Thanksgiving 2008

Family and food. Whenever my family gets together you can always find us hanging out in the kitchen telling stories and reminiscing about old ones. My brother and sister-in-law Julie and their kids, Daniel and Beth came in from out of town this year. Julie always bakes each of our favorite cookie recipes. Buckeyes for Dad, bon bons for me, chocolate chip cookies for Mom and pecan squares for Chuckie. The cousins had a wonderful time being with each other. Lots of laughs and giggles filled the house and of course, we played football in the street after dinner.

Clockwise from left: Cameron sleeping off dinner, dessert table, Madelynne and Beth having girl time, Thanksgiving spread.

The day after Thanksgiving I woke up at 2:45am on Friday. For the first time I was determined to be at the stores when they first opened. I had a list of what stores I would go to in the order that they opened, what I was going to get at each store and for who, and then I listed whether or not I had a coupon for that store. So, 2:45 came and I was up, made a pot of coffee, warmed up the car, got my dad and off we were to Carson Pirire Scott downtown. We got there at about 3:45 and were one of the first people in the store. Everyone was really friendly and helpful. (When we first got there, no one was in the parking garage to let us out, but by the time we were done shopping a lady was there) We went to Kohl's afterwards, but not before stopping for coffee. After Kohl's I laid down for about an hour and 15 minutes. I wanted to get to Costco when they opened at 9am. Mom and I went to Costco and then Macy's. We got some really great deals and had a good time making our way through the crowds. That night, I went downtown to see the lighting of the "World's Largest Christmas Tree." It wasn't too bad though the compactness and mushiness and invasion of personal space was worst than last year.

This time next week I should be transitioning into my new job. I will be one on a team of 5 doing cell culture, assay, mass spectrometry and automation. A lot of change this is.

I will be attending the Great Banquet this weekend. My feelings on attending have varied greatly. However, the happenings of the past month have me looking forward to getting away for a little bit.

my little brother started his EMT/paramedic class this week. I'm excited to look through his textbook!

hypersensitive startle reflex=exhaustion

peppermint mochas are back!

**Update to the update... got an e-mail from my manager..."Meghan, there has been a change in your position...I'll tell you more when we talk..." Seriously? Can that be anymore vague?! I hope he didn't hear about the files that I accidentally deleted (which were restored) or the lab that I unintentionally flooded. (how do you not have a drain in a lab?)

Anyway, I'll be working with a different team than the one described above. Budget cuts prevent that team from even existing now. Instead I'll be doing more analyses, preparation, dilutions and documentation work for samples. At the beginning of next year I could move again into investigative toxicology. For now though I'll be working in the mornings at the clinic and spend my afternoons in the laboratory at a different building .

C8 H10 N4 O2

Do you ever find yourself tired, cranky, and easily disturbed? Oh, wait that's every day.

Kidding.

At work, the majority of us drink coffee. In fact, when it was announced that that the coffee maker would be staying until the end of the year while everything else would be packed up applause and cheers actually broke out in the room. That goes to show that they have their priorities straight. The coffee at work has affectionately been called "Crack Coffee", by two of us anyway.

Not only does crack coffee help with the recent transition of falling back but it also assists in jolting ones senses and getting over the part of the day that drags on forever. Recently, I have experienced Rockstar. Rockstar is an energy drink with a total of 80mg of caffeine per serving (160mg total) This isn't that much more than a cup of coffee. However, there is a noticeable difference in the amount of energy one has with drinking coffee and drinking Rockstar. (it could also be the placebo effect which I'm not ruling out either) The only hang-up I have about Rockstar is the taste.

It's bad. Especially the first time. After awhile you can get used to it. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Blog Anniversary

It dawned on me that I missed my 1 year blog anniversary. It was back in September, the 24th to be exact. Maybe this next year I can spit out more posts. For now, you can check out the pictures from Chihuly's glass work at the Children's Museum.

A festivus for the rest of us

The TPCC Young Adults rounded up for a fall bonfire last weekend. We even got some wiffleball in! There was a great mixture of new and old friends and a nice way to welcome the fall season.

The next day a few of us headed out to the Irish Fest to pay homage to the Emerald Isle. I enjoyed sitting back and listening to the entertainment. I have decided that Friday is the best night to go. There is more excitement in the air and the dancing/singing is more festive. Still, we had a good time.

Irish Fest gang

Mother Superior reciting her Irish toast. (The guy in the black t-shirt ended up winning the grand prize-all expense paid trip to Ireland) Next year all of us are going to enter the contest and give our best Irish toast. The hard part will be picking a someone to go to the Motherland with when one of us wins!

Barra MacNeil's

This family of six is a pretty amazing group. Kyle, Lucy, Sheumas, Stewart, Boyd and Ryan belted out some great songs. Definitely check out their website (I wouldn't mine owning their 20th Ann. CD)

I've been sick this week. All thanks to a chum of a co-worker I have. I went out and bought a vaporizer and Benadryl and for some reason chocolate squares. I've been camping out in my room watching NCIS and House episodes. My nightstand is currently filled with a combination of OTC drugs, Vick's VapoRub, tissues, crackers, water, Gatorade, etc. (I really want a cup of chicken noodle soup from Panera) I drag myself out of bed in the morning and go to work and set up camp again at night. I look forward to when I can breathe easy and not look like 5 miles of bad road. I do however have a hot "smelly cat" voice when I sing.

Animal mating behaviors and environmental factors

I'm at work yesterday and I get in the elevator to go to the cafeteria for breakfast. Two patients get on (a man and a woman) and they are debating/discussing when menopause begins. The man looks at me and asks for a definition of menopause. I tell him and he starts talking to the woman again. We get off the elevator, the woman hurries out of the hospital and the man continues the conversation with me. (did I mention I was on my way to breakfast?) He asks me if I think that men go through menopause and while I didn't take a firm stance on the issue I did mention that there have been some studies/reports where it has been suggested that men experience something similar to menopause. He just about loses it and went on a tangent about estrogen and testosterone and sexual attraction and talked about the menstrual cycle and peacocks fanning their feathers and environmental factors. All of this was going down in front of the elevators in the hospital. I was patient and professional and listened and inserting a "that's interesting" or "mmhmm" nodding my head and secretly hoping that my pager or phone would go off so I could make an exit. Finally he takes a breath and I excuse myself and chuckle down the hallway at what just transpired. I couldn't believe that I just had a conversation (however one-sided it was) about menopause and animal mating behaviors.

When I return to the lab there is an animal inside. Upon closer inspection and questioning I find out that it is a sugar glider. My manager had brought it in from home. I get along well with critters. I like to watch them and check them out before I handle them. However sugar gliders I quickly found out, glide through the air and will jump at you and land on you. I thought that I had stood far enough away from it that it wouldn't jump but I was mistaken. It jumped and landed on me and I tensed up so fast and must have had the deer in the headlights look because the entire lab erupted into laughter. I'm glad that I was able to provide some comic relief for everyone.