On a mountain top

That's where I'll be this wekeend - this loooong weekend here in the US. One of those things I missed the most about being a post doc was that I was always (ok, most of the time) in lab during weekends, happily making experiements and taking data points... but that there was little time (or energy more like it) to go somewhere and relax on the weekend, or for a few days. Most times I was happy to go home and do laundry, cook some food and go grocery shopping. Oh, and read books in bed. Just sleeping was also a wonderful thing.

In my present job, I've been able to not work on the weekends. Yey. It has lead me to not only have a social life (yes I know, quite the difference ...) but also to work out really regularly (with subsequent weight loss and looking - if I may say so - much healthier and glowy) and - like I'm doing this weekend - going out of town to enjoy the wildness outside!

The comments from my co-workers have been in the line of "Again? Weren't you away that weekend in April, and in May and your relatives were here a moment ago and you left town then too" ... Why, yes I was.  And I will go away again in a few weeks (canoe and rafting!). And then there will hopefully be something fun i September again.... and probably some sort of trip outside of town for Thanksgiving. And then there is Christmas and I am not having more plans than that.... but Florida is looking pretty interesting. Or a simple repeat of last years' Christmas back in Sweden. Who knows?

It's been like when "before the post doc" and stuff happened. Like a "regular" native of my old country. Weekend trips to the country side, or going hiking for the Saturday and enjoying the forest and not having cell phone reception... And during this time thinking a little about work (it's hard to disconnect all the time) and more thoughts on life and what the future plans should be (children? moving? what kind of work to get?) but most of all it's been a very good reminder that life is so much more than "wake up, go to work, maybe have a beer/exercise, go home, read some, go to sleep" please rinse and repeat.

On top of this nature reconnection that I have been enjoying lately, I've been involved in social work, or what ever to call voulonteering at hospitals/hospices to help people who are in a dire situation and in need of some contact with people who need some care? It's been extremely rewarding to be able to give help and support to someone who is in a dark place and know that what ever little I can do will hopefully help them through what ever the hardships they or their loved ones are going through.

In short, I might not know where I am going in the future - but I feel pretty good about the current situation where I've managed to establish something outside of my lab life.... not to mention that I have been able to help some people through hard situations. It's all about relationships - and what you can build together.

I'll stop with my happy glow ranting with a little cute tidbit; "If you have no regrets, you need to get out more." :)

Next blog post will probably be something of all the things I ended up with on my mentoring session...

sleep on it

It's funny that I can keep going and have things to do every day, weekend and the weeks just go by in a blur... and then when I stop and reflect - say in a hotel room at a conference in another town where I'm alone - I notice how drained I am and how much I needed that time away from the regular tempo. And then, while mentoring people who are "younger in their careers than me", I realised that I have actually learned a lot through the years. And more surprisingly to me, others seem to like to get advice, suggestions and thoughts from me about things like career and life in general.

Nothing earth shattering of course, but it is good to look at yourself from the outside at times and remember that even if I think my life is pretty messy and not successful, others might find some minor things as acheivements .... and that I should really be more happy with what I've accomplished and where I have ended up in life (both physically and mentally really).

It's like the old "sleep on it" and let the dream world sort out the thoughts you might have and see it from another view - and the world is much clearer afterwards.

Now, it's only up to me to try and do some of all the things on my list, since my day off have left it painfully obvious to me that my home is in sore need of a cleaning, as well as my thoughts. Nothing like a little good alone time to get things in perspective :)

tonight's the night....

I realised today that I'm more nervous/excited about the game tonight than I actually thought. I got taunted today by a co-worker and wasn't too good about it - granted, I kept my mouth shut and didn't say anything apart from "I don't have a grey scale". Which to me mean that I either say good things or very very bad things.... and at work, that's not where I want to be - bad words that is.

So, if nothing else - please Canucks, win tonight so I can wear the nice shirt tomorrow and enjoy the happiness of celebrating the Canuck win of the Stanley Cup!

Considering my luck though, I am scared they will burn and fall in their own  home town since it would mean SO much if they did win.

A little more than an hour to game start...... oh the anticipation. In four hours, I guess I'll know if I will be a happy gal tomorrow :)

Too fast, too slow – just not proper timing

Sometimes I wonder why people bother with scheduling a “time for deliverance” if they have no intention of keeping it, nor use it. Lately there have been some snafus both in my private life as work environment… for example; say that you order something online and the delivery time is estimated 10-14 days…. But in reality it’s dropped off outside your door* after 3 days, on a Friday … and that you might not be home all weekend but there is no parcel when you get home Sunday. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to get premium shipping for the same price as “standard”. However, now I’m left with nothing at all since I don’t have a parcel to show. Only hope would be that some kind neighbors took the parcel in order to give it to me later (insert “that’s not that likely”smile). But sure, it’s not their fault since I should be happy it arrived earlier than expected… I’m just that person who would something like 3-14 days since it is apparently possible for that?! And before you ask, since it was the “standard shipping” it shouldn’t have required a signature as receiving…

The other thing would be slightly more costly (after all, what’s a ‘bridal party gown’ compared to precious protein? Nothing really). So, if you are shipping things on ice in the hot summer… and you want the compound to remain frozen and not semi-thawed or completely thawed… I wouldn’t recommend sending it on a Friday without a courier and proof of pick up/delivery. I certainly wouldn’t pack it on ice, leave it in the “postal room for shipment” and assume someone is picking it up on a Friday afternoon to deliver it to the recipients on a Saturday…. And especially not if you didn’t contact the recipients and let them know that there will be a sensitive parcel arriving on a Saturday in a long weekend when many people take the chance to take off 3 days in a row. I guess the only ‘less bad thing’ was that since the delivery failed on the back end the recipients didn’t have to pay for not receiving it, but the compound is wasted and destroyed. 3 days in a non-climate controlled area with dry ice that’s evaporating would do that to something that needs to be frozen before immediate use.

Ah well, lucky it was an alternative dress on sale so in reality it's not a disaster but still, it would be nice to get what you pay for.... I guess I'll knock on some doors later on and see if someone might have caught it?

If nothing else, I still need to reschedule the fitting for another bridal party gown (thankfully this one is not online but in a real store) since I clearly lost my mind and scheduled an appointment for Wednesday 6.30 pm. The huge problem with that? The final game 7 in the Stanley Cup finals starts at 7 pm…. Yeah…. Not the best timing ;) Now, where is that phone…

*sometimes this happens, rather than bringing it back to the postal office/delivery van/somewhere else, the parcel is left on the porch/right outside the front door... it's all fine if you are arriving home within an hour or so but a weekend.... unattended.... in this town? ehh..... not so likely...

overexplaning

I realised after writing my post yesterday that it wasn't really a good analogy or anything actually ;) After all, my story had no infidelity, no cheating, no nude pics and most of all, no hypocrisy either....

Just some texts revealing some details I might not had shared with my family since it is (was?) private and personal.... all in the context of "my diary is private, doesn't mean it's something illegal or wrong, just personal things". It's just been a lot of "revealing texts" in the news media lately...

And I realise that this disclaimer is fairly unnecessary. If nothing else, it points me to the fact that I haven't written real blog posts in a while and need to get going and produce something. After all, I have some thoughts and ideas to put on paper :)

Now though, off to work and get that assay working. At the moment too much variability between the triplicates of cells......

...at least I'm not in congress.. nor have a fancy phone...

Every so often something happens out of the ordinary.... 

Lucky me that I don't have a fancy phone with twitter, internet or photos on... nor that I let someone else borrow it too much.  However, if you happen to lend it to someone and they happen to open “new texts” that get delivered during the day… don’t be surprised if there is an awkward silence somewhere in there when the phone is returned to you ;)

I guess I’m even happier I’m not a celeb… not to mention that my family wouldn’t leak things on line ….

Well, that would be my excitement for today. It’ll last me at least a week ^^


[Avoiding the obvious hurt from yesterday when Canucks played abysmal AND Lava passed me in the fantasy league. Now all I can hope for is that Cath doesn’t do the same… I shouldn’t have played it safe with all those SJ and TB players…. :( bitter bitter me]

hockey fail....

I think Lava will beat me in the last and final round.... I picked too many Sharks and Lightning players compared to the competition. Fail on me not to believe in the Canucks all the way (although in fairness, I picked more TB players so it's the Bruins I didn't fully believe in).

Hm, I guess if Krejic (spelling) doesn't score and Erhoff doesn't either (since Lava has him as a double pointer) I might be able to keep my 2 point lead.... However, I think an ice cube has more likelihood of surviving in the Southern summer heat than that ;)

Go Canucks! Looking forward to the games this week.

(Will update on Conference, Hockey and Life very soon. Have fun and interesting news to share. Or, at least interesting thoughts in my book ^^ Let's go with 'sports' bar in NOLA that closes at 10 pm on a Friday led to some odd stuff ... not to mention the idea of "are you the one who can teach us stuff about bioterrorism?" hmmmm - for clarity, the latter comment was in context of an anthrax seminar and food illnesses, even prior to this EHEC outbreak in Europe at the moment. )