Temporary Shower

I know I haven’t been great at keeping up with this blog. I now have plenty of time on my hands and yet, I just don’t want to do anything. Perhaps I am making up for last year where I had very little time but all I want to do these days is veg out on the couch. This could be because I am pregnant! Yes….25 weeks pregnant to be exact. We have been keeping it hush hush for awhile because I didn’t see the point of advertising it on social media but now that all our close friends/family know, I am ok with writing about it here. Needless to say, Dave and I are super excited…and scared. This will be our first child and I am super nervous about the labor process itself. I have had a great pregnancy so far. Besides some cramping pains at the beginning and some occasional discomfort, first and second trimester have flown by. I think third trimester will be a bit harder but what I really worry about is the labor and delivery part. I mean, I’ve seen it dozens of times on OB last year but it’...

Happy New Year! It has been so nice coming home to family/friends after a vacation away. I have decided nobody should come home from a vacation just to start working right away! Dave and I celebrated Christmas with my family and his. We had several game nights (one more to come tonight) and we ate a lot. In the words of my sister, we have gained a “layer of winter fat”. Here are some pictures from Costa Rica So much eating every day!!! Weirdo and her boyfriend Too fat for a two-piece haha Sad to leave I have slowly started to study again but I really have very little motivation. After getting some rest and reflecting back on the last few weeks, I think I was definitely burned out. I really am not doing too bad overall but I think I could afford the break I talked about in my last post. Haha….the competitive side of me still wants to regain my motivation and try for honors in surgery but I think for my mental health in the long run, I should probably slow ...

I wrote this post on monday but didn't have time to upload pictures till now.... This weekend I went down to southern Utah with Dave. We originally wanted to do a 3 mile hike in monument valley but we left late so decided to forgo the extra 2 hour drive just for a 3 mile hike. Instead, we got to Moab around 4pm Friday and decided to do a 2 mile hike to Corona Arch. Dave had never been and since it was a relatively easy hike, we both had a lot of fun.   Our ultimate destination was Mesa Verde so we drove further south and camped right outside the park at a KOA in cortez. I have never booked a KOA before (though I think I stayed at one with my parents). The campground was very nice and clean and the options ranged from full sized cabins to camping spots (with electricity and water!). We opted just to camp but seeing the Teepees made me think that next time, we can try something different. Dave got the campfire going while I set up camp but since it was already 8 and the...

I have been thinking about what to write but nothing is coming up. I have a loooonnnng laundry list of things I need to do but I can’t seem to cross even one thing off my list. This is mostly because I am dependent on some other people for most of these things but it is driving me crazy. Amongst the things I need to do are some more research papers. I am trying to collaborate with some ophthalmologists to beef up my resume but one of my experiments fell through this week (because the samples were bad) and the other one is stalled because I have to meet with the PI to go through the data. Blah I guess I am also a bit nervous because there are so many changes ahead. I will no longer be working in a lab, Dave is changing jobs, I will be married soon, and I won’t be able to travel as much. So much change in a short amount of time makes me really nervous. OK...enough compliant.  Some developments: I celebrated my 28th birthday! Eeek I feel old. Dave and I went to Ikea ...

I didn’t realize how much sunshine can influence my mood but looking back, I think I have been a bit blah over the past month. But…the dark days are over, the sun is out, and for the first time yesterday, Dave and I went on a bike ride! We biked for about 7 miles around the lake near his house and it was glorious! Then we went to Costco because I had to get some food for two parties: our annual lab March birthday party (because my PI’s birthday is in March) and a Pi day party tomorrow. We ended the night with some healthy beans and salmon.   Yum! Today I had the privilege of hearing Leroy Hood give a talk on the future of science. He has received numerous awards for his work on big data collection, DNA sequencing, etc and he is very influential in the scientific world. He founded multiple companies…latest of which is a wellness company. He thinks the future of science and medicine is studying wellness. Though I think his “wellness industry” is just a euphemism for “preventati...

So I realized I kindof missed a week but Sundance ended and I got sick with a gastroenterovirus. It was gross. Enough said. Yesterday I judged the science fair at my old elementary school. First of all, it was weird being back there because everything looked so small and it made me feel like a giant. Second, the projects some of the kids did were amazing. Yes there was the usually egg drop and melting ice cream experiments but there were a few that really impressed me. On girl tested the hearing ability between humans and dogs. Another little boy looked at transpiration in leaves (I didn’t know that word till high school). He blocked moisture by coating different parts of leaves with lip blam then measured water absorption! The best project I saw was by a little boy who analyzed AC vs DC power source using long-exposure photography. I’m telling you that some of these kids are geniuses! In other news, I just finishing reading Daughters of Mars for this month’s book club....