Pardon my not posting any pictures today! Today I am left only with a nice view of the sunrise out of the lab windows rather than a walk in the Park. Brian took Sofie for her walk because I came into work at 5:30am :( I have to do an experiment where there are really weird hours. Like, I went home yesterday from 3:30-6pm to go running and eat "dinner" (2 slices rye bread, 2 spoonfuls crunchy peanut butter, peas), but then came back and worked from 6-10:30pm. Then this morning from 5:30-8:30am, then meeting at 9am, then class from 10:30-noon, then time to immunize my mice at 2pm. Then tonight I have to come back to lab from midnight to 2:30am. It's a weird few days. I'm currently waiting about 6 more minutes until I have to go back over to the bench and finish my experiment. Then once I'm done I'm going to McDonald's until my meeting. I don't care if it's bad for me I want a freaking sausage, egg, and cheese on a biscuit with some coffee (& maybe a hash brown).
The sunrise is very pretty across the city this morning and I wish that I could take a picture for you, but I don't have a fancy phone that does those sorts of things and I didn't bring my camera.
Have a great great great day - esp. to mom & dad on vacation. I am seriously wishing that I was in your shoes right now.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Last bastions of the nice weather
Central Park East - 7:25am
This is just a creepy reminder that it's not yet cold enough for the daisies to be dead. It's 2 days from being December. Why is it 60 degrees and balmy?
Monday, November 28, 2011
Happy Monday!
Central Park East - 6:55am
This morning I was fortunate enough to get to the park early enough to see the sunrise. It was beautiful! The sky was just ethereal. I hope you all have as wonderful a day as mine started. This morning at 9am I give my presentation to the lab on what I've been doing for the last 10 weeks :) Luckily I actually have interesting data to show them - unfortunately I'm not sure what it all means so I'm bracing myself to get a lot of "and what do you think that means?" questions that I'm not so sure I'll have an answer for them.
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Central Park East - 7:00am
Today was wet and dark but, like I mentioned before, I like those kinds of days. The park is quieter because there are always less people there. I've also always thought there was something about being in the rain or snow or sleet that makes you feel a little more alive. Sofie knows what I'm talking about. I think the other people in the park do, too because the ones who are there on the crappy days always seem the most invigorated.
Day 1 without classes was just fantastic. I cannot wait for the day when classes are finally over and I can just focus on research. Have a wonderful day!!
Monday, November 21, 2011
Good morning Monday
Monday, November 21st, 2011
Central Park East - 7:20am
Good morning! I know I promised I'd change up my route through the Park, but getting me to change routines is a very slow process. I have to time how long my new route will take me, make sure the road isn't too close, see if I enjoy the scenery as much, make sure there aren't any mean dogs on the route each morning. These things have to be carefully planned! I've been spending a lot of time focusing on the leaves of autumn, so today I thought I'd take a bunch of pictures of the tree trunks because they are also very different depending on the tree. Also, today we had our usual run-in with Nicholas and Pineapple.... >:-/ I almost kicked him today - he is so annoying! But then Sofie met her other friend, Logan - the flat-coated retriever. He is very handsome and fast and looks like a lean golden retriever, but he is all black with a white strip on his chest. He and Sofie like to chase one another some mornings when it's chilly and they're feeling frisky. Yesterday the potluck went very well. It started at 6:30pm and we didn't end up leaving until maybe 10pm or so. Played a lot of charades and ate tons of good food. The first-years know how to have a good time! This week is going to be so great because I have NO CLASS ALL WEEK!! I am so excited to not have class - you have no idea.
Anyway, have a wonderful day!!
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Friday, November 18, 2011
Happy Friday!
Friday, November 18th, 2011
Mohonk Mountain House - New Paltz, NY
Hello - my camera was out of battery when I got to the park today so I thought I'd share a few pictures of really pretty leaves that I took when I was on my Immunology retreat at Mohonk. I had never seen any leaves like this in my life so I had to take a bunch of photos. This morning was COLD but beautiful in the park. Sofie was very frisky because of the weather and ran around as fast as she could with all the other dogs. Besides that, I gave myself a very bad case of hat hair from wearing my hat to the park after showering. It looks awful now - so bad that I think my outfit is too nice for my hair. Besides that, I am going to go to Bagelworks now and get a Friday morning reward for finishing my biochem test last night. I can't wait for this weekend because tomorrow is the Turkey bowl in Central Park and on Sunday, the first year grad students are having a Thanksgiving potluck (I'm making a pumpkin pie).
Have a great day!
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Central Park East - 7:15am
Good morning! It's starting to get very chilly in the mornings and beginning to look pretty barren! The leaves have almost all dropped off the branches over night in Central Park. It's a little sad that autumn is almost over because it is most definitely my favorite time of year. Winter means that I'll be visiting Oregon and seeing my family and getting a break from classes, so it's good for different reasons. I have a very busy day today - so much so that I was feeling all stressed out the minute I woke up today. I went to the park and felt better after I mapped out (literally down to the minute), when I would be working to get everything done. I think the main thing that is getting to me is that my biochemistry test is due tomorrow by 5pm and I still have a few questions to finish. It isn't in my nature to finish things the day before they are due. Usually by this point whatever it is that is due is printed out, stapled together and in a folder by this point. Feeling like I'll have more work to do late into tonight is just making this day feel endless! I'll have to just stick to my agenda and then really focus on not thinking about the rest of the day. At least tomorrow is Friday! (aka 9am meeting with Gregoire about the week's data that I havn't even thought about processing yet)....groan.
I should stop complaining now since my silly ails are the ails of the white and well-educated (aka "white whine").
Have a wonderful day, everyone!
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Central Park East - 7:05am
No Pineapple or Nicholas today so it was a grand morning! In other news I am 3 days from being done with my 2nd biochem test....yay!!! After this one only 2 more tests to go until Christmas. I have to say, I don't really understand what the point of tests and grades are in graduate school. Didn't signing up for 5 years of making minimum wage, working 70 hour weeks, and banging our heads against a wall all for the love of science prove that we actually like doing this???? In addition, nobody cares what our grades are, anyway, so why have them? And TESTS? Really?
Monday, November 14, 2011
Nicholas & Pineapple
Central Park East, 7:55am
Good morning, good morning. So, remember how I said I had a story for you last Friday? It was so cold out my fingers were frozen and I could barely type. Well today it was much warmer so I'll tell you about Nicholas and Pineapple. Nicholas......and Pineapple....really? Nicholas and Pineapple are two non-neutered, caramel-colored, toy poodles - perfectly groomed of course - it IS the Upper East Side after all. Every morning this man - probably straight and in his 40's-50's - brings Nicolas and Pineapple for their morning walk and enters the park using the same entrance Sofie and I do. First of all, he brings them in a dog stroller. I think this has less to do with the fact that he is one of those crazy people that wants to imagine their dog is a baby, and more to do with the fact that Nicolas and Pineapple are unmanageable on a leash so he has difficulties walking them down the sidewalk. So, every morning when I see the stroller pull up, Sofie and I walk faster and try to get as far away as possible before these sex-crazed hounds are released to run free in search of ladies.
Pineapple has about half the voracious sexual appetite of poor Nicholas, so he doesn't usually try and follow us. But NICHOLAS is another story. He immediately bolts from the stroller and heads straight for Sofie. Nicholas' owner starts screaming and yelling for him to come back, but Nicholas pays no attention. For the next 10 or so minutes, I walk with Sofie as she is harangued by this little terror trying to mount her. She does this pattern of snaps to Nicholas' face followed by quick (and vain), dashes away. When we get out of sight of Nicholas' owner, I proceed to give little smacks to Nicholas because he is annoying and disrupts my walk. Smacking Nicholas never gets him to go away - he is too in love. Anyway, we eventually get to a point where I feel sorry for Sofie because she has had to defend herself all along the first part of her walk - so I pick her up and stand there to wait for this man to come and fetch Nicholas.
Eventually he comes running up all out of breath and - this is the most embarrassing part - when he arrives Nicholas has his 2 front paws up on my leg and is staring at Sofie and loudly whimpering. Nicholas is begging my dog to take pity on him and allow him to screw her. Nicholas get some game - that is so demeaning! So, the owner gives me a perturbed look - every morning - like it's my fault his dog is a sex freak - and then chastises Nicholas about how he must go back in the stroller because he's been a bad, bad dog this morning.
This happens on frequent occasion lately, so this morning I tried to change up my plans and enter through a different entrance that puts me about a field away from Nicholas. Would you believe that it didn't matter one bit? Nicholas darted across the field at top speed the minute he was let out of his stroller this morning to come and find us. I mentioned to the owner one morning that perhaps Nicholas would be less frustrated and behave if he were to be neutered. The owner exclaimed that he could not possibly ever do such a terrible thing to his little dog........give me a break.
I should just start doing what my Dad - aka the Chuck Norris of dogs - used to do when he used to walk Mundi, our golden retriever in the college fields. What is it, you ask, that my Dad used to carry around with him on dog walks? The answer is a large aluminum bat used for my sister and my softball games (that Ralph Oyler is GANSTER!). I have to think, though, that in NYC if someone saw you walking through Central Park at 6:30am with an aluminum bat, that they'd probably think you had just killed someone and call the NYPD.
There's your morning story - have a wonderful day!
Friday, November 11, 2011
Happy Friday!
Central Park East, 7:45am
Have a wonderful Friday! I wish I could type more - I have a story for you all but it was so cold this morning I my fingers are frozen. I am ready to have my coffee and warm them up!
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Central Park East - 7:17am
Sofie attempting to eat dirt & grass. One of her primary joys of going to the park in the morning is eating the dirt. I'm going to change up my walking routine next week I think. So, hopefully I'll have some new fun things to take pictures of.
Have a wonderful day!!
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Central Park East - 7:00am
We are finally into the midst of fall - the leaves are the prettiest they've been all season. I am enjoying every day they are here before the trees are barren for the winter. It will be pretty then, too, just in a different way.
Have a wonderful day!!
Monday, November 7, 2011
Friday, November 4, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Central Park East - The Great Lawn - 8:00am
12 hour time-point down, 24 and 36 hours to go :) Last night was an odd experience. Went home from work, walked Sofie in the Park - I might add it was a beautiful afternoon - then went to the gym and did a spin class, then came home around 8:15, cooked eggs and broccoli, showered and then.....got dressed and went back to work? It was a bit surreal - like time was in fast-forward and it was the next day again. This feeling was added to when I got to lab and it wasn't deserted. I got there around 9:45pm, then worked until 1:15am. Luckily a friend from lab was there working on his candidacy exam. In need of some distraction and conversation he helped me the whole time and really made the job more pleasant. In the process I learned all about computers and the history of computer science. I'm supposed to look up Countess Lovelace because apparently she is very interesting. Either way - evenings like that are nice surprises - you expect to be slogging around the lab all by yourself until 1 in the morning and you end up having a grand old time.
I'm a bit tired this morning but I think it's mainly because when my alarm went off I was having a pity party for myself that I only slept 5 hours (i.e. not because I'm actually tired). In exchange for having to do that twice again today, I'm treating myself to Bagelworks this morning instead of making breakfast and coffee for myself. It's the little things :)
Have an excellent excellent day!!
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Location: The couch - 8:45am
I did not go to the Park this morning - Brian took Sofie since he knew I have a tough experiment coming up today and tomorrow that involves me doing large parts of the experiment at 12/24/36 hour timepoints. That means that this evening at 10pm will be my 12 hr, tomorrow morning at 10am will be 24 and tomorrow night at 10pm will be 36. Starting a timepoint at 10pm means that it will probably be finished 2 hours later or so...yay. It involves sacrificing my mice, harvesting their lymph nodes and spleen for their T cells, and then measuring the degree of activation in those T cells. So I'm grateful that instead of getting up this morning at 6:30am, I got to sleep until 8am :) Thanks Brian!
By the way...this is what Sofie does after she is walked and fed her breakfast. She goes back to sleep for her morning nap.
Have a wonderful day, everyone!
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
One more thing...
Hi again - I just read an article that describes just how significant the damage is to the trees in Central Park. This may not seem like a big deal, but for those of us who depend on the Park to give us our daily dose of green - it's sad when when you see big beautiful tree limbs in all their fiery, Northeast color, hanging off the trunks. Especially when the Central Park Conservancy works SO HARD to protect the rarer, older trees.
Here's the article I found:
http://www.truth-out.org/central-park-snow-collected-still-leafy-branches-fells-even-hardy-trees/1320093560
"The damage was spread across about half of Central Park’s 840 acres, making it the worst devastation that Douglas Blonsky, president of the Central Park Conservancy, had seen in his 27 years there."
Here's the article I found:
http://www.truth-out.org/central-park-snow-collected-still-leafy-branches-fells-even-hardy-trees/1320093560
"The damage was spread across about half of Central Park’s 840 acres, making it the worst devastation that Douglas Blonsky, president of the Central Park Conservancy, had seen in his 27 years there."
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