to have dinner and see a movie last weekend. We went to see The Hangover. It was the second time that I had seen it and it was probably funnier than the first. First of all, I was in much better company and the girls laughing made me laugh. Dinner at Murphy's was good too. I ate too much and loved it.
This past week I didn't get to watch any Buffy; I had too many things going on. I had my last GRE class on Monday and I am so glad that it over. That class was so painful. The only reason it was beneficial at all is because I got paid to go to all the classes and the other study tools were indespensible. Tuesday was another journal club. Only one left! Unfortunately I haven't found a paper to present yet, and that's not good. I need to ask BC about it tomorrow, otherwise I don't know what I'm going to do on Tuesday.
I've been working long hours this week. Wednesday I worked 9-10 and Thursday I worked 9-7:30ish and I went into the lab today rather than stay late last night. Yesterday, we went to dinner at Molly's to relax before the big day. We stayed out a little too late, but it was fun. I got up this morning bright and early to mentally prepare myself to take the GRE. AB picked me, R and AH up around 8 and we went and kicked that puppy in the butt. I think we're all pleased with our scores; none of us are planning on taking it again. I think I did well, but I certainly don't have any intention of telling anyone how I did. There's certainly no need to compare; I think we all did well. :) :) :) Another 3 students are taking the GRE next weekend...the boys this time (C, A and M)...I think we might be going to AB's afterwards for a cookout. I think it'll be fun. And it'll be nice to relax with everyone before the program winds down. I leave in 3 weeks, but B, the first to leave, leaves in 10 days. It'll be extremely boring once people start leaving. B is leaving early, R is leaving early, C and A are leaving early. I think M and N are leaving a few days early, and I think only AH, O and I will be here until the end. I'm certainly not ready to start thinking about my final paper, though I definitely need to. Yucky yuck.
No one wanted to go to Molly's with me for their famous $2 margarita. Maybe another day. Instead I'm going to celebrate my success today with a bottle of Mike's and just relax for the first time since I started working on my poster *before* the Leadership Alliance conference. I'm gonna either go back to watching Buffy or read some of On The Beach before bed. Tomorrow is another early (ish) day filled with exciting activities and I am absolutely pumped about it all. :)
<3 I love Dartmouth. <3

I'm Trapped in the Network.

Chantilly, Virginia.
2009 host of the Leadership Alliance National Symposium.
Here I sit in the lobby of my hotel: The Marriott. It's one of the nicest hotels I've ever been in, except for one fault. There isn't any free internet in the rooms....it costs at least $16 to get the internet in the rooms. But there is free internet in the lobby. No poor college student is going to pay that fee when then can just walk out to the lobby and be inconvenienced. None that I know at any rate. So the conference has been going well enough. We left Hanover around 6ish on Friday. I was riding in AB's car with R. I attempted to do some GRE studying on the way, but I'm not sure if I got very far. I'm a little terrified that I'm not going to be ready. There is no possible way that I can memorize the other 125 words that I've got left to go for vocab or do over 100 pages of practice problems. I really really would have preferred to get more practice in. Ugh.

We got to the airport right on time, and got through to security without any problems. So apparently I don't pay attention to the rules about what things are allowed on planes. I should have just checked my suitcase, but I thought maybe it'd be easier to just use O's carry-on. I should have thought about the things that I put in said carry-on. Then I wouldn't have had to have my bag searched and a bottle of anti-static cling confiscated. As if I knew that wasn't allowed on the plane. *shrug* Oh well. It only cost me $1.45 of something. I'm not worried, but the guy looked at me as if I was gonna try to blow up the plane. We took off with no problems, flew with no problems, and then landed going too fast. It was actually kind of scary because it was like the plane had to slam on the brakes harder than normal, but that only lasted about 20 seconds before we were totally stopped on the tarmac. We got lost in the airport trying to find our contact and our bus. We finally got all that figured out and we got to the hotel. We checked in. Everyone was rooming with someone else from the program except for me. I don't know how it works out that I'm always the one getting left out from everything group oriented. Actually, my roommate is kind of great. She's doing summer research at Cornell, and she's really really nice. I'm glad that I got to meet her, but it still would have been nice to actually be on the inside for once. I signed in for the conference and got my free stuff!!!! We got these really nice portfolios and sticky notes and the program made us a couple of sheets of business cards to hand out as we network. We went to lunch at the hotel tavern. My sandwich was so small for the cost; it was ridiculous. Luckily, the program is going to reimburse me. We had this random orientation/starting networking thing in the afternoon. We had to give a 30-45 second elevator speech about ourselves. Obviously the elevator I was in got stuck somewhere on the way to the ground from the 8th floor because Ethan and I chatted for a good fifteen minutes about pretty much anything. So I made my first contact and he was quite nice.

After this session, I went back to the room for a bit to take a nap. Getting up at 5am is not exactly my idea of fun. I slept like a rock. I was totally out. When my alarm went off at 6:30 telling me that it was time for dinner, I was not pleased. Dinner was actually really good. N and I sat at a table with some new people and AB came to join us. I've got this really nice coin that I'm supposed to put on the table that signifies that I get the vegetarian meal. So I had a salad, some alfredo and cheesecake for dessert. It was delicious. During the end of dinner, they had the opening remarks and had this little exercise to get us involved. They read through all of our home institutions and we had to cheer when ours, or the school of a friend, was called. Let's just say that there were only 4 Ohio schools called and 1 Indiana school called. I cheered pretty loudly for me, but I was not crazy like some of the other people that were there. After dinner, they had this panel that was supposed to talk to us about grad school and get us to make informed decisions about our futures and whatnot. Three people, 2 professors and a woman who works for the FDA, talked to us about their research and what they can do with a Ph.D. in their field. It was kind of interesting, but I think it ran too long. After the panel, I sat out in the lobby for a bit using the free wireless with my friends and I went to bed pretty early. I didn't fall asleep right away, but when I did I was totally out.

We had to get up pretty early on Saturday. Breakfast started at 7:30 and that's when everyone started putting up their posters. Before the poster session had even started, I'd already fielded a question by a non-science major. They asked what C. elegans was and this was an easy question. I hadn't been nervous about the whole conference until about 10 Friday night. This totally put my mind at ease. I could do it. I knew more about asymmetric cell division and apoptosis than any of the other undergraduates here. What could possibly go wrong. I was actually presenting at the second session, so I walked around the first session. I listened to one poster, but the guy wasn't clear at all so I didn't stick around. Then I moved to another poster. I picked people that didn't have anyone around. I wanted to be super supportive of everyone else. This guy was K. He's an undergraduate at Cornell and was also doing his research there. His poster was about Golgi tubulation and I didn't know anything about it, but he was really friendly and answered all of my questions. We chatted for at least 20 minutes. I gave him my card, but he didn't have his because he's not as cool as me. He promised to stop by my poster and listen to my spiel since I was pretty much the only one at his poster. I figured I'd better get moving if I wanted to finish walking around before my presentation at 9:45. Let's just say that I got really into the next poster. This was E. She's doing her summer research at Harvard, but she's originally from George Mason. Her poster was all about tuberculosis and this genetic screen that she's doing. We chatted about everything for about half an hour. We exchanged cards and I had to go get ready to present.

When I got to my poster, this group of people were standing in front of my poster. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to butt in and be like get the heck out of my way. AB saved me by asking me to walk her through my poster and then asking the people to please move. After she left, the first person came up to my poster. This guy was a real talker. I think he really got into what I was doing because he asked a bunch of questions as I went and I think he really wanted to understand what I was doing. In the end, he finally introduced himself to me. Apparently he works at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital and he totally tried to recruit me. He wants me to consider the University of Tennessee for graduate school because then I could come work at the hospital. And he told me that even if I choose to go somewhere else for grad school that I should consider the hospital for my post-doc. I about peed my pants. I couldn't believe that he was serious. We exchanged cards and I think I'll either stop by his table at the recruitment fair tomorrow or send him an quick e-mail thanking him for his interest in my work. Next I talked to one of the graduate students at the conference. He's from the University of Maryland at Baltimore. I think. He let me walk through the poster and he asked a bunch of questions, but I'm not really sure he was grasping the whole idea of what I was doing. I really had to keep trying new ways to explain the suppressor screen. Sandy came up and asked me to go through my poster with her, so I did. I actually think she probably got the best explaination of everyone because I knew she didn't have as strong a science background. As I was talking to her K came up and listened to my poster. After I answered all of Sandy's questions, she bailed so I could chat with him. He'd heard most of my presentation, so he didn't ask me to go through it again. He asked a few questions and I gave a little bit more explaination and then we parted ways. I saw two more people during the hour. Another graduate student came up and asked me what my project was about. I gave her two sentences and then she worked her own way through my poster. She asked one question and then moved on. At the very end of the hour another girl came up to my poster. They were trying to force us out of the room so she got the quick down-and-dirty version. I was really really surprised when she told me that I was the best presenter she had seen. I really wanted to ask her if I was the *only* one she had seen. But she said that I had been very clear and really emphasized the key points. So I'm going to take that super well. :)
After the poster session ended I came back up to the room for a nap. I had a killer migraine and my shoes had really pinched my toes. I feel bad because I skipped the entire first session of orals, but I did go to one every other session after that. Lunch came next. The food was significantly less interesting. I'm not even sure what I ate. I had vegetarian soup. It was actually really good, but a tad on the salty side. Then I had this really weird vegetable rice pastry. I was so confused about what it was, but I ate it anyway. They had this really pretty white cake with strawberries for dessert.

After lunch I went to the oral sessions to see some talks. It's actually breakfast time now so I'll have to finish my update later, probably when I am back in Hanover. Today (Sunday) is the networking fair and I am more than pumped. Hopefully my network will expand to more than 5 people. haha. talk to you later!

I Hate Microscopes. :(

Another week half over. Another long, long week. And the weekend is going to be crazy busy, so I don't have a time to relax either.

Monday I got up really early (ie: 6am) to do my laundry. By the time I got to work, I'd been up for hours and hours. It was a long day of working for me too. I got in at 9 and spent about an hour working on my captions. I finally finished the captions for my poster and I was pleased. We had lab meeting like every Monday. We had cake and presents for BC because she's pregnant. The baby's due date is August 14th, I think. I'm really excited because I want to be able to see the baby before I leave for home. I love love love babies. The rest of lab meeting was Y presenting a paper on this new gene and mitochondria morphology. It was interesting, but that's not related to the project that I'm working on.
After lunch, SR helped me figure out how to get my poster to print on the lab computer. Then I met with BC to go over my poster. She made a few minor corrections for clarity, but she didn't ask that I make any changes. I'm glad she's letting me do most of my own work. I tried really hard on that poster and it would have been a little devastating if she'd asked me to change it all around. But she didn't, so I'm happy happy happy. :)
Then I spent most of the rest of the afternoon screening worms. My favoritest thing ever. (<----please note sarcasm) I only screened for 90 minutes on Monday, which may have been a mistake, but there's not much I can do about it now. Monday night was GRE class again. yuck. We did a little bit of reading comprehension. That's probably the hardest part for me. Well, and then maybe some of the analogies/antonyms when I don't know what the words are. So we talked about mapping. I hope that helps me out, but I do worry about it taking too much time. Then we talked about how to approach writing the two essays. Did you know that you're more than allowed to make up statistics and stuff. That's *ridiculous*. I don't think I could do it. I'll just have to use lots of real world examples, because I think that making stuff up shouldn't be allowed. I know the point of the essays is to see how well you can form an argument, but I think that people can make up random data to support their argument is just crazy. After GRE class, I totally watched Angel until it was time for bed. Tuesday was the longest Tuesday I've ever had. I got to work at the regular time, took one last look at my poster, then screened worms on the small scope for another 90 minutes. Then I chatted with R for a little bit about choosing a graduate school. She gave me a little bit of advice, most of which I plan to heed, and it was a nice chat. Actually, today while I was waiting, I went to see what kind of program Duke had for its graduate students. Turns out they have both kinds: the direct entry (for people who know exactly what they want to do ((ie: not me))) and an umbrella program, which is now what I'm looking for in a graduate school. So I think she actually gave me pretty sound advice. After lunch, I screened worms for another 2 hours. I am so tired of screening, and I'm not even halfway done. That's the worst part. I love what I'm doing, I am just not cut out for microscope duty. Anna likes 'scopes; I think she'd like what I'm doing better. Then, at the end of the day, Barbara and I had a chat for about 45 minutes about both of my projects, especially the one involving the ced-3 mutation. Apparently that project is going to be harder than BC expected, so I might get to use some molecular techniques....like PCR and gene sequencing. I have to admit, I am super excited about this. This is more along the lines of the lab techniques that I like to do. I also love gel electrophoresis and Western blotting. I'd take blots over scopes anyday. :) I chunked a few plates to prepare for a possible heat shock today. We'll see if I get to do it or not. Last night was journal club. We were presenting our posters. I ended up going in the middle of the group, even though I prefer to go second or third. I think I did an okay job. I talked for about 7 minutes, but I could have taken my time, collected my thoughts and talked forever. Hahahaha. I left out a few things that I probably would have liked to put in and, conversely, talked about things that I probably didn't need too. Oh well. All in all, I think it went well. Everyone took ages, so we ran over by an hour. I was so tired when I got out of journal club, so I didn't go to Murphy's with all the people who went. Instead I watched an episode of Angel and then Monday's Secret Life before heading off to bed.

Today has been crazy busy too. I've spent a good 4 hours at the microscope screening worms today. I headed straight for the scope when I got here this morning and screened until 11:15. I had to meet AB to print my poster at noon today, so I spent a little time double-checking my poster before attempting to find someone to walk to find the Evans Map Room with me. I met AH on the way out of the building and we met up with N once we were inside the library. And so my poster is being printed now. I get to go pick it up in a little bit. I'm excited about it. :D :D Next was lunch. Nearly everyone from the program ate at the Novack cafe today. I walked back to Vail with R today so I could follow her to her lab and pick up my second check. I'm rich now!!! hahahah. As if. But I'm richer than I was yesterday. When I got back from that, I headed right back to the scope. I scored for another 2 hours. While I was chilling my worms, I went through a couple boxes of my worms and took out the contaminated plates for disposal. After doing all my screening, I still have nearly 200 worms left to screen. I pitched an entire box of 20 degrees Celcius plates that should have been pitched ages ago. I'm not going to be able to get two whole boxes scored tomorrow. I'll probably stay late, but I'm not that good. I guess I'll just have to get as many done as I can...and maybe BC will help me out if need be. She's been gone all day. She just got back and gave me a bunch of things to do. rawr. It'd have been nicer if she'd told me to do all this earlier. I was hoping to run to get my poster in just a little bit. Now I have to go and turn the stupid GFP scope back on to look for weakly GFP+ males. And if there aren't any, weakly GFP+ hermaphrodites. But the scope has to be off for half an hour. It's not quite been off that long yet. Maybe shortly I'll go back and turn it on again and do this.
Until later!

A Very Harry Weekend

Another Sunday, waking up earlier than I would like and not for church. I know there's a church in Hanover somewhere, but I'm not sure if it's the right kind of Lutheran or the wrong kind. hahaha. and yes, there is a difference. :)

Most of Friday afternoon was spent working on my poster. It's all set up now, but not exactly finished. I really should be working on that now, but I'm having too much fun. I put all the figures on and organized them and made my poster look all awesome. It's still not finished. I talked with BC about my poster and she made a few suggestions, but I've managed to forget everything she said to write in my captions. Ugh. I should have written it all down. Perhaps she'll be able to help me out tomorrow. I did make a cross plate for the males I made by heat shocking worms the other day, but that didn't take too long.

Friday night was a lot of fun. We'd intended to go see Star Trek at The Hop, but we missed the movie. We'd went out to get Ben and Jerry's before the movie, but O was still hungry so we went to EBA's. Our food came out and we almost finished our food before the movie started....and so we missed it. But once we'd finished at EBA's, we went home and put on 21. I fell asleep towards the end of the movie, so I don't know how it ended, but I enjoyed what I saw, especially the main character....I hadn't realized that he was the same guy as Jude in Across the Universe. Now if only he'd sing in 21. haha.

Saturday was quite a bit of fun. I got up early for a Saturday (9am) and went to breakfast at Lou's with R and AH. I had the pancake special. Peach pancakes with strawberries and syrup. Yum. I also had an egg: overhard, of course. It was delicious. Then we went to the Hanover streetfair. I didn't buy much, but I did buy a Dartmouth shirt. If I were really rich, I'd have a bunch of Dartmouth apparel already to make me look super cool. =] I really want a Dartmouth Medical School shirt, but the only one they had was white and I don't buy white shirts. After the streetfair I came back to Mid-Mass and took a nap. Then I got distracted from the work I am supposed to be doing by Hulu. I've seen all kinds of commercials for Hulu with the guy from Family Guy, but I didn't realize what it actually was until R told me. So I watched Angel. Pretty much all day. haha. I attempted to work on my poster some and study for the GRE some, but that David Boreanaz, he's awful distracting. ;-) I was quite surprised when I got a call from AH asking if I wanted to go out. So I put on my shoes and out we went. We headed for the Canoe Club for a late night snack and drinks. We'd just missed the live music, but our waiter-guy was entertainment enough. He certainly was the chatty one, and we might go back next Saturday to "ask for Danny". bwahahahahah. He certainly was an interesting one...

Today was a good day too. I got up at a relatively reasonable time (10am) and went to the gym around 11. I ran 3 miles on the elliptical. 2 miles forward, 1 mile backward. Then I biked for about 15 minutes. The machine wasn't exactly working, so I have no idea how long or how far I went. Oh well. But it was a nice workout and I was quite smelly at the end of it.
When we got back to Mid-Mass there was a BBQ going on. So AH and I grabbed R and B and we had a nice free lunch. I would have had a veggie burger, but they cooked them on the grill rendering them uneatable. Clearly the grillmaster at hand doesn't have any vegetarian friends. So I ate a piece of watermellon, some chips and a cheese and mustard sandwich. It was kind of tasty, but not super exciting.
Instead of working on my poster today I got super distracted by Angel. I attempted to write a few captions, but it didn't really work out so great. Maybe tomorrow. I have to finish tomorrow so I can send my poster to AB to have her check it out. I want BC to check it too, but she's gonna have to look for scientific accuracy, not if my poster is followable. *shrug*
Tonight I had dinner at Thayer with some of my friends and then almost all of us went to see Harry Potter. Oh My Goodness. It was super awesome. I'm sure lots of people are gonna pitch a fit about the movie/book continuity, but whatever. I liked it. It certainly was entertaining. I love Helena Bonham Carter. She makes a wicked Bellatrix. *grin* And Snape was a total bada$$. hahaha. I know some people are gonna love the romance but the whole Hermione-Ron-Lavender thing and the whole Harry-Ginny-Dean thing made me wanna vomit. haha. I suppose that means I'm not as romantic as I would like. Oh well..... But the movie was such an enjoying thing. I was pleasantly surprised.

Now it's bedtime. I'm watching another episode of Angel. ruh roh. I'm just over halfway through the season. I'm just surprised that I haven't finished the whole thing yet. hahahahah. I've got to get up early to get my clothes washed, otherwise I won't have anything to wear to work and that's just unacceptable. Hopefully I manage to get up in time to get my clothes washed and dried before work. I'm not quite sure I'm ready for another full week at work, but I'm sure I'll enjoy it. More soon if I have something to report. :)

Surprise! I'm not entirely technologically illiterate!

Ugh. It's been a crazy long week. I don't know how I survive in school when things are just as busy and I sleep less. I must be out of my mind. Oh well. Wednesday was an interesting day. I got back from my lunch and seeded 400 plates. I borrowed ~50 from R and ~50 from S. With a little help from Rhiannon, I picked another 100 worms. I am so tired of picking worms, but I'd rather pick worms than do nothing like B sometimes does. This took a little bit of time. Honestly, I can't remember if I did anything after this. It's been too long of a time and there's been too little sleep since then.

Wednesday night was GRE class. Our teacher, N, said she'd bring us pizza so we didn't have to eat in Thayer. I watched the beginning of the series finale of Eli Stone and then walked to class. Of course there wasn't enough pizza to go around at class, so we all sat there with our stomach's growling. Class went so much better this time around. N didn't baby us at all. We literally looked at the problems, talked about how maybe to solve them and then we just did our own work. It went sooooooo much faster. We got out early, which was exciting. A asked if anyone wanted to go get some ice cream, so AH, R, B and I piled into his car to head to Ice Cream Fore U. I got the special of the week: peppermint stick, so I got a small ice cream for the price of a baby. I was pleased. :) and the ice cream was really good. I got back to the room around 10ish and was thinking about maybe heading to bed, but I wasn't tired yet so I went next door where N was hanging out with the rest of the boys. They decided they were hungry and so after taking forever to get ready, we went to EBAs, which stands for Everything But Anchovies. I didn't order anything because I only had $3 left after the trip to get ice cream where we also stopped at Shaw's and I got some popcorn. I had some of C's nachos though. Oh they were so good. Somehow I ended up with a glass of Bud Lite and I'm not sure how that happened. We were all just sitting around chatting with the waitress and eating food; it was nice. O managed to spill his beer on N and so we ended up being a little rowdy. Oops. N and I ended up being the party poopers and said we needed to go home and go to bed. I got back and didn't crawl into bed right away, which might be the reason I had trouble falling asleep in the end. *shrug*

Thursday was a great day, even though I was exhausted. I got up and came into work. I started my day the same as every other day this week. I picked the F1 worms off the plates from the day before and then I started picking worms for the new plates. I didn't finish this until after my lunch break. Once I finished picking worms, I met with BC to talk about my poster. At this point, I'd barely started it. All I'd done was put my title on, my name and research location information, the Dartmouth Medical School emblem-y thing and the long version of my abstract. My poster was all white and super boring. But now I have pictures and figures! I'm super pumped. (take that mom, I used the word super instead of really!!! hahahaha) After the meeting, BC and I got the small scope set up for some scoring. We put my worms from Monday on ice and I started data collection. Sort of. (such a harmless thing to say....) I didn't actually see any of the phenotypes that I was looking for on any of the plates I looked at. So I didn't actually have to write anything down, I just threw those plates in the biohazard bin. BC said I might have to look at 900 animals (or maybe she said plates) before I find a mutant phenotype. That's crazy. I haven't even made 900 plates. 600, yes. 900, no. rawr. This could take forever and I might never see anything. I'll be doing some more scoring today, I think.

Last night wasn't too terribly exciting. I got off work, came home and then turned around and went back to the gym. I ran 3 miles on the elliptical. I wish I had one at home. I could turn on the tv and run though an entire show. I ran 2.25 miles forwards, and 0.75 miles backwards. The running backwards hurts so much more than running forwards, but I'm trying to work all my muscles. If I wouldn't look like an idiot, I'd consider walking backwards every now and again because it works the other set of muscles. hahah. I also wish I had my hand weights here. Our room floor is so disgusting that I'm afraid to touch it, let alone do push-ups and sit-ups on it. My arms are missing out on their workout. I don't work my triceps at all here in Hanover, and I think they're sad. After I ran, I biked for nearly 25 minutes to round off my hour. I biked 7 miles while watching more HGTV. I love that channel. I love watching all the homes be transformed from average to extraordinary. I wish I could do that to our house....make all that clutter disappear. hahahahaha. As if that'll ever happen. :-P

After working out, I hurried home and quickly got cleaned up. We were having group dinner time at Thayer for the first time in a while. I tried to be good and I got a salad, but I decided I was too hungry for just a salad so I got a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich. I really should stop eating them and get something else, but it's just so easy. Maybe next time I'll wait in the sandwich line and get a veggie sub or something. After dinner I came back upstairs and worked on GRE stuff for a little bit until I heard the girls (sans N) were watching Mamma Mia. I took some popcorn and went down for the movie. I really enjoyed watching the movie and sort of humming along to the movie while doing more GRE stuff. After the movie I came back upstairs and waited up for O. His roommate's girlfriend was in town, so he was planning on staying in the empty bed in the other room to give them some privacy. In the end, he decided that he'd just go to bed in his own room. I was so annoyed because I could have gone to bed hours earlier, but I didn't want to go to bed and then have to get up to let O in and everything. rawr. Once I heard this, I went right to bed. Oh sleep is so good. I got up this morning. barely. I slept so well, but I was not ready to get up. I'm just glad that today is Friday and that means I can sleep until noon tomorrow if I want. :)

Oh my goodness, there has been so much drama here this summer. The group really has split down the middle, leaving me confused....I'm not sure where I belong. I really like the girls (R, B and AH) and A. They're really a lot of fun, but they're not always social. The boys (C, M and O) and N like to go out, but sometimes I think they have a little too much fun and they're a little rude to others. I like everyone and I'm not sure why everyone can't just all get along. We're only here for another 6 weeks and it's not like we all have to love each other. The boys don't like the girls because they think the girls talk crap about the boys. The girls don't like the boys because they're mad that the boys think the girls don't like them. It's ridiculous. A doesn't like the boys because they're too loud for him and the boys don't like A beacuse he is too serious. Don't even get me started on N. All the girls and A think that she's the reason for all of the drama. I don't even begin to know what's going on. I think it's all really stupid that anyone is talking badly about anyone else, especially since most of what everyone is saying is a lie. rawr. I hate the idea that the high school drama never ends, even after high school does. *grimace*

Today has been a fairly relaxed day thus far. I got to work at 9ish and got set up. Then I removed all the F1 worms from the plates I made yesterday and what came next was NOT making more worm plates. I am so thankful because picking worms is not exactly my favorite thing to do for 3 hours each day. Instead I started putting together my poster for the conference. I'm really excited about my poster, but I'm not sure how well it's going. I don't really know what I'm doing. Below is a screenshot of my poster so far.

It's got quite a ways to go and it has to be done by Monday so BC can look over it and make edits before I give my first runthrough at journal club on Tuesday. I'm not even thinking about presenting the poster at the Leadership Alliance. I got an e-mail telling me when my presentation time is and I thought I might vomit. haha. I'm getting nervous already and I don't present for another week. I'm probably going to continue to work on my poster for another two hours and then I'll score worms for an hour and a half before the end of the day. I can't stand sitting at the scope for much more than 90 minutes at a time. *wrinkles nose* I need to have something that looks like legends and stuff for my figures by 3ish when BC gets back from her meetings....and I have no idea what I'm doing or what I should write. oops.

well, it's about that time again; I should get back to work. I'm gonna put on some of my favorite American Idol tunes and pretend like I know what to say about my figures. I really should figure out how much text is acceptable...and soon.

A spoonful of E. coli makes it so you can't keep anything down....I think I'll try sugar next time.

I've had the hardest time staying awake lately. I come home at the end of the day and barely make it to 11, which is now my bedtime. My sleep schedule is significantly different from before. I can't even begin to fathom staying up until 2am without a little (meaning a lot) of help from my good friend caffeine. I don't know why I'm so tired. And it's not like I'm not getting 8 hours of sleep most nights. I actually had a dream last night...maybe that's why I'm so tired now. Hmmm.

So Sunday wasn't too terribly exciting. I got up at my normal sleep in time and sat around for a while. At 3:30, B, AH and I walked to the gym. They went to play tennis, but I decided that I'd rather just go do my workout. So I ran a mile and a half. One mile forwards, half a mile backwards and decided that I was done with my cardio. hahah. I really should probably be adding more time to my cardio, but oh well. Then I went and got on the biking machine, turned the tv on to HGTV and biked for nearly 40 minutes. I suppose the machines are accurate enough, but I don't know if I really biked 11 miles or not. I wish the bike did cardio work, but it is really only legs, which means I can ride for longer, but I'm not working out as hard as I would like. After the gym, we came back to mid-mass and cleaned up because R's sister L was taking us out to dinner. We went to Salt Hill Pub in Lebanon, NH. I had yet another veggie burger, but it was good enough. I had the best black and white cheesecake for dessert. It was so delicious. I'd thought about having the Guinness float, but decided that I really wasn't *that* brave. hahah. We got back around 9ish, and I decided to do nothing for the rest of the day. It was kind of wonderful, except that I didn't fall asleep real well when I went to bed. But N was still home for the weekend, so at least she wasn't keeping me up.

Monday morning and N *still* wasn't back from her birthday weekend. I got up and headed into work. Monday was a really great day of work. We had lab meeting at 10 again. Someone had brought in muffins for the meeting, which was great. I really liked this lab meeting as compared to the last one. We went around the table and everyone said what they had been working on thesse past few weeks and what their plans for the next week were and everyone gave suggestions and it was really interesting. I gave my short spiel. I've been absorbing everything and trying to keep my mind from exploading from all the imputs. I wrote an abstract and this week I have to make a poster. Then BC went into a little bit of detail about what actual work I'm doing. haha. She sort of explained the suppressor screen and such before moving on to the next person. After the meeting was lunch and after lunch I came back and started some real work. My first mutagenesis plates were ready, so I got to work with them for a bit. I'd seeded about 200 small plates on Friday, so away I went picking worms. One worm to a plate. 186 worms total. It took forever. Absolutely forever. Half of the worms went back in the 20 degree incubator and half went into the 15 degree incubator. This took me several hours, so I checked my e-mail and saw that BC had e-mailed me back a new abstract.

"Hi Beth,
You did a great job on your first ever abstract!!!! You definitely got the overall idea right. To get this idea across a bit better, I did some rearranging and added a few things like a description of the ces-1(gf)phenotype. See what you think.
B."

Oh my word. I was beyond pumped. I'd really spent most of the weekend thinking about what kind of criticisms I would get....and I suppose I didn't get any. She really did change my abstract around and add some stuff, but there are definitely traces of what I'd written originally. *grin* I was so pleased. So, if you'd like a nice and short summary about what I'm doing and why it's important, read here:

The nematode C. elegans has proven to be a good model for studying programmed cell death or apoptosis, a process that is important for development and cellular homeostasis in all multi-cellular organisms, including humans. Of the 131 cells that undergo programmed cell death during C. elegans development, the cells of interest arise from the neurosecretory motoneuron (NSM) neuroblast. Due to the activity of the gene ces-1, which encodes a zinc finger-containing transcription factor, the NSM neuroblast divides asymmetrically and gives rise to a large cell, the NSM, which develops into a neuron, and a small cell, the NSM sister cell, which undergoes apoptosis. How ces-1 acts in asymmetric cell division is currently unknown. To identify targets of ces-1 function, I will perform a ces-1(n703gf) suppressor screen using a reporter that tags the NSMs and ‘undead’ NSM sister cells with green fluorescence protein (GFP). Specifically, in animals that carry the ces-1 gain-of-function mutation n703gf, the NSM neuroblast divides symmetrically to give rise to two daughter cells of similar sizes both of which survive. Therefore, rather than one GFP-positive cell per side of the animal, two GFP-positive cells, the NSM and undead NSM sister cell, can be detected. As some mutations are temperature sensitive, mutagenized ces-1(n703gf) ‘P0’ animals will be incubated at a variety of temperatures. Their F2 generation will be screened for animals in which only one GFP-positive cell per side is detected. Potential suppressors will be identified, characterized and the penetrance of their phenotypes determined. The mammalian homologue of C. elegans ces-1 has previously been implicated in apoptosis regulation as well. In addition, ces-1-like genes have recently been shown to function in stem cells, which, like the NSM neuroblast of C. elegans, divide asymmetrically. Homologues of ces-1 targets identified in C. elegans may therefore function in apoptosis regulation and stem cells in mammals as well.

So there you have it. My first ever piece of real honest-to-goodness scientific writing. With a little help, of course...but still. A true masterpiece, in my "unbiased" opinion. *giggle*

Monday was also GRE class again. It went much better than the last time. Obviously N is a verbal kind of girl. She only made a mistake a couple of times. I got to tell her that BEVY is to QUAIL as STAND is to TREE. But I only got that one after she told us that a bevy is a group of quail. As if anyone would really know that one! But apparently no one but me knew that a stand is a group of trees. I think there was another one of these analogies or maybe an antonym where I was the only one who knew the answer and it was really funny because I got to make the comment "that's what a midwest education can get you" because it had something to do with farming or something else rural. It cracked me up.

Tuesday was a good day as well. I spent too much time in front of the scope, but I enjoyed it. I'd only enjoy it more if using the scope were more ergonomical. I hate stretching to see down the scope. So I unpicked all 186 worms from the day before. This just means that I took the F1 worms off all of the plates and then I flamed them. It's a good thing I'm not too squeamish about killing worms. Now if these were mice on the other hand and they wanted me to gas them, I'm not so sure I could do that. But I put the plates back in the incubator so the F2 generation could develop. The F1 worms had layed a bunch of eggs overnight, which is good. Then I clonally picked 196 more worms from the 15 degree plates to small plates. I incubated 96 of the plates at 20 degrees and incubated 100 plates at 15 degrees.

Last night we didn't have journal club because AB is in the Dominican Republic. I'm super jealous. N's friends Anna, Erika and Beth came up to visit. We went to dinner at Molly's and I had the greatest Tomato Basil Pasta. It was super good and the tomatoes were all fresh tomatoes and I loved it. Then we took a tour of Remsen and Vail. N and I both got to show off our labs and I enjoyed that a lot. I think I like being knowledgable. :) We went out for ice cream at Ice Cream Fore U. I love this place. I've been several times because the ice cream is pretty inexpensive. A small hard serve ice cream is $2.25 and it's HUGE. It's just too much ice cream for me. I really should order the baby size next time I go. That's only $1.50 and is really the perfect amount of ice cream. Then they headed back to Keene and I went to bed. haha. I'm such a party pooper. That's okay though. Sleep is well worth it.

Today has been a good day so far. I had a little bit of trouble waking up this morning, so it's a good thing B didn't want to go running. I stumbled into the lab at 9 and immediately started unpicking the worms from yesterday. That took most of the morning, but I still had some time before lunch so I seeded about 300 small plates. I'm actually a little worried that I've managed to give myself an E. coli infection because I've not been feeling so great lately, but I haven't seen the really diagnostic symptom. Let's hope that it never shows and that I'm just tired and haven't been eating well enough. *crosses fingers*.

My Amazon package came in today. I've got 3 new books. 1 is the last textbook for my philosophy class: On The Beach by Nevil Shute. It was pretty hard to get a copy of this book....I had to buy the hardback edition and I think there was only one left after I bought my copy. I hope everyone else in my class has already ordered their copy or they might not get one. I also bought Good Omens which is my favorite book. I love Neil Gaiman, of course. Stardust is one of my absolute favorites too. This book was written with Terry Pratchett. While I've never read anything he's written before, Good Omens is an amazing read. The third and final book I ordered is Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. J recommended this one to me. I'd started reading his copy twice, but I never made it past the first 100 pages. So I thought I'd order it and then maybe pass it along when I finish, if I don't absolutely love it. It's really funny so far, but a little inappropriate. I think it's sort of funny that the two books I ordered "just because" are funny books about Christianity. Good Omens is about the apocalypse and the antichrist. It's really really funny.

Well, my lunch break is officially over five minutes ago, so I'm gonna go back to work. I've got to see if I can borrow 100 small plates from someone since mine aren't dry yet and then I have to go pick 100 more worms. *sigh* It's never-ending and I still suck at it. Oh well.

I just love a good workout

So Friday didn't quite go as I had planned in lab. I got there right on time because B didn't want to go workout in the morning and I sure as heck wasn't going alone. As it turns out, I should have gone anyway, but not much I can do about it now. I get all my stuff set up, worked a little bit on writing a few more sentences for my abstract and then I got out all my worms and checked them out. The males were still too young and my mutagenized worms were just laying eggs and I thought maybe my second strain would be ready to be picked. So I picked a bunch of L4s and that took forever. They weren't exactly easy to find, but I was on a hunt.
S's paper got accepted at JCB, so we were all about celebrating. BC brought in some champagne and other snacks. Right on our way to the party, BC grabbed me and we took a look at some of my worms. So we got together right before lunch and just sat around talking for like an hour. It was really nice to be chatting with everyone about everything. SR asked me if I was old enough to drink some champagne which made me giggle. So S poured us all a drink and we just relaxed. So in the 8 days that I've been in the lab, we've had two parties. Somehow I doubt it's always like this....but I wish it were. Since we took a long break, I missed lunch with everyone. I grabbed a veggie wrap and a cookie and had lunch with Y and Bo. They were really funny and we chatted about everyone in the SURF program, the GRE and getting into grad school. It was nice, but I feel like I hadn't been doing anything all day.
Then right after lunch I finally got up the guts and went to talk to my PI. BC was all ready to talk to me about the point of my research and so I got the information that I needed in order to write the last part of my abstract. And she told me to go back and finish it and e-mail it to her. Oh, I was so nervous about sharing my writing with her. So I spent so much more time looking at my abstract and working on it and refining it. I finally sent it to BC at like 4, but she was walking out the door. Such good timing on my part.
Last night was so much fun. I came back from work and just sat around for a while. We all went to dinner at Murphy's. I had some nachos and they were really really good. We just sat around and chatted for a while. Then we met AB for the ballet. I actually really enjoyed going to see the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet. I wasn't sure I was going to like it, but some of the songs were actually really cool. The boys were really really attractive and the girls were really super beautiful. I think all of us girls felt a little inadequate; those girls had really muscular legs. After the ballet we all went to The Canoe Club. It was really really fancy and expensive. R and I shared some fries and I had a Creme Brulee. It was soooooo good. After the Canoe Club, the boys and I went to 5 Old Nugget. It was really small and loud, but it was kind of fun. I stayed out too late, but it was a good time. Except for the part where some guys were all cranky because they thought we didn't tip the waitress enough. But they were super lame, so no worries.
Today wasn't very exciting. I slept in until 10. *gasp* I went to the bank. I went to the gym. I spent half an hour on the bike; that was like 10 miles. Then I ran for a mile and a half. I felt soooooo good after the workout. I went and took a nap for a little bit.
So far this evening, I've watched a couple of episodes of The Office with AH and R. Then B and I went to get dinner and now the four of us girls and A are watching John Tucker Must Die. Oh my goodness....it's ridiculously funny. I don't know what the rest of the weekend holds, but I'm so glad it's the weekend. :-)

I swear I'm twenty-one, honest to goodness.

Okay, so journal club went well. My presentation was by far the shortest and had the least amount of scientific information. The presentation was only supposed to be 2-3 minutes! Some people talked for like 10 minutes explaining their research in detail. It's not that I don't want to know that stuff, but that wasn't the point of the exercise. It was really just to make sure we all had projects of our own and that our summer had some direction. I felt like a total slacker in comparison to everyone else, but at least I know how to follow directions. *grin* Actually, most everyone's project seemed to be really cool. I wouldn't want to work on some of them, but that's okay. I'm quite happy right where I am.
After journal club a carload of us went to West Leb. to do some shopping. I got a bunch of fresh fruit and stuff to make pb&j sandwiches. I *finally* bought a pillow. Oh it felt so nice to sleep on a fat, extra firm pillow. I've been managing with this really thin, squishy pillow for the last two weeks and it's been awful. haha. On the way back it poured. I walked with N from Lot A back to Mid Mass and that's a 20 minute walk. It was pretty yucky. It seems to be raining in Hanover frequently. It's a bit ridiculous. haha. Then yesterday was an interesting day. I came right in and got to work. D had a few instructions from BC for me and so I did that job first. I had to look at my mutagenesis plate and pick out 150 healthy worms to 10 different plates. They mostly looked good, so I hope the mutagenesis actually worked. This took me about an hour and a half to do, but at the end I felt really accomplished. At the beginning, I was really sucking at picking worms. By the end, I was picking 3 worms at a time and not having to chase them around the plates. That's a huge accomplishment. Of course it helped that I wasn't having to pick them by age. Since I'd picked them all as L4s the day before, they were all young adults so it didn't matter.
When I was picking the worms, SR asked me if it was okay if he put music on. He said that he thought we didn't listen to music every day because BC didn't like us to. So he put on some Top40s-type song and the two of us and S were enjoying it when D marched right into the lab and demanded that we turn it off. She said we couldn't listen to music until after 5pm. We were all really dumbfounded. We weren't disrupting anyone and it wasn't affecting our work. She wasn't even in that lab, she works in the lab across the hall, so we were all really confused and not very happy. I was mostly sad because we'd been doing some real lab bonding at that point. Negative brownie points for D for that. :(
After lunch I started looking at my heat shock plates for males. Most of the progeny are too young to really see so I can't tell if the heat shocking worked or not. Perhaps it'll be easier tomorrow and I know I'll be able to tell by Monday. Then I looked at the plates for the other strain that I'm going to mutagenize. These are the bag-of-worms worms. They are super creepy. haha. While I was doing this, D came in to stand over my shoulder to make sure I'm not going to blow up the lab. I wasn't particularly pleased with this, but what can I do? I wasn't even using the ethanol burner at this point. Oh well. When I finished looking at the worms under the scope, I decided that it was time to do some more scoring, so I tried a couple ways to figure out how to get one of those bags of worms onto a slide and not rupture the cuticle. I finally figured it out and I headed for the small scope. I turned on the GFP filter and got up close to the worms. It was really disgusting. R was on the computer in the same room as the scope so she laughed at my reactions to the worms. It was actually really kind of cool though. I got to see all the worms wiggling around inside the cuticle, which was nice because they couldn't wiggle outside of my view, but I hadn't done anything to keep them from moving, so it was kind of hard to actually score them. sort of. Since these haven't been mutagenized yet, they all had 4 GFP positive cells, so it should have been easy.
When I tired of looking at those worms, I brought out my plate of double mutants, put them on ice and worked on scoring some of those worms. I'm getting significantly better on the small scope. I hit a few snags when I would lose the worm, but I was more than capable of seeing the GFP positive cells, even though the sample wasn't really magnified a great deal. I think I do better on the large scope, but I'm gonna try to use the small scope for the most part because I don't kill the worms on the small scope like I do on the big scope.
When my eyes started to hurt from using the scopes, I put the worms away and read a little bit at my desk until I couldn't stand it anymore and went home. Dinner was in Thayer with most of the people from the program and then GRE class was after that. I was really excited about getting to take the Kaplan course, but our teacher totally bombed the first day. I actually felt bad for her, she tanked so hard. I don't know if it's her first class or what, but she didn't understand the math we were doing. I don't know how many times we had to correct her to tell her she told us the wrong answer. She was really nice though and next week she's bringing us pizza for dinner. I'm hoping that the next session will go better.....we did learn some really neat tricks about some of the problems, but for the most part it was a waste of time. I really want to know how my diagnostic exam went, but they haven't posted our scores online yet.
Today was an interesting day. B and I got up at 7 and went running in the sports center. It was a nice 40 minute workout. By the time I got to lab, I'd already been up for two hours and I was wide awake. I feel like I was a bit of a waste today. I got to lab around 9:15 and got all my stuff set up. Then I got my worms out and looked at a couple of my strains. The worms on my heat shock plates are too young to set up male plates, so I ignored them. Then I looked at my plates for the bag of worms mutants and those worms were too young for mutagenesis. So I started looking at corpses to see if they had larvae in them. So I was counting corpses today and that was really the highlight of my day. After this, I went back to work on my poster. I'd sort of started to get it set up yesterday, but I really started thinking about what I wanted on my poster. I set up a little outline and started making some notes about material to include. Right before lunch I went into BC's office to ask her for some help. I told her all about how I need a title and abstract ASAP and how I have to have a poster ready to print by next Tuesday because I'm presenting my poster to the journal club Tuesday night and then fly to Virginia that Friday. So I think I might ask S or R for some help making a poster. I don't know if SR has ever made a poster, so he might not be a good choice. I think that BC and I are gonna do my title and abstract tomorrow. So she gave me some pointers about how to think about doing my abstract and told me to work on it this afternoon. Then she showed me how to chunk my plates to transfer "starving" plates to fresh plates. We go through worms like crazy in this lab. I feel bad, but I don't at the same time. *shrug*
So from 1ish when I got back from lunch until 5ish when I left, I was working on my abstract. I read the Masters Thesis that I have again to really get more information about my methods. I also reread a couple pages of some of my papers to get a feel for the imporant things to include and I finally started writing. I managed about 150 words, but it's not finished and I'm not sure that it's good. hahaha. I'm really nervous about showing it to B tomorrow. Especially since I took so much time working on it. ugh. I wish I were more confident with my scientific writing...but I'm not. But I'm looking forward to tomorrow. More mutagenesis and abstract writing and who knows what other cool things. :D
I was so pumped to have time off this evening. These 12 hour days are really rough. We all went out to dinner tonight. N's 21st birthday is this weekend, so she said we were celebrating, but I think most of us just wanted actual food. I had a black bean burger with some really good broccoli. And we all split a thing of chips and salsa. I also had a frozen mango margarita. I really enjoyed the drink and it wasn't too strong like the one I had at applebees. I wasn't so sure I'd be served alcohol because our server must have thought we all had fake ids. She looked at them all and then said she had to take them back to the back. I don't know if she had them scanned or if she asked someone about them or if she had them photocopied or what, but she was gone forever. N wanted us all to get up and leave if they refuesed us service. But, as it was, she finally brought us our drinks...and they were cheap and that was wonderful. :)
Oh! I got my Amazon package today. So now I have a few books to read. I'm already 1/3 of the way through Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. I'm actually really enjoying it so far. I also got Of Mice and Men and Brave New World. Those are next on my list of things to read. I haven't read all that much this summer. Every year I reread the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin, but this summer I only had time to read A Game of Thrones before leaving for Pittsburgh. I also read probably two dozen YA books, but I can't remember one of them. I think the best thing I've read this summer is The Kite Runner. I'm glad I went to see the one man production in Ada this past year, and I loved the book. I didn't expect it to be quite so powerful. I know I just got some new things to read, but I already made my next purchase. I'll wait until those books come in to tell you about them though.
Well, it's time for me to head to bed....I've gotta get up early again to go running with B. We're gonna try to work out every morning for the next two weeks. We'll see how that goes....I am kind of a lazy bum and I really really like my sleep.
Until next time!

I'm making mutants, beware!!!

I don't know how many times I can say it before it becomes too many, but I love my job. Seriously. This summer has been a million times better than my previous summers, especially last summer. I know we tried to get some work done last summer, but I spent too much time doing nothing. Here, I wish I were working shorter days, or at least that I didn't feel so bad for needing to take a break from the 'scopes. I'm having so much fun. I know I whine a bit about having to get up early (as if 7:30 is really that awful) and not having time to hang out with my new friends, but once I'm in lab I mostly forget about it.
So today we had someone new join our lab. Rhiannon. I think she's a high schooler, but I'm not sure. I feel like she's younger than me but I'm older than I think I am sometimes. haha. I don't really know anything about her, except I'm glad that I'm not the newest person in the lab. :) I think I'm getting better at stuff in the lab, but it's nice to not feel like the lab idiot all the time. (not that I actually am, I just feel like an idiot on occasion)
Today was another new experience. I actually seriously feel like the people here think I'm capable for the first time. Not that anyone talks down to me or anything. Everyone is super nice and I think they're all great. But today I was entirely on my own. D was back, but she was busy working with Rhiannon most of the day. The only person who was watching what I was doing was BC, but even then not really. But I'll get back to that.
I got to lab and I was the first person on my half of the lab so I opened the lab up and started to get everything set up. I put a couple of plates of worms on ice for a bit (it slows them down and makes it easier to look at them on the scope) and got the scope all set up. I spent about an hour scoring worms on the small microscope until I couldn't stand looking into the microscope anymore. Then I went and worked on my presentation for tonight's journal club and read one of B's former grad student's master thesis and another book for a bit. After lunch, I started setting up to use the large microscope but BC wanted me to do something with her. So she showed me how to set up a mutagenation reaction. I spent an hour or so picking L4s. I did significantly better today than yesterday. Actually, BC said I did a pretty good job, which made me feel better about it all. I got mostly L4s and fewer others. We washed the worms off the plates and suspended them in a few mL of buffer. I centrifuged them down and decanted off most of the supernatant and then added the worms to another tube containing the mutagen and more buffer. They're rocking at 20 degrees for a couple hours. BC is super awesome and she's gonna go back in at 8 to take them off and wash them for me. I'm not exactly certain what the point of mutagenizing the worms is yet, but when I figure it out, I'll let you know. I do know that EMS (ethyl methane sulfonate) induces point mutations and that's somehow important. haha. I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to ask. I'll be doing another mutagenization on Thursday when BC gets back to the lab.
Tomorrow I'll really be on my own since B will be home with her two year-old son. D will probably still be working with Rhiannon. I have a bunch of stuff I need to do though. Probably one of the coolest things I'll be doing is looking at one of my strains of mutants that are lacking a vulva for the eggs to pass through. The embryos still develop, even though they develop inside the hermaphrodite instead of on the plate. They hatch and the larvae actually eat the mother as they grow. They can't break through the cuticle though, so they're trapped inside. They call this the bag-of-worms phenotype. It's really kind of cool, even though it's kind of gross.
I'm not exactly sure what to expect, but I'll be sure to let you know.
Tonight is journal club and AB is bringing dinner. I'm looking forward to the free food. :) I get to present a quick snippet of my research and I'm pretty excited. I know that no one will really care, but I think it's super cool. :)
Yes, I am a nerd.

Playing God and Influencing the Sex of My Offspring

Today I got to do something brand new and super awesome. D wasn't in the lab today, so I was more on my own today than ever. I got to lab bright and early; I'm always one of the first people in the lab. BC wanted to have a chat about the plans for this week. This is why I have a fantastic PI. Not everyone in the SURF program gets to work so close to their PI. It's not like I spend all of my time answering to BC, but she's definitely there to help me. Some people never see their PI. I think M said that if he needed his PI, he essentially had to schedule a meeting time before he could see him. I think that's crazy. I think you should be willing to be available to work with the undergraduates if you volunteer to have one. But what do I know? So I have quite the to-do list for the week. I'm really excited about getting to practice my scoring some more, but that'll have to wait at least until tomorrow.
This morning was the lab meeting. I wasn't sure I was going to have to attend, but I went nonetheless. It was really interesting stuff. R and Bo presented some of the things they learned from the ABCAM conference that was last week. I was supposed to go, but things were just a little too complicated and I wasn't allowed to go. I don't really know enough yet to really join in, but I tried to listen intently. I hope no one noticed that I was practically falling asleep during the meeting. oops. In all honesty, I enjoyed hearing about what other people were doing, even though I didn't really understand any of it.
After lunch the fun really started. I got settled at my disecting scope and pulled out one of the plates of my newest strain. I set out on an L4 hunt. L4 is the last larval stage for C. elegans. They're characterized by a white circle on their ventral side, with a black dot in the center. This is the vulva. This indicates that the individual is nearing sexual maturity. I am terrible at picking out L4s, even though I try really hard. Actually, I'm just bad at picking worms in general, but finding L4s in a mess of other stages is even harder. So I finally got a plate with a few L4s when BC came in to see how I was doing. She checked out my plate and confirmed that I did have some L4s on the plate....then she told me that I was going to need more. So in like 5 minutes she made me three more plates of worms. Mind you, it took me over an hour to make my one plate. I really really suck. haha. Of course it's hard to compare myself to someone who's been doing this for years and years. But we put all the plates of L4s into the incubator at 33 degrees to heat shock them. I have to come back into the lab in a couple hours to take them out of the incubator so they don't die. That'd be bad. Heat shocking causes nondisjunction in gamete production, which leads to an increased number of male offspring. Hermaphrodites have an XX genotype much like human females. Male worms have an XO genotype. This means that they only have one sex chromosome which is obviously different from the XY genotype of human males. It's really interesting that males only arise from an accident in chromosome segregation. So I made males today. It makes for a sort of interesting story. I need to produce enough males to do some crosses. I'll be mating males that I create with hermaphrodites of of the same strain to really get a good number of males. Since the males have the XO genotype and half of the gametes produced will be lacking a sex chromosome, about 50% of the progeny will be males. At this point I'll really have a good amount of males and I'll be able to set up another cross and then I'll be doing some characterization of the mutation. It'll be really cool and I'm looking forward to it. Unfortunately, each life cycle takes 3-6 days so I won't be working on this for a while.
Tonight is my first GRE course. It runs from 6:30-9:00. I really hope to get something from this class. I know the GRE isn't really the most important part of the package when applying to graduate school, but I'd like to do well. I'm not the only one excited for class. B is looking forward to it even more than I am. I think I just want the materials more than anything. haha.
Well, it's time for me to pack up and leave the lab. I've gotta run and get dinner so I can be back to rescue my worms. I don't want to kill more than I have to...that's not my style. Plus if I kill my males, I have to attempt to find more L4s and, well, I don't really enjoy that yet. haha.

An Introduction to Hanover: A Seriously Amazing Town

Welcome to Hanover, New Hampshire: home of Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Medical School.
This wonderful place is where I'll be spending my summer. I've already been living here for nearly two weeks. I'm living in Mid-Mass, one of the oldest dorms on campus. It's not awful, but it's nothing as nice as what ONU has. It's similar in quality to Clark Hall, but we don't have communal bathrooms (thank God). Each room has its own bathroom. I've met some really interesting people here. Let me introduce them to you. N is my roommate. She's from Connecticut and goes to Keene State in New Hampshire. R lives in Ft. Lauderdale, but she was born in Venezuela. She's bilingual and I am super jealous. B is from Idaho and goes to school at San Jose State. She's ridiculous and makes us all laugh. AH is the last girl. She's from Minnesota and has both the Minnesotan and Wisconsin accents. She's super athletic and skates and water skis and everything. There are only four boys in the SURF program. A is a hardcore runner. He's really an interesting person....like personality-wise. He likes to be alone, which causes him to be on the receiving end of some grief from the girls. C is the oldest of us all. He's from New York somewhere and he's definitely different. M is the biggest goof of the group. He seems so serious all the time, but that's just why he's so funny. O is really funny. He's from Maryland and goes to UMES. He's always late for everything, but he takes great care with his appearance. AB is our activities coordinator for the summer. She's been planning all kinds of events to keep us busy. She is a recent Ph.D. from Dartmouth. She's married to a really funny guy named Aaron. They have the cutest dog. We went to their house for the 4th of July to see the fireworks. They have a very nice house and I really enjoyed getting to celebrate the holiday.
So those are my friends from the program. There are some really interesting people in the lab I work in. BC is my PI. She's really nice and is probably one of the most involved PIs in the program. I'm working a lot with D. She's the lab mom and has been working with me the first few days. R is really really nice. She worked with me on the 3rd, even though it was pretty much a holiday. S is French and his accent is totally to die for. There are a few other people in the lab: Y and Bo are Chinese, and I don't know everyone else's name. I'm having a great time though.

The SURF program has been sooooo good to us. The first night we were here they put us up in the Hanover Inn. It was super beautiful and I can't believe how wonderful it was. They've fed us a couple of times and we don't eat cheap. They took us to the Cape for a two day vacation. We toured a couple of research labs at the Marine Biological Laboratory. It was really interesting, but that's not my kind of biology. I'm a total lab nerd. Put me out in the field and I'd be doomed. We got to see the libraries at MBL. I got to see a signed first edition copy of Darwin's Origin of Species. That was super awesome!!! We also got to see a first edition copy of one of Newton's books. They had all kinds of really neat books. If we'd had time, I would have loved to just wander around. They took us to Martha's Vineyard one day. The ferry was really fun, but the best part was that we got to bike along the coast. The program paid for all of our bikes. They're really taking good care of us. We're having a journal club, which isn't super exciting. We're doing some papers and have to give a couple of presentations. The best thing that they're doing for us is providing a Kaplan GRE course, free of charge. It's a $1200 class, but we're paying nothing! It's totally fabulous. We even get to keep the materials and everything. I think I'll be taking the GRE in the middle of August and hopefully I'll do well. The second best thing we get to do is they're sending us to a conference thing: The Leadership Alliance National Symposium. We're all presenting posters and I think that'll be a *great* experience for all of us. I know I'll feel like I'm going to vomit or pee my pants because I'll be nervous, but I'm looking forward to it nonetheless.

Okay. My research. I'm not exactly sure I can explain it very well, but I'm going to try. I'm working with C. elegans, a nematode. C. elegans is a microscopic worm. Most individuals are hermaphroditic. Something like 0.1% of specimen are male naturally, but this number can be increased in the lab. The most interesting thing about C. elegans is that they have extremely predictable development. It's super ridiculously predictable, like the same cells divide at the same minute in different individuals. It's really cool. They're also transparent, so you can see each of the cells when you put them under the microscope. They have 1090 cells total, but 131 of these cells undergo apoptosis during development. My research is looking at these 4 cells known as the NSM cells and the NSM sister cells. The NSM mother cells divide to give rise to a large NSM cell and a small NSM sister cell. The NSM cells survive, but the NSM sister cells die. My PI has done a bunch of research to determine which genes are required for normal development of these cells. Right now, I'm looking at these strains that have been mutagenized to give rise to other phenotypes and such. The wildtype has only the two NSM cells. I have strains with only one gene mutation, and those have four cells: both the NSM cells and the NSM sister cells. Then I have a few strains with two mutations and I'm looking at specimen from those strains and scoring them, which essentially is me counting the number of cells. Some individuals will have 2 cells, some have 3 and some have 4. I get to mount a sample of worms in some NaN3 on a slide and put them under the scope. The DNA of the cells I am looking at has a fluorescent tag (go GFP!!!) so I can see the individual cells when using the GFP filter. It's really really awesome. I'm not entirely certain what I will be doing, but I'm learning. The reason this research is important is that it has medical implications. The ability to control programmed cell death will allow for treatments of diseases. There are diseases that are caused by too much cell death like Alzheimer's Disease, ALS, Parkinson's Disease and even AIDS, but there are also disease that involve too little cell death like certain cancers, and a variety of autoimmune disorders. So while my research might seem like it's not significant, one day this all could lead to cures for some of the diseases that plague our world. And there is nothing I want to do more than be a part of something much bigger than myself.

Let's see. What have I done since getting to New Hampshire.
I've eaten at some really great restaurants. The first night I was in Hanover we went to this place called Molly's. They have so many vegetarian choices. I wasn't sure what to get. I should have tried something random, but Iwasn't brave enough. Maybe I'll get a chance to go back sometime and get something new. I also went to this cute bakery place called Lou's. They had so much food and it didn't really cost all that much. Murphy's had excellent atmosphere. Some of the seats were like old church pews and the walls were covered with bookshelves. It was really disappointing to discover that most of the books were sawed in half because the shelves weren't deep enough for the books. So they're not readable, which is a total bummer.
We got to do this low ropes course for team building before work started. It wasn't really exciting, but it was at least something to do. Perhaps we'll get to go back and try the high ropes course. At least for the high ropes you have to wear a harness and stuff like that. We were terrible at working together. Everyone here is a Type A personality except for me. I'm totally okay with letting other people have the lead. I'm not exactly sure what kind of personality I am. I'd like to think a relatively nice blend of Type A and Type B. *shrug*
Most of the group went to see My Sister's Keeper. I enjoyed the movie, even though it was quite different from the book. I love Jodi Picoult. I've read everything she's written, I think. The ending of the movie kind of disappointed me, but from a theatrical perspective, I think I understand. I think the ending would have been more powerful if they'd done it the way the book did it, but the movie ending was still pretty powerful. I cried. I admit it, I really cried. But I was not the worst. There were people in the theater outright sobbing. R cried pretty hard too. The movie was so moving. I'm really glad I went to see it. Three of the guys (not A, surprise!) went to see it too and I think they were all glad that they went.
I've done some other travelling than to Cape Cod. I've gotten to go to Vermont a couple of times, which allows me to check off a third state from the list of state's I've not visited. We went hiking in Quechee Gorge today. It's known as the Grand Canyon of Vermont. It's not nearly as impressive as the Grand Canyon (or as I imagine the Grand Canyon to be) but it's really cool. We went swimming in the river and it was frigid. Only Chris was brave enough to go completely under the water. Seeing as I can't swim, I stayed in relatively shallow water. The deepest that it got was up to the middle of my ribs. I fell a couple of times because the rocks were sharp and slippery, but I managed to keep my head above the water and my glasses mostly dry. We took a picnic lunch down into the gorge and ate alongside the river. I had so much fun.

I love New Hampshire. I love Hanover. I love Dartmouth. I am seriously considering applying to the Medical School this upcoming year. I don't know how I'll survive the winters, but at this point, I think it might be worth it.