Ecstatic Times...

Dear Kitties,

There are sooooo many things to be ecstatic about first off it is Christmas. Second of, my friend Sheri past the Qualifying Exam! Third of, I am presenting today and soon meeting with my PI to talk about a new project.

The thing with the 2nd point is that our little graduate student group helped Sheri out every single time she asked for help. That means that we did a lot of what we call "Mock Quals". The fact that she passed gives me and maybe some others in the group, hope that we will pass also. At the same time Sheri is like a housekeeping gene to me. Without her I don't function well in graduate school. Everything would just crumble and I knew that Sheri was exhausted and would possibly not take the Qual ever again if she had to so it is a very good thing that she past it is a relief. Another good thing about it is that now Sheri can get to the happily ever after part of her life cause now she can move in with her boyfriend, now he can propose to her, now they can buy a house and a small dog, now she can save up and start planning for the wedding. You have to understand that Quals is a very strong inhibitor to life. It is like an HDAC, it just de-acetylates your life and stops it from progressing at all. Now imagine how messed up I was while the HDAC (= Quals) was deacetylating my housekeeping gene.... Not very well.
:) I can not believe that I have gotten this nerdy.
See what graduate school does to you?

It is Christmas...Get over it.

The Christmas season began. We bought our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. We bought the lights and some ornaments the very next day. Slowly but surely the tree is getting surrounded by gifts. I love christmas. I really do! The reason why I love Christmas is because it is the one time of the year in which America finally thinks about family. It is the one time that we allow ourselves to be a little lazy about work. Where work actually has to take a back seat for once and allow family to take the front seat.
No matter in what situation you are in, in America, I guarantee that even if you've spent the whole year without thinking of your childhood, of your parents, siblings, you will think of them then.
I love how everything all the sudden becomes red and white, how all the windows all the sudden have to be a plethora of glitter of little lights glimmering out at you, letting you know that you are supposed to be happy.
I admit this can be a very depressing time of the year, but like I told my collegue David the other day, things are what you make of them.
I love how when I look back at my childhood, this was the one time a year that my mom actually made an extra effort to be happy and to be close to me. Now I have inherited that habit. Even though hell has basically been opening up right infront of my lab bench, I've kept quiet about it, I've kept to my self all the crap that has been happening and just getting thru the day and trying to spread the cheer. See, in my family at least, we've always believed that what ever mood you are in, mad, sad, happy whatever, gets spread around to the people around you. I don't want to spread the grinch I want to spread the cheer.
It is not easy spreading the cheers my kitties.
I can see some of it has been successful though, because eventhough my labmates are total workaholics who hardly notice when I am gone, lately, everytime I arrive they notice and they joke around with me and they chit chat with me. It feels damn good. Today I even felt like just hanging out. Today was the first day I felt like staying in lab instead of leaving (ever since I first joined the lab).
So if you have been wondering where I've been? Why am I not complaining as always? Well theres the reason. It is Christmas and I refuse to let the little things bother me or my close ones, if only for this one month a year.