The other night, I was heading down the elevator when I ran into one of the members of the Brain Trust:
"Are you going on another date? How do you psych yourself up for all of these dates?"
I giggled. I'm not sure what gave me away. Was it the sparkly pink, supershiny lipgloss I usually reserve for raucous nights out? Perfume? The fact that I was actually wearing makeup?
So, yes ladies. Active surveillance is officially over for now. After a two month hiatus from dating, I decided to come out of hibernation and to see if there was anything worth checking out. And yeah, sometimes it is hard to psych myself up for a date, because in a lot of ways, it's like trying to get excited about yet another job interview. But each time I hear that little voice whispering "Dating is drudgery, wouldn't you rather just hang out with your friends?" I try to ignore it and carry on. I simply can't lose faith in love.
Well, I went to a ski club happy hour, a college alumni holiday party, and did my usual Tuesday night chill-out and knit with the girls. It was great to meet some new people and as a result of these adventures, three dates emerged.
The first was a bust from the start. He knew it, I knew it, we proceeded, we were proven correct. The second and third have some potential. The second was a lovely fix-up with the friend of a friend's S.O., and the third...well, it's gotta mean something if a guy walks through a blizzard to take you to dinner. More to come...
Monday, December 27, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Strength and Flexibility
I was at my kick ass yoga class tonight (literally, this class is a killer, but oh so good for the weary back), and the instructor always opens with a parable about what yoga can do for us. Now, this isn't some new-agey, crunchy granola blog post, but the theme tonight resonated with me.
Our instructor talked about how yoga isn't just about becoming more flexible, but that it was also about building strength and musculature. Taking it further, he talked about how the best way to deal with everything in life--the good, the bad, the ugly--is all about being strong, while being flexible at the same time.
It may seem like strength and flexibility are two opposing forces--after all, shouldn't something strong be rigid and unyielding?
I don't know if it's the lousy sudden winter weather, but lately, I've been feeling a bit down about being a woman in my field. I went to our society's meeting a couple weeks ago, and was surrounded by a sea of male colleagues. As I watched the blatant schmoozing, I wondered briefly about the sanity of my choices (heck, I'm sure every woman in a male-dominated field does every now and then). As you know from previous blog posts, I've been doing a lot of thinking about what I want my professional life to look like once I'm done with this endless training, and the whole strength and flexibility aspect really comes into play.
As a woman in a male-dominated field, we have to be strong enough to accept that, even if it seems like it at times, we're never going to be one of the guys. However, we also have a unique opportunity to enjoy the flexibility to think about things from a different perspective, and do things our own way. Even in the way we interact on a daily basis, I think we ladies have to be very strong internally to be flexible enough to survive in the world we live and work in.
My yoga instructor said tonight that we can't be flexible if we aren't strong. We each have to build our core to be flexible enough to make our way through this maze.
Our instructor talked about how yoga isn't just about becoming more flexible, but that it was also about building strength and musculature. Taking it further, he talked about how the best way to deal with everything in life--the good, the bad, the ugly--is all about being strong, while being flexible at the same time.
It may seem like strength and flexibility are two opposing forces--after all, shouldn't something strong be rigid and unyielding?
I don't know if it's the lousy sudden winter weather, but lately, I've been feeling a bit down about being a woman in my field. I went to our society's meeting a couple weeks ago, and was surrounded by a sea of male colleagues. As I watched the blatant schmoozing, I wondered briefly about the sanity of my choices (heck, I'm sure every woman in a male-dominated field does every now and then). As you know from previous blog posts, I've been doing a lot of thinking about what I want my professional life to look like once I'm done with this endless training, and the whole strength and flexibility aspect really comes into play.
As a woman in a male-dominated field, we have to be strong enough to accept that, even if it seems like it at times, we're never going to be one of the guys. However, we also have a unique opportunity to enjoy the flexibility to think about things from a different perspective, and do things our own way. Even in the way we interact on a daily basis, I think we ladies have to be very strong internally to be flexible enough to survive in the world we live and work in.
My yoga instructor said tonight that we can't be flexible if we aren't strong. We each have to build our core to be flexible enough to make our way through this maze.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Research
I have received some gentle feedback regarding the fact that I haven't posted in awhile (ahem, sorry Brain Trust). Well, besides the fact that I've been on active surveillance recently, things have been heating up with my research. I've been spending a lot of quality time in the lab learning about cell lines, how to manage them, and new definitions of sterile technique.
When I started my research year, I decided that it would be about expanding my mind in as many ways as possible--professionally and personally. Professionally, that means diving head first into the deep end of the pool of basic science research with nary a life vest in sight. What I've learned thus far, is that it's actually a lot like learning to operate.
There's a myriad of terminology to learn, and an alphabet soup of acronyms to go along with it. There's a whole new set of equipment to play with (I'm doing my best to not blow up a centrifuge by unbalancing it). And best of all, there's a great new group of people to learn from and collaborate with. It reminds me a lot of being a third year med student and learning the ropes of the OR. There's some gentle ribbing and chiding, but ultimately, a lot of truly generous hands-on and on-the-fly learning.
It's fun to be part of a creative process. Each day I try out one thing a few times, if it doesn't work, I troubleshoot it, or ask the deepest question of science..."why?"
The one big difference between the OR SFS and the lab SFS is that I realize I'm impatient.
The OR is all about instant gratification--see the tumor, cut it out, on-the-spot results. I spent all week growing up some cells, and then all yesterday afternoon performing an assay, hoping it would work, and after running it on the flow cytometer today, I found out it didn't. My initial excitement at doing the experiment was mildly dampened when I realized it was going to take another week before I could try this again.
But...when the stuff does work, and there are results, it's one of the most amazing feelings. All I want to do is proudly post that hard-earned graph on my refrigerator and say, "I did that."
When I started my research year, I decided that it would be about expanding my mind in as many ways as possible--professionally and personally. Professionally, that means diving head first into the deep end of the pool of basic science research with nary a life vest in sight. What I've learned thus far, is that it's actually a lot like learning to operate.
There's a myriad of terminology to learn, and an alphabet soup of acronyms to go along with it. There's a whole new set of equipment to play with (I'm doing my best to not blow up a centrifuge by unbalancing it). And best of all, there's a great new group of people to learn from and collaborate with. It reminds me a lot of being a third year med student and learning the ropes of the OR. There's some gentle ribbing and chiding, but ultimately, a lot of truly generous hands-on and on-the-fly learning.
It's fun to be part of a creative process. Each day I try out one thing a few times, if it doesn't work, I troubleshoot it, or ask the deepest question of science..."why?"
The one big difference between the OR SFS and the lab SFS is that I realize I'm impatient.
The OR is all about instant gratification--see the tumor, cut it out, on-the-spot results. I spent all week growing up some cells, and then all yesterday afternoon performing an assay, hoping it would work, and after running it on the flow cytometer today, I found out it didn't. My initial excitement at doing the experiment was mildly dampened when I realized it was going to take another week before I could try this again.
But...when the stuff does work, and there are results, it's one of the most amazing feelings. All I want to do is proudly post that hard-earned graph on my refrigerator and say, "I did that."
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