Back in the Big D

I got back from Canada a few days ago, and while I am glad to be back home, I am not glad to be going back to work. I totally have this brain block on thinking about my project. I go into lab, do my experiments, and go home. I really need to compile my data, but this molasses of inertia just prevents me from doing anything about the mountain of numbers and blips on a screen.

The family reunion went well overall. We ate a ginormous (now officially a real word!) amount of food, mostly Chinese. The big family dinner was at a chinese buffet. I know what you're thinking (groan), but actually it was really good! They even had all you can eat sashimi!

We had about 35 people in attendance! with about 11 kids ranging from 5-13 years old. Needless to say there was a lot of chaos. We totally took over the hotel pool. I felt sorry for the other guests, who left after it got crazy with balls being pelted and kids jumping around.

It was great to catch up with my sister who lives in NYC and cousin who is an internal medicine resident in Hong Kong. We got to get away for a few hours to walk around downtown and meet up with my sister's Hot friend. And he was SO nice, too. This is after we spent an hour bashing men. Men are TOXIC. But luckily, Hot friend restored our belief that there can be mega good lookin, genuinely nice guys out there. Thanks Hot friend.

Of course no family reunion is complete without drama. I lost my temper and blew up at my sister.. way to go for reverting back to tween behavior. I was mostly upset at myself for ruining such a fun occasion. Luckily, HB was there to advise and be supportive. He helped cheer me up by buying me a baby Gloomy bear... so cute! Here is a picture of Gloomy although mine is plush and not bloody ;)

Fortunately, I was able to work things out and salvage sentiments before my sister left for NY. In the end, I was super sad to say goodbye to everyone. Time was too short, and with so many people it was hard to spend enough time with everyone.

Canadia

I am in beautiful Toronto right now enjoying the gorgeous weather and the company of family. Everyone on my Dad's side of the family will be in town for our first family reunion. I am so excited to see people!

After some minor traveling disasters yesterday (thanks Dallas monsoons), we finally arrived at our hotel at 2:00 in the morning. We picked up my sister from the airport this morning, and had dim sum...yum!! Seriously good food rivaling even Hong Kong dim sum. I think the best dish was the turnip cakes- so deelicious. I have a feeling the rest of my posts in Toronto will focus on food, either that or the 10+ kiddos that my cousins are bringing.

I can't wait to see my 13 year of pen pal Cassy! I bought her a copy of Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess's (what's the proper way to do the apostrophe?) Stardust!! I hope she likes it- I know I would have loved Neil Gaiman when I was a kid.

Tomorrow I also pick up HB from the airport. It'll be interesting for him to meet the more normal half of my family.

Blueberries and Fireants

Did you know that you can go blueberry picking not too far from Dallas? I went yesterday with my friend, AF, who was visiting from New York. Her boyfriend organized a group of 8 people, and we all packed in to a surburban headed towards East Texas. It was a fun day of driving in the rain (luckily by the time we got there, it had stopped), stopping by at Ranch Hands, a bbq buffet, and blueberry picking!! We had a bunch of fun, except that I was wearing sandals, and stepped into some ant hills...twice. I was just too excited about picking the good blueberries.

I was pretty good about not scratching the bites, and they really didn't bother me too much. Although when I am sleeping, it is a little difficult to muster up the willpower not to scratch them. This morning, the bites looked ok- i put some hydrocortisone on them and went to work. Now, after walking on my feet for a couple of hours, they are really getting huge!!! I just had to take a picture- definitely got some rubor, calor, tumour, action going.

You can't really tell the redness, but notice how the medial aspect of my right foot is bulging and angry. I guess they were fireants...

Being in Lab Blows

Just finishing up some labwork today- transfected neurons with plasmids, converted some whole cell recording data, split HEK cells, made fresh 4% paraformaldehyde fix, and am just overwhelmed with how much lab blows these days. I used to really enjoy doing this stuff, but it has become such a chore.
I am also unhappy at how some things are SO inefficient. For example to record from neurons, we use a program called Labview to log all the data. Labview is great, but unfortunately, the person who programmed it for the patch rigs...is the most unorganized programmer ever. This leads to oodles of time wasted on unintuitive clicking of random buttons with a crappy mouse, which leads to neck and mind and soul strain. So, it took me an hour to just extract my data from the program and convert it into an analyzable datafile. And, no the data isn't even analyzed yet. I will have 50+ hours analyzing miniEPSC data, which is just retarded beyond belief. Sometimes I just want to scream!! WHY?!!!! When I have my own lab, it will be the model of efficiency. seriously.
Okay, well I feel better after ranting: it also helps that I can leave in 15 minutes. I really need a break.

Update

So when I started this blog, I was afraid this was going to happen: that I would only post on and off due to my fickle nature. But since doctorsquared keeps encouraging me to update (thanks Dr^2!), okay well maybe she told me to update last month when I hung out with her in Swellesley, I still have been feeling the need to post something...ANYTHING.

Lately, my life has been more of the same, punctuated with random funness. Dallas has become a monsoon town. I think we have had rain every day since the end of May. Not that I am complaining, because this is much better than the usual 100+ weather that we would normally be having. Usually, I spend my life in the lab, only to go home for food and sleep.

In June, I went to my 5-year college reunion, which was a blast. I think the funniest highlight was when people tried to go skinnydipping in Lake Waban only to be caught butt-nekkid by campo.

A couple weeks later, I went to DC for a conference where I met up with a friend from college- Kermit (sometimes I think he sounds like kermit the frog, maybe this is why I think everything he says is so funny..). We had a lot of good laughs and reminiscing about past laughs. We listened to his playlist Hotness 1.1 and watched Bachelor Party Vegas- which is SO hilariously bad. I also got to see some high school friends - Bootsie and Banana Boy*! I made them watch the UFC fight- BJ Penn v. Jens Pulver. The Prodigy rocks!

Anyway, I will try to post more soon. I hope my readers haven't completely abandoned me. I love you guys!!

*Banana Boy is so named because we went to homecoming together senior year, and he got me a mum with a big honkin plastic banana. Now that I think about it, I can't believe that I went around a full day of high school wearing that thing. I totally should have made the toilet I put on his garter much much bigger. I'll try to post a picture sometime for people who didn't grow up in Texas, although it is sort of embarrassing that I participated in this commercial sh*t.

Reaching 30 and Out of Shape

HB is in town for a week! I have been bugging him about losing weight lately, so yesterday, we spent two hours "playing" tennis and throwing the pigskin around. Yeah, I throw like a girl, but sometimes I can get a good spiral even though it doesn't go very far. And we both suck at tennis. Too bad there isn't a badminton court around. But then we canceled the exercise out by going to Braum's and getting ice cream... irresistible.

I realize that I am getting close to 30 now, and still not in great shape. It's now or never! I am going to try to lose the belly fat, butt sag and unsightly thighs before then. I have three years, so that should be plenty of time. :)

Also, HB helped me pick out new eyeglass frames, but they are bright red!! I am sort of freaking out about them now, but oh well. I'll post a picture once I get them.

Cici's Pizza

I organized a lab lunch this week...at Cici's pizza. All-you-can-eat pizza for only 3.99!! It was the ultimate gorge fest including but not limited to: taco pizza, mac-and-cheese pizza (really good), spinach alfredo pizza, buffalo chicken pizza and cinnamon rolls. I have not been to Cici's for years, even though there is one two blocks from where I live. In high school, when it only cost $2.99, we would have eating competitions there and line up the leftover crusts on the table to see which side won. I believe that I was always on the winning side- since I always chose to be on the side of Iron Stomach (you know who you are) and/or HB. I also remember going to Cici's fondly because of the Simpson's arcade game that we would always try to beat every time we went.

As a result though, I feel so gross right now. Bloated and thirsty...mmm. But I would say lunch was still worth it. I feel like going home to take a nap now, but maybe I'll drum up the willpower to go work out instead.