New Frontiers

I’m still riding the motivation train at work brought on by the Monday mutants. But nothing exciting to tell you from science land today. Those announcements are rare, which makes them all the more exciting.

This evening, I tried out a recipe I’ve had before but never made for myself. Indian food and I don’t always get along. I think it’s a few spices in particular that are in some dishes but not all… Anyway, the Indian food I’ve enjoyed has either been made by my coworker, Avinash, or it has been a recipe from one particular cookbook. That book is a beginners’ guide to cooking Indian food at home from two restaurateurs in Vancouver, BC.
Vij’s At Home: Relax, Honey: The Warmth and Ease of Indian Cooking has a nice mix of vegetarian and meat or fish curries along with some essential condiments like chutney, yogurt sauce, etc…

My first dish: Mushroom Medley with potato curry.

It’s good! It’s also a great way to use up leftover buttermilk. (A person can only make so many pancakes).

Topping off a mildly successful day in the lab with an incredibly successful dinner – that makes for a very satisfying end to the day.

And sometimes, Science rewards you.

This weekend, I took a little trip back to the Motherland, the Upper Midwest. Not quite the Motherland, because I was in Cleveland and not Michigan, but it was pretty darn close.

I scooted out of the lab around 2:30 on Friday to catch my flight to Cleveland so I could celebrate with this happy couple:

Along with the Paul and Erin’s wedding, I got to hang out with my parents who drove down to Cleveland to spend the weekend with me. I love them! All in all, a fantastic weekend of Parents, good food, friends, celebrations, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and even an early Easter basket. Despite not having awesome enough peroneal tendons to be able to go for a waterfront run on Lake Erie, I did manage to do a lot of walking around downtown Cleveland, and stayed über stylish in my black peep-toe pumps on the dance floor at the reception. A month ago, wearing one inch heels for three hours made my feet ache for three days, but no pain this weekend! I’ll take it!

The snow this morning nearly foiled my plans to fly back to La Guardia, but I made it into the lab by 2pm to find a sight I’ve been hoping for for three weeks, and have been working toward for longer than I want to admit. Sometimes, … Sometimes Science rewards you. And not only that, but Science rewarded my frantic early-morning to mid-afternoon work on Friday by giving me not one, but four different mutants!

This calls for a cheer and I will teach it to you right now. Whenever I say “I got mutants!” You all say, “Yay! Mutants!”
Yep. I’m that kind of scientist doctor, the mutant-making kind. You know it’s cool;)

So today, it’s Science for the W.

Win the day

Hello blog land!

Sometimes, the “meaningful, fulfilling work” that I do isn’t all that fulfilling. Often, it’s downright disappointing. They wouldn’t be called “experiments” if we knew they were always going to work, or give us the answer we’re looking for.

Science is cool and all, but Science rarely gives back as much as I put in on a day to day basis in terms of me feeling satisfied and empowered by accomplishing my research goals. (Science can be a real B*tch when she wants to be) This sort of unbalanced relationship might work for some people, but I need a lot more positive feedback if I want to keep from feeling like a failure.

Enter running. I took up jogging, slowly, with walk breaks in 2008 while I was in grad school in Portland, OR (the greatest city with the awesomest people). As I continued running, my pace improved, how I felt while I was running improved, how I felt when I was not running improved… The more I put into running, the more I got out of it. (Unlike Science on most days). And the more I was able to drift off to sleep at night feeling like I won the day despite my experimental successes or failures in the lab.

In the past four years, I’ve found a few different hobbies along with running that reciprocate my hard work, giving me the satisfaction often missing from my days at work. This blog is about staying optimistic, being happy, feeling just a tiny bit in control of my life, and finding pursuits that help me feel like I’ve reached my Personal Best every day.