I'm back at Panera's! : ) It's like my new home...they know me now. It's kind of scary....they know exactly what I"ll want, although today I threw them for a loop and got this iced mocha almond drink...pretty good! : )
Anyways, today went well. Both meetings were good and I got to sound off some ideas. I think for now, a good compromise has been reached on all fronts....diplomatic me! But I will be doing even more sampling: beat sheets and shaking the tree, pitfall traps in the ground. I'll be collecting all predators, but starting to key out (taxonomy) the spiders first. I'll plan to publish (I have to have something in press by the end of the summer) the spider stuff and work on other predators. Since I'm catching insects from on/in the tree and those dwelling on the ground, I've got some long days, more like long long nights in front of the microscope and using microdissection tools to identify all these insects to species. The crazy thing is, I kind of like doing that stuff -- it's neat, and the bugs become much less scarier when you can see them up close and notice cool things about them or realize just how detailed in structure and function they are and appreciate the complexity that went into their creation. Plus, they are dead when I handle them ; )
So, tomorrow I'm going to a church service and their 20/30's single group afterwards. It should be fun, I went to a thing there on Wed and loved it. Everyone was friendly, the music was very contemporary and it kind of felt very similar to the church in Oxford I went to, which was great. I figure I need to meet people and put myself out there and get active. That's just what I've learned from striking out on my own so often the last several years of my life. Cait's hoping I'll meet my future hubby and hers while I'm in Lexington (hahaha!). Anyways, this is where Melanie goes and another girl from the department, Anna. On Monday I'm going to a 1 year birthday party for my lab mate's son. So that should be fun and there'll be lots of little babies around : )
On a note of babies, I'm loving this time of year! There're tons of fledging birds everywhere and they all seem to like coming on my patio. I've seen robins, blackbird, and there's a trio of pigeon chicks who use my patio to get fed by their parents. It's kind of cool. I really am a nature freak!
The apartment is still so very empty....so tomorrow I'm going to Goodwill and the Salvation Army to try to russle up some furniture. I'm going to be buying a futon from Melanie, so hopefully by the end of the summer, I'll be amenable to guests! It's such a part of my nature to have people over and cook for them or host events....and it's killing me that I can't. Seriously, "welcome to my apartment, don't mind the echo and watch your step I don't have lamps in that part of the apartment; oh and please find a comfortable corner on the floor and make yourselves at home....there's only one cushion, so fight amongst yourselves for it....oh, sorry there's no tv, no stereo...there's well, there's some science textbooks and my childhood random knickknacks you can go through....yep, that's pretty much it." Very warm and friendly ; ) So, that's my next game plan, while in the throughs of major fieldwork that will require me overnighting at several of the sites. I don't think I'll be camping out completely; I'm pretty sure there's a cabin at most of the sites that I can use, and my supervisor has said I won't go out to the field alone. (Which is good, some of those sites are literally along a steep hill on the side of a mountain...)
But I'm looking forward to this new chapter in my life....it should be a good one. Still feeling a bit lonely, but I think I'll be plugged into a good group of friends, and I've met more people from the department who are all friendly, so that's good. In fact, this weekend, I'm taking care of Anna's cat. Her name is Izzy and she's very cute and talkative! Anna lives in the next complex over, so I'll just walk over and feed Izzy/probably make use of Anna's tv and internet! : )
I sure do miss having a dog around though.....went on a pet adoption website today. But I can't get a pet and not have any furniture, so first thing's first.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Thursday, May 24, 2007
So, here I am in Lexington, Kentucky. I'm sitting at a Panera's using the internet until, well, until they kick me out. No one around me in my apartment complex has a wireless account I can piggyback off of. It's been too long since I blogged and I'm sure S's comments sections are like books now because of my contributions. So, it's time I wrote on my own blog again ; )
So, let's recap (I don't know if anyone still reads this thing anyways):
Tuesday (15 May) I drove 9+ hours from the DC area to Kentucky and arrived at the rental office just in time to sign the lease and pick up the keys. But wait...something was amiss. The unit I was assigned, was not cleaned (ever -- they claim otherwise, but you had to have seen it). There was an old used plunger in the bathroom, green gunk all over the tube, secondly the walls had never been painted over, there were huge red stains in the carpets and they definitely were never vacuummed. The fridge hadn't been replaced as she had told me, the kitchen floor was covered in dirt and mud. And, yes, it gets even better guys. In a twist of fate, whose irony was not lost on me: There were spiders everywhere. Cobwebs, and live egg sacs everywhere, from the ceilings and walls in the bedroom, to the rugs/walls/ceilings of the main room. It was horrible. So I ran the block down the hill to try to catch someone at the office to say, there was no way I was moving in there. Thankfully, the woman who had handled most of my application was still there and at first insisted she had walked through the apartment and that it was clean and had been cleaned. I told her she must not have, because it was worse than a camping cabin out in the woods, and that there's no way it was cleaned any time soon. So we went back and forth, with me just dog tired, and almost to the point of tears, but not giving in an inch. Finally she offered to put me up in the hotel for a night, while the cleaners did a once over. I told her it needed more than a once over, it was never cleaned. She finally caught on that I was not going to budge on the matter. So after me trying to call my supervisor, the only person I knew in town and not getting through and just about to lose it, she said she did have a unit available. (In the beginning I had signed a lease for a non-updated apartment because the rent was cheaper). Well the unit I was put in had been vacated/cleaned the week before and was a partial upgrade. It was closer to the office and in a better location in terms of the neighborhood. And it was clean, my goodness was it clean. The walls had been painted and the carpet was fairly new. It made all the difference, and NO SPIDERS! So, we did a through walk through, and she offered me the unit at the original rent price per month. So I agreed. The next day we redid the lease and the rest is history as they say.
Did I mention I have no furniture? On a student budget, right now, i can't allow room for that. So I have an air bed and a folding card table/chairs. In a 2BR townhome. The second bedroom is very tiny, so I know there's no way I'll find a roomate, and as my sister pointed out, I can very well ask someone to move in when I don't have any furniture. But if you do come to visit, my bathroom is awesome (all decorated in a sea theme). There's a tiny closet bath downstairs with a sink and toilet that I've decorated in an African theme. The kitchen is good to go. So I've got the basics, except no furniture and nothing up on my walls yet. Sigh....in time.
So speed up to now (Thursday 24 May). I've been officially working since Monday. Tuesday and today I went out with Melanie (she's the lab tech and really awesome, she's been so friendly and introducing me to a lot of new friends) to various field sites where I'll be sampling. One is Natural Bridge Forest and we hiked to the top of the mountain (um..here's a good point to mention: I am way outta shape!!) and were able to clime to the top of the bridge and look out on the forest valley below. Incredible! The bridge was perfect too, an arch, reminding me of the Bridge at Hertford College in Oxford (just a lot bigger!). The second place today is a research station out in a Forest in the Western part of the state. It was almost a 3 hour drive, and was nice, not too much uphill climing like Natural Bridge. We were planting some saplings out there, but let me tell you, there is tons of poison ivy out there. Hoping I didn't get any -- I've never had a reaction before and I've contacted it many times, but they say the more you do the greater your chance of getting a bad reaction all of a sudden. So let's see. I came home with a friendly reminder that I need to be more mindful when working in the woods: (Girls and those who are weak of heart, skip to the next paragraph). I had a good sized tick stuck in me at the base of my neck on my left shoulder...I didn't notice it until I got home and was getting ready to hop in the shower. Needless to say I freaked out (since I"m alone, I can freak out for a bug -- i mean I know I'm studying them for a living, but I"m still a girl at heart!). And dumped out my makeup bag desperately looking for tweezers! I had no matches....So I pulled once and it didn't come out, but boy my skin can stretch more than I knew. After yelling, rather loudly, several choice words, I closed my eyes and yanked as hard as I could while twisting and managed to dislodge it. Thankfully it hadn't really started to feed, so it wasn't in too deep. But scary, it was a big dog tick (I think it was a dog tick, or else a wood tick). As long as it's not a deer tick, you are okay....but it's still gross, you know!?
So that was my exciting thing for the day! I met the knew PhD student in our lab too and he seems nice. He's working with hemlock trees to, but a different area. I have a feeling we'll be going out to the field together though and I'll be piggybacking off his plots. Tomorrow I meet with both my supervisor and the post-doc who'll be supervising the monoclonal antibody ELISA assay. (Ask S for an explanation on that -- still sketchy on it myself). But he's studied spiders for most of his academic career so he's pushing for a full spider study, while my supervisor wants me to look at all insect orders that may be predators of the hemlock adelgid pest. So, tomorrow's a big day. I have a protocol proposal written up, but will have to alter it to suit everyone's ideas for my summer work and make it my own.
Well, Panera's is closing in a few minutes, so I better wrap this up. I'll blog tomorrow. It feels good to be writing stuff down again!
So, let's recap (I don't know if anyone still reads this thing anyways):
Tuesday (15 May) I drove 9+ hours from the DC area to Kentucky and arrived at the rental office just in time to sign the lease and pick up the keys. But wait...something was amiss. The unit I was assigned, was not cleaned (ever -- they claim otherwise, but you had to have seen it). There was an old used plunger in the bathroom, green gunk all over the tube, secondly the walls had never been painted over, there were huge red stains in the carpets and they definitely were never vacuummed. The fridge hadn't been replaced as she had told me, the kitchen floor was covered in dirt and mud. And, yes, it gets even better guys. In a twist of fate, whose irony was not lost on me: There were spiders everywhere. Cobwebs, and live egg sacs everywhere, from the ceilings and walls in the bedroom, to the rugs/walls/ceilings of the main room. It was horrible. So I ran the block down the hill to try to catch someone at the office to say, there was no way I was moving in there. Thankfully, the woman who had handled most of my application was still there and at first insisted she had walked through the apartment and that it was clean and had been cleaned. I told her she must not have, because it was worse than a camping cabin out in the woods, and that there's no way it was cleaned any time soon. So we went back and forth, with me just dog tired, and almost to the point of tears, but not giving in an inch. Finally she offered to put me up in the hotel for a night, while the cleaners did a once over. I told her it needed more than a once over, it was never cleaned. She finally caught on that I was not going to budge on the matter. So after me trying to call my supervisor, the only person I knew in town and not getting through and just about to lose it, she said she did have a unit available. (In the beginning I had signed a lease for a non-updated apartment because the rent was cheaper). Well the unit I was put in had been vacated/cleaned the week before and was a partial upgrade. It was closer to the office and in a better location in terms of the neighborhood. And it was clean, my goodness was it clean. The walls had been painted and the carpet was fairly new. It made all the difference, and NO SPIDERS! So, we did a through walk through, and she offered me the unit at the original rent price per month. So I agreed. The next day we redid the lease and the rest is history as they say.
Did I mention I have no furniture? On a student budget, right now, i can't allow room for that. So I have an air bed and a folding card table/chairs. In a 2BR townhome. The second bedroom is very tiny, so I know there's no way I'll find a roomate, and as my sister pointed out, I can very well ask someone to move in when I don't have any furniture. But if you do come to visit, my bathroom is awesome (all decorated in a sea theme). There's a tiny closet bath downstairs with a sink and toilet that I've decorated in an African theme. The kitchen is good to go. So I've got the basics, except no furniture and nothing up on my walls yet. Sigh....in time.
So speed up to now (Thursday 24 May). I've been officially working since Monday. Tuesday and today I went out with Melanie (she's the lab tech and really awesome, she's been so friendly and introducing me to a lot of new friends) to various field sites where I'll be sampling. One is Natural Bridge Forest and we hiked to the top of the mountain (um..here's a good point to mention: I am way outta shape!!) and were able to clime to the top of the bridge and look out on the forest valley below. Incredible! The bridge was perfect too, an arch, reminding me of the Bridge at Hertford College in Oxford (just a lot bigger!). The second place today is a research station out in a Forest in the Western part of the state. It was almost a 3 hour drive, and was nice, not too much uphill climing like Natural Bridge. We were planting some saplings out there, but let me tell you, there is tons of poison ivy out there. Hoping I didn't get any -- I've never had a reaction before and I've contacted it many times, but they say the more you do the greater your chance of getting a bad reaction all of a sudden. So let's see. I came home with a friendly reminder that I need to be more mindful when working in the woods: (Girls and those who are weak of heart, skip to the next paragraph). I had a good sized tick stuck in me at the base of my neck on my left shoulder...I didn't notice it until I got home and was getting ready to hop in the shower. Needless to say I freaked out (since I"m alone, I can freak out for a bug -- i mean I know I'm studying them for a living, but I"m still a girl at heart!). And dumped out my makeup bag desperately looking for tweezers! I had no matches....So I pulled once and it didn't come out, but boy my skin can stretch more than I knew. After yelling, rather loudly, several choice words, I closed my eyes and yanked as hard as I could while twisting and managed to dislodge it. Thankfully it hadn't really started to feed, so it wasn't in too deep. But scary, it was a big dog tick (I think it was a dog tick, or else a wood tick). As long as it's not a deer tick, you are okay....but it's still gross, you know!?
So that was my exciting thing for the day! I met the knew PhD student in our lab too and he seems nice. He's working with hemlock trees to, but a different area. I have a feeling we'll be going out to the field together though and I'll be piggybacking off his plots. Tomorrow I meet with both my supervisor and the post-doc who'll be supervising the monoclonal antibody ELISA assay. (Ask S for an explanation on that -- still sketchy on it myself). But he's studied spiders for most of his academic career so he's pushing for a full spider study, while my supervisor wants me to look at all insect orders that may be predators of the hemlock adelgid pest. So, tomorrow's a big day. I have a protocol proposal written up, but will have to alter it to suit everyone's ideas for my summer work and make it my own.
Well, Panera's is closing in a few minutes, so I better wrap this up. I'll blog tomorrow. It feels good to be writing stuff down again!
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