Kristy-to-go

2011-07-11T19:06:00.000-04:00

http://avasig.com/modules/Search/mylife.html

For more frequent updates...

2009-05-10T00:28:00.002-04:00

and an archive of what all is here, visit my consolidated knitting-takes-over-my-life blog at

The Knitting Lamb

If we're all going to hell in a handbasket...

2009-03-20T15:06:00.004-04:00

I at least want to understand what's going on!

NPR (remember, me the tissue-culture-girl extraordinare) is how I'm keeping up with (and trying to understand) the financial crisis.

This American Life is an awesome show, and the Bad Bank episode is how I finally understood how banks work. Shameful, I'm working on a PhD at Yale and I didn't *really* understand how banks worked until now. Of course, genetics coursework doesn't really cover the banking system. I could have told you more about blood banks than money banks just a month ago! This American Life has done several other shows on the financial crisis, I just need to get around to listening to them.

The Planet Money people are brilliant. Down to earth, probing, pretty good about presenting lots of approaches and pro/cons to the situation. They podcast 3 times a week and Twitter/blog much more than that. The news reports don't tell me what I need know, and these guys do.

Contamination

2009-03-18T11:12:00.001-04:00

Dirty word, contamination. But sure enough, my tissue culture cells - all the cell lines I started making in January - wound up with bacterial contamination. Ugh. What looked intially like cell debris was on closer examination tiny little bacteria, that made my cells trypsinize and move off their plates.

Five years, no contamination...I started doing tissue culture in June 2003. It's been a loooooong time, so I guess I had it coming, but it's still kind of depressing.

Peanuts

2008-11-05T22:44:00.002-05:00

United Features Syndicate, the people who own Peanuts (and a bunch of other great comic strips) have finally put the entire Peanuts archive online. So I had to hunt down my very favorite comic.

This one also tugs my heart quite a bit:

I hope I never have to find out.

I have my life back...

2008-09-30T17:40:00.002-04:00

Now that my qualifying exam is behind me, life is full of possibility again. Time to spend with friends. Time to have hobbies. Time to do the work that I came to graduate school to do, instead of sitting around fretting about whether or not I deserve to be here.

I feel so grateful, being able to return to the things and people and places and activities that I really do love, and to live free from all that pressure. Of course, now that the external pressures are off, I have realized that it's going to have to be an internal drive to the finish line the next three or four years. Both a blessing and a curse - on one hand, I am my own best advocate and on the other my own worst enemy.

I'm trying to spend a lot of time thinking about how I want to structure my time and what I really want to fill it with. What's really *me* and what are things that I don't care for but do because I "ought". What oughts are good and what oughts are not necessary? I want to be excited about every minute of my life again, not just "it's alright".

Cupcake Truck!

2008-08-26T14:47:00.000-04:00

So someone, somewhere, somehow heard my oft-plea "but there are no sweet treats at the carts!

Don't get me wrong, I think the carts are great, I just usually pack my lunch (cheaper and healthier!). Mid-afternoon, I sometimes want a snack, but I don't want vending machines. Now, there's a cupcake truck! They keep people up to date on when they're coming out and what they have that day on Food-Driven: The Cupcake Truck Blog.

Sadly, it's up on the Hill, and I'm down at the Med School, so it will be more of an occasional treat than a regular one, but that's probably what cupcakes ought to be. I had the chocolate cupcake with cream cheese icing. The icing was spectacular - it was very real cream cheese frosting, not the over-sugared variety, with that lovely tarty finish. I can see this being a regular "treat for trekking all the way to Science Hill for something" event.

The best of intentions...

2008-08-17T16:18:00.003-04:00

There are so many things that I plan to do, that I desperately WANT to do, and yet I never seem to actually wind up doing.

I spent a year waiting to repot my little green tree that was very sad in it's former container in my bedroom. I have had picture frames and every intention of printing pictures for them for almost two years now. I have photos of my family that are a year and a half later unframed. I have the old Macs I'd love to do something splendidly creative with, but am yet to get going on it. And of course, there is all the yarn, delightfully waiting fates, and the fabric, including an entire quilt pre-cut out!

On one hand, I would love to feel a greater sense of accomplishment from completing these tasks, to get the burden of them being undone off my mind. And of course, the reason they are sitting around waiting to be done is that I honestly believe doing these things will add value to my life.

So why aren't these things done yet? Why and how do I "waste" my free time such that these things I want to do remain undone? How do I get more done in my free time without feeling like it's way too structured?

I know that one possible answer to the problem is to put the computer down and walk away to do something that has higher value and meaning in my life. I am also going to make a list of "what can I do with x amount of time" and list the projects I really want done. That way, if I have an hour, I can look at the list and pick an activity, instead of just floating around aimlessly.

It's been a while...

2008-01-11T12:23:00.000-05:00

Since I even thought to update this thing. Oh well.

And now I'm not even at all interesting, since I'm qualifying. I feel like all I do anymore is read (true) and all I think about is science (also, largely true, though some of the same old distractions remain...starting to doubt they'll ever go away).

I have given up my anti-desk stance and, for the reading period, converted my sewing table to a desk. Alas. It was a brilliant thing while it lasted.

Almost there...

2007-07-26T23:23:00.001-04:00

Almost there..., originally uploaded by kllamb.

Almost packed up, less than 48 hours from moving. Once again, my life in boxes. When does the merry-go-round end?

Moving sucks

2007-07-21T23:24:00.000-04:00

I'm great at packing.

I'm great at unpacking.

It's that unpleasant middleness that's going to make my life suck for the next week or so.

Dude, it's my iPhone's great-granddaddy!

2007-07-20T01:17:00.000-04:00

fudder %u25CF%u25CF%u25CF neuigkeiten aus freiburg:�The very first iPhone

1983. My lifetime later...wow. To think what the next 25 years holds...maybe Emily's wish to have a Google button in her brain will come to fruition.

Odd day

2007-07-15T17:08:00.000-04:00

I am sitting on my new porch and this guy just went by in an orange
shirt carrying a bag of Cheetos and two orange sodas.

Wonder what his favorite color is?

Bloom'n!

2007-07-06T01:47:00.001-04:00

My orchid is in bloom, again. I'm so proud of it:

Twilight zone

2007-07-02T00:03:00.001-04:00

I think it's really weird when I do a Google search for information and find something I posted to a message board years ago. Below, something I posted to snopes.com's message boards during my sophomore year of undergrad:

I was there for the whole month of July, so saw quite a bit - I had an arts class that had a field trip a day. Scoured the city for Wagner architecture and Klimt paintings (the Belvedere was super), Historiches Museum Der Stadt Wien, Secession, Karlkirche, the whole Ring, Stephansdom, tried out the flomarkt (not impressed, sadly), did the "summer night films" at the Rathaus thing several times, saw "Don Quixote" at Theater an der Wien, "The Barber of Seville" at the Schonbrunn, ate entirely too much eis at that stand on the Ring at the Swedenplatz U-Bahn stop, and spent many a night at the Chestnut Tree (Zun Narrischen Kastanienbaum) on Strozzigasse, my favorite restaurant on this entire planet.

I would really love to go back to Vienna someday, and sit under the chestnut trees in the back again and have wiener schnitzel and garlic cream soup, then stroll through the city just soaking it up. Can soaking up cities be a full-time past-time?

New things

2007-06-19T13:09:00.001-04:00

I have tried the following things for the first time in the last 24 hours:

Sushi
Imitation Crabmeat
Tofu pockets
Yoga

High school yearbooks...

2007-05-30T00:36:00.001-04:00

I'm going through my high school yearbook and I really do feel like most of this needs to be shared with the world.

My senior year, I was voted:
Who's Who in Academics
Most intellectual (Kie was most likely to succeed)
Most likely to take over Microsoft

I wish I had a scanner at my parents so I could share with the world this picture of my pointing over a dear guy friend's shoulder like I'm telling him what to do on the computer screen (which was actually a powerbook we had to cover up the Apple on since we were "taking over Microsoft"...hahaha).

My 20 year prediction (aka, I've got fifteen years left):

"Kristy now has three children ages 10, 7, and 2. (Hum, five years left to get started on that one) She attended NCSU (check!) and got a PhD from Duke in Genetics (turned them down, upgrade Duke to Yale). Kristy now works as a research professor and lives somewhere in the Triangle Area in NC. Kristy's greatest accopmlishment has been becoming a consultant, appearing on PBS's NOVA, and bieng a Brownie troop leader."

Is is strange that that really hasn't changed that much? I think the greatest accomplishments I would now reword with the Jesus perspective on life, but really, it doesn't sound like a bad life that I had planned out for myself.

My grandma is amazing

2007-05-29T22:09:00.000-04:00

Things my beloved Maw Maw Sadie has said this week -

"You know, a girl could go out without clothes on as long as she had good shoes and a nice handbag."

"If God wants me to have a third husband, He's going to have to really just put him in my lap. I don't want to bury a third one, mind you, but I'd really like a good Christian man for companionship. Someone who would want to go to church and serve the church and serve the Lord and pray. I would like a man like that." My reply? "I'm 24, you're 70, and I think we pretty much have the same problem."

"Every night I pray that God's will be done. There's no sense in askin' for anything else."

And her all time classic -

"As long as you have your Bible and your rolling pin, it's going to be okay."

The Search is Over...

2007-05-21T00:08:00.000-04:00

I have found the most amazing chocolate...

EVER.

Santander milk chocolate. Single-origin Columbian chocolate, 36% cacao, over 20% solid dairy fats. Best milk chocolate bar I've ever had (and that includes all my European adventures).

My quest in life is now simply to find another one.

I joined a lab!

2007-05-15T23:32:00.000-04:00

May 11, I finally came to my decision, and joined the Kim lab. I'm pretty excited about it. Even though it is a little scary to join a brand-new lab, I think the research is facinating and it will really allow me to grow intellectually in grad school. I also feel entirely okay saying, "I am confused and do not understand" without being thought of as stupid. That counts for a lot.

Arrrgh!

2007-05-10T20:45:00.000-04:00

So I have come to a realization -

You CAN be in school too long.

I am very tired of the semester-exam treadmill. Six years is enough! One more semester, though, and my school experience will be forever...different.

City songs

2007-05-09T00:09:00.000-04:00

I want to find my New Haven song, probably because I'm so fond of my Raleigh song.

What makes the city song the city song? It has to:
1) Mention the city I'm living in/have lived in
2) Capture my sentiments toward the city.

My Raleigh song was Wagon Wheel, whose original lyrics are typically attributed to Bob Dylan. The song was popularized by Old Crow Medicine Show, and when the bluegrass-y fiddle gets going in my car everyone practically snerks at the fact that, at the end of the day, I am quite Southern after all.

My favorite lines from that song...

Headed down south to the land of the pines
Thumbin' my way to North Caroline
Starin' up the road
And pray to God I see headlights

I made it down the coast in seventeen hours
Picked me a bouquet of dogwood flowers
And I'm a hopin' for Raleigh
Wanna see my baby tonight

Runnin' from the cold up in New England
I was born to be a fiddler in an old-time stringband
My baby plays the guitar
I pick a banjo now

And I gotta get a move on before the sun
I hear my baby callin' my name
And I know that she's the only one
And if I die in Raleigh
At least I will die free

Every time I put on my iPod on the flight home, this is the first song I play.

So the hope is that some day, New Haven will have a song too. Therefore, dear friends, be on the lookout for New Haven in song...I'll find it someday.

Word roots, as recently discussed at parties

2007-05-06T16:59:00.000-04:00

From my massacred reading of the Oxford English Dictionary (aka, people who are working on PhDs in Classics would be much more helpful) -

The origin of a musician's "gig" is unknown, but dates back to c. 1920 in print.

Ovation, in the context of applause, first appeared in print in the 1830s. It largely came straight over from Latin, and in Roman times meant an entry that was a little below a triumphal one. The Latin ovant shares a root with the classical Greek ovation. Appparently ovum, and ovulation, have that all important u that leads back to the Latin word for egg. So ovation and ovulation are totally, word wise, unrelated. And biologically pretty unrelated as well...

School of Music people are a riot, for the record. Yay for cake binges!

Scared Senseless

2007-05-06T16:05:00.000-04:00

Just for Tori - or more aptly, to keep a deal with Tori:

So I just ran downstairs to grab the quarters I bought yesterday out of my dash (laundry day it is) and as I was opening the front door to the house, my neighbor was opening it from the outside. I think I just knocked a good few days off the end of my life.

The updated states-visited list

2006-10-08T17:25:00.000-04:00

States I'd visited as of 2004:

After my summer in Michigan (2005):

After interviews:

After moving (mid 2006):

After the MCGD retreat:

create your own personalized map of the USA

I think I need to go to Kentucky, on principle.

More pics from the retreat and stories forthcoming. Genetics homework first. :(

Find a Dunkin' Donuts Store Location Near You

2006-10-06T01:12:00.000-04:00

Find a Dunkin' Donuts Store Location Near You

There are 46 Dunkin Doughnuts within a 10 mile radius of my apartment. Why isn't New England fat?

Thali

2006-09-30T00:45:00.000-04:00

Thali Restaurants : New Haven, CT

The lab went here for lunch on Thursday for Jenny's birthday, and it was just amazing. Wonderful. Splendid. Happy happy happy wonderful food. I have to go again...too good for words.

Leaves

2006-09-29T15:17:00.000-04:00

Out the window at work, I can see the tops of an area of trees. The tops come up to about six feet below the window level. It's a very cool effect, swaying in the breeze, fluttering. Kind of like that exhibit of butterflies as soon as you enter the NC Museum of Art. One leaf is red. That's it. The rest are still green, but one vibrant red one. I shall call it Dulcina.

My day

2006-09-21T23:58:00.000-04:00

Where I ate lunch:

Where I did my genetics homework:

Mom and the bunny

2006-09-21T18:19:00.000-04:00

So the day before I moved up here, I was at my parents house. I wake up to my mom, very upset, yelling "one of the bunnies is gone!".

Bryson and Melissa have bunnies that are still (for some unknown reason) at my parent's house.

They started out with two bunnies, and were told they were both girls.

We now have eight bunnies. You do the math. :)

The bunnies actually nearly had two litters...but my mom would find the little ones dead (or worse). So when these were born, my mama moved them inside for a while and took care of them.

She is attached to these bunnies.

One morning one of the girls (we finally learned to sex them, ha!) gnawed a hole in the cage and lept four feet to the ground. My mom noticed she was missing when she went out to feed them.

We looked under the big deck closest to the bunny cage, no bunny. We saw a giant wild bunny across the yard, but it clearly was not the bunny we lost. I checked the garden because that's where Peter Rabbit went. No luck.

As we were giving up in despair, my dad notices something move under the little porch stairs to the kitchen door.

Bingo. Bunny.

But of course, the bunny was waaay too far underneath the porch to be reachable by human hands. Since we've seen many a cartoon, Mom lured the bunny out with...

a carrot.

Mom was very happy that the bunny was safe.

Rough Couple Weeks

2006-09-21T18:11:00.000-04:00

Life has been okay, it's just been a rough couple of weeks. Bob, my grandmother's husband, passed away of lung cancer Sept. 9th. He was diagnosed Aug. 1 - just five weeks. It was quick. I flew home for the funeral a couple hours after they called me, and got back to New Haven after midnight a few days later...since then it's been the catch up game. Other than that...

-First small group at CPC tonight. I'm very excited.
-My roommates are great. Cooking together and playing games together is a lot of fun...and even talking about papers is better with them around. ;D
-I'm working on getting the hang of this paper-reading thing. I'll get there. Eventually.

Homesickness comes and goes. There are moments when I want to be back in Raleigh so bad that I could just sit and sob for a while, and there are moments that this place is really starting to feel like home. Transitions are hard, but in the end, I think they're worth it.

Sore

2006-09-03T21:14:00.000-04:00

Yesterday Jeanne and I went to the gym and swam laps. It felt good to exercise, but daaaaaang my shoulders and arms hurt today.

Matriculation

2006-08-31T23:52:00.000-04:00

Matriculation was actually really really awesome. We started the day at HGS (Hall of Graduate Studies) for breakfast, then we processed - they closed the street and followed a cop on a bicycle - to Sprague Hall. The University President and Dean of the Grad school kept their speeches quite short, and then a grad student acapella group perform. It was great fun - the faculty in academic regalia and the whole nine yards. We then (and we is like 300 people) processed to the President's house, which is filled with art from the Yale art gallery (a Lichtenstein! a Matisse! insanity!), and into the backyard where we shook some hands, were formally welcomed to Yale, then signed the matriculation book.

After we signed the book (and picked up our pins with the grad school shield), we headed back to HGS for lunch. As we were leaving, President Levin left at the same time we did and we encountered him at his gate. He said we caught him leaving his own party, then joined me and Anna's conversation about whether or not hiking would be possible this weekend with some suggestions about hiking trails in the area. We ran into him *again* later...in one day I saw him more times than I ever spoke to Oblinger or Fox. Too cool.

At lunch, they had grad school-shield embellished chocolate coins, though we imagine we can't redeem them for anything valuable, even if Chris does slay a dragon that clearly must live somewhere around HGS.

Tonight was great fun as well - we went to BAR, had some pizza, then to GYPSY.

Look what I got last Monday...

2006-08-27T19:48:00.000-04:00

New nephew named Tyler. He's tiny but will be huge before I see him.

Here at last...

2006-08-23T19:59:00.000-04:00

Finally, in my apartment, with internet, this is the life.

So last week was hectic, getting my life together and on it's merry way. We picked up the mattress I bought right after we picked up the Penske Truck last Thursday. Before we did all that, we went bunny chasing, but that's a story for another day.

Clearly, I'm very very happy with my new mattress.

We packed up the truck that afternoon, then some wonderful peoples who weren't in Raleigh to tell me goodbye came over for dinner...

And we hung out til late. Finally, though, it was time to say goodbye.

The next day we left Rockwell at 7, Salisbury at 8, and saw lots of the open road.

And we drove on and on and on...Maryland rocks for having free internet, New Jersey is RIDICULOUSLY long.

Here's the Deleware Memorial Bridge, btw.

We took the NJ turnpike to the Garden State Parkway to the Tapp An Zee bridge, then we FINALLY got to Connecticut only to find ourselves sitting in an hour and a half of traffic (at midnight) due to emergency road work on 95. Insane. Once we arrived at the hotel, we pretty much collapsed into bed (at 1:15 AM). This is what we saw out our hotel room, though...

Maryland ROCKS!

2006-08-18T16:39:00.000-04:00

I finally got my computer back Wednesday. Obviously, lots of updating to do, but the really amazing thing to share right now is that Maryland is the GREATEST STATE EVER because they have - get this - FREE wireless internet at all their welcome centers.

I heart Maryland (with the exception of the Terrapins) with the firey passion of my soul!

I'm really leaving...

2006-08-02T22:44:00.000-04:00

The moment I realized today that (for my years in the Sikes lab) I had run my last PCR, loaded my last gel, and walked into Mike's office with results for the last time...really sucked.

I just realized I can pack my close-toed tennis shoes cause I won't need them here anymore. Here come the tears - again. I'm a weepy weepy wimp.

Driving away from hanging out after homegroup last night also really sucked. I'm going to miss those saints more than anything in this world (and I know I'm not supposed to want the world, I just want them in it).

It's hardest to leave when you're insanely happy.

Last week in Raleigh

2006-07-31T13:37:00.000-04:00

Five years later...it's my last week in Raleigh.

I feel very very torn. I talked to Kristie for a while yesterday and it helped (look, people leave and go on to live healthy and normal lives!). I'll miss this place like crazy - these people, this city, my life here. It's great and it's glorious and God blessed me SOOOOOOO much here - He sought me out, and I have this amazing community of friends and Brothers and Sisters in Christ. But...I know that there are plans for me that involve tearing myself away from this place I love. I sincerely believe it is the will of God for me to go, now. I'm just leaving a lot behind, and trusting that God really does have the best in mind for me, and that He will abundantly bless me where ever I go.

I'm working on finding a church in New Haven...that's the biggie that's totally unsettled. I've got the list down to a few, but I am also hoping to find some places to check out once I'm there. I'm really into churches that realize that they are not a building, but the Body of Christ, and the people who serve really are the church. Not the easiest thing to ID from afar.

Big big bummer...

2006-07-30T11:23:00.000-04:00

I just woke up (11:15 AM).

This means I slept through my last Sunday at Grace. :(

Modern Living / Neurotica series

2006-07-27T21:11:00.000-04:00

Modern Living / Neurotica series

Interactive, kinda creepy, black and white flash animations. Just odd.

How to tell you've worked at your job a long time

2006-07-27T17:35:00.000-04:00

So the power flickered during the thunderstorm this afternoon - more than enough to turn the power on most of the machines off.

Everyone walked around, testing this machine and that machine, getting it all back going. After that people started to just go back to work.

Then it hit me - it was waaaay too quiet. Something big and loud was missing.

Sure enough, the -80 was totally off. Turns out that even though it is on the emergency generator, the flicker tripped the circuit. Disaster-avoided.

I feel like Wonder Woman today. :)

Itchy and scratchy and Andi's my girl

2006-07-27T08:34:00.000-04:00

Andi is a beautiful, wonderful, servant and daughter of the God on High.

She happily picked me up last night and carted me to Rex to the ER.

I really thought I was going to make it out of Raleigh without a trip there.

So the verdict: IgE mediated hypersensitivity to Nantucket Nectar's Organic Cloudy Apple Juice.

I'm going to be itchy for my last week in Raleigh and perhaps a bit splotchy too. And I have enough drugs to make anyone sleep through the whole thing, but they never do that to me usually (whohoo). Out of the woods for anaphylaxis, despite my giant swollen tongue - that would have been a very immediate reaction.

Now off to try to work (yes, I'm nuts but it's better than lying in bed thinking "I itch I itch I itch."

The worst day ever...

2006-07-26T16:31:00.000-04:00

PCRs mysteriously stopped working.

Thought life was bad.

Then I had a serious allergic reaction to *organic* apple juice.

sigh

At last

2006-07-19T20:38:00.000-04:00

Finally got that haircut. Nice to have it all gone.

Slipcovers and sweet views

2006-07-16T09:39:00.000-04:00

I spent pretty much all day yesterday with Andi, and she is, in fact, one of the most amazing women alive. She's moving into a new place, so I made her slipcovers. The little sewing machine that could from Greengate held up great (but they aren't done yet...) and Andi and I took a couple breaks and had some very very good talks enjoying the deer and great views of downtown from inside the beltline.

Three more Sundays at Grace, including today. I'm just a little bit scared. But that's okay. At the moment, Raleigh seems like the most perfect place on Earth, and I must be CRAZY to leave, but when facing the totally unknown, of course the familiar is idealized.

I really like art.

2006-07-12T00:40:00.000-04:00

I think most people don't realize this, but I really dig art. Especially modern art.

My love affair with art started in June 1999, when I was in Scotland and saw Van Gogh's Olive Trees: Bright Blue Sky. This crummy online picture doesn't even start to do it justice.

What got me was the color, and the brushstrokes. Oh, the brushstrokes. I think I would love the painting even if I had only seen two square inches of it. There's texture and there's life and...oh. Beauty.

But really, these days, that's not the art that gets me going. Don't get me wrong - making it to MOMA to see the Van Gogh's was very important to me when I was in NYC back in February. Van Goghs still take my breath away, and I nearly wept at my first sight of Starry Night. I walk into a room and they call me, draw me in.

Conceptually, though, more modern art is what actually gets me firing on all cylinders.

I've started to develop quite a love of photography. Albelardo Morell does really cool camera obscura work. I adore one of the photos under "recent work" - 'Hourglass 2004".

At a mere $2500 for a print, I think I'll be enjoying it online for a while.

More later on the stranger stuff...

Ducks!

2006-07-11T00:25:00.000-04:00

Top of my wish list.

When to get a haircut

2006-07-09T22:34:00.000-04:00

I'm very glad that I'm not a boy.

See, I hate going to get haircuts. I never like the cut at first, and it's another thing I have to make time to do. I'm bad at finding time to do things.

I haven't had a haircut since January. Remember the disasterous one right before the Penn interview?

Now it's too long and a little ratty but I still keep putting off the haircut.

Maybe tomorrow.

Monday-Friday-Wednesday

2006-07-06T00:52:00.000-04:00

Today was a Monday.
And a Wednesday.
And a Friday.
All in one.

Can't remember what we were doing, dumb mistakes.
Halfway to Friday!
2 hour lunches a la Friday.

May the rest of the week be just as laid back.

Photos and Cars

2006-07-02T22:53:00.000-04:00

I got to talk to Teresa a long time last night, which was awesome. :)

Today my mom and I went over to her (recently deceased) mom's house and went through a lot of pictures. It's still strange she's gone...I saw the death certificate for the first time today and that was kind of odd. It's not til you see "ovarian cancer" printed on there that it really rang home for me - cancer SUCKS.

My mom and I went to see Cars (I'm actually four at heart) and had a GREAT time. Such a cute little movie, and growing up in Nascar country makes it even funnier. Pixar totally blows me away. They're not only technically superior to every other CG animation studio out there, their stories are second to none. Loved it, loved it, loved it.

It's also nice to have "hillbilly hell" as another potential name for my hometown.

Content at Home

2006-06-30T22:37:00.000-04:00

So I decided this afternoon what I really needed was a weekend with my mama, and since I can't decide to do that on a whim but a little while longer, I headed on home.

We went to the fair in Faith with the little people. They had a BLAST. Little kids are so amazing. This is my Meranda (the redheaded girl), my Shelby (the blonde girl), and my nephew Hunter.

When Hunter said, "Kristy!" as soon as he saw me get out of the car, it made the whole drive home worth it.

BBQ, Cheerwine, and fun with family. These are the glorious things New Haven will lack...though I'm sure it will be filled with amazing things that I can't find here.

Clearing on out

2006-06-30T13:27:00.000-04:00

Engineering a Recombinase-Inducible T-Lymphocyte Line
8/20/2004-6/30/2006
May someone else finish you.

So, my project is dead. Yeah, the one with the glowing red (RFP). My construct works but the transfection is having issues and I won't be around long enough to see it through.

I threw out all the RNA and DNA made from all the cell lines we know are duds this AM. It was much harder than I thought it would be.

So I'm doing a different project for the next few weeks, and that's pretty exciting, but it's still sort of hard. At least:

1. It's not my grad school project.
2. My hope is not here.

Jesus doesn't keep a scorecard of science projects. Hallelujah.

Sometimes these things just pop up...

2006-06-29T21:16:00.000-04:00

So among my favorite verses - ever - is this:

I will gladly spend and be expended for your souls. If I love you the more, am I to be loved the less?

- 2 Corinthians 12:15 (NASB)

No particular reason why today, but it's just on my heart. There's never a Biblical reason to hold some of ourselves back for ourselves, rather, pour it on out there. Eternally, we will never be loved the less.

Worth trying again...

2006-06-28T22:55:00.000-04:00

So posting about all my interviews didn't work out so great.

Turns out in the end, got into Yale, Penn, Baylor, and Duke, and decided to (well, God told me to) go to Yale.

But I really do need to get better at this so I can share my life in New Haven with my beloved Grace and Wolfpack family in Raleigh. Cause ya'll rock my world.

The transition is starting to be very real...I'm realizing I'm...

an adult.

Yes, an adult. As in, I bought a bed and was excited that Hecht's had sheets on sale. It's no longer odd that my friends are getting married and having kids. And the scariest part of this realization is

We are largely already who we are going to be.

I'm NOT saying that people don't change. After all, "And I am sure that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again (Phillipians 1:6, NLT)." And Paul knows his stuff. It's just that since I was a little girl I had these ideas about what I'd do and who I'd be and the time for those things is upon us. I always thought I'd enjoy going to see plays when I grew up. Why not start this weekend finding something to go to? I always thought I'd read a lot and be very thoughtful. Hum...what was the last thing I read for the sake of reading?

One Down (A Weekend in Philly)

2006-01-22T15:49:00.000-05:00

My first interview weekend is now officially over. Man, this is an exhausting process. Penn was great - it's somewhere I can really see myself feeling at home. The environment is very friendly and cooperative, without mean-spirited competitiveness. The administration and faculty seem very supportive of the students. Philly is a fabulous town - not too huge of a city to be unmanageable but still clearly has a lot to do.

Next up: Baylor.

Philly!

2006-01-18T23:39:00.000-05:00

I'm packing for my visit to Penn, and now I'm starting to get a little nervous. I feel like, on some small level, tomorrow I have to admit that I'm getting to be a grownup. I'm just terrified of looking like an idiot, seeming like I don't belong...aaagh!

Something new

2006-01-14T09:11:00.000-05:00

So, I'm going to spending more days than not out of town for a while, and to sort of consolidate and record this experience of interviewing and selecting a grad school (then moving my whole life God-knows-where), I've decided to do the completely rational thing and blog it. Maybe the air in Michigan got to me. Who knows?

It's been a week since I first started getting interview offers and such. And what a week it's been.

Last Thursday, I got my first interview offers around noon. Actually, one had come via email at five the previous afternoon (Penn) but I hadn't checked my email until noon. I was shocked and estatic and accepted. Then I notice I have another in my inbox. That one was from Baylor. Again, shock, estatic, accept. Then one from Cornell arrives. Gosh. Exciting! Finally, around 2 PM, I get an offer from Duke. Woohoo!

At this point, I realize:
Maybe applying to nine schools was a wee bit of overkill.

At about 4, one of the professors on Duke's admissions committee calls to tell me about the interview (if I hadn't already checked my email) and let me know they were impressed by the honesty in my personal statement (I actually told them I once thought biology was a dead and boring subject), I think she got the impression I didn't care very much, but I was in such a state of shock it was hard to sound excited...I talked to her for a couple minutes and I think she figured out how in shock I was...and she didn't even know the whole of my day!

The next day, driving to the Detroit airport (which is a long and glorious story in and of itself), we were running late. It was 5:02, my flight leaves at 6, and we're still on the Interstate. Oh dear. Emotions and endorphins are already running high. My phone rings, and I answer it. The lady on the other end indentifies herself as a professor at Yale on the admissions committee. She says they were very impressed with my application and are calling to offer me...

admission.

I was really honestly expecting her to say interview, so when I heard admission, I was quiet for a moment then said, "Excuse me, could you say that again?". She very nicely said admission then told me that they'd like to fly me up for a visit, but it wouldn't be an interview - I'm in and should get the letter in the mail very soon. I thanked her profusely, and have been floating ever since. Really.

Tuesday I recieved an interview offer from UNC, which I'm declining.

Wednesday I recieved an interview offer from UW-Seattle, which I am declining largely because they demanded an absolute yes or no in response to their email in less than 33 hours (in addition to calling me three places), and I don't like that style. If you have irrational time demands on people you're recruiting, what are you like to your actual students who are stuck there? Blegh.

Thursday I recieved a sort of "pre-interview offer notification" from WashU St. Louis.

On Thursday I also recieved my first rejection letter, from Rockefeller. They're the school that was my first choice back in December. I'm a little heartbroken, to be honest. I feel like a horrible, ungrateful person for being disappointed, but they were my clear first pick. So, I'm chalking it up to clearly, God does not want me at Rockefeller - cause if I had gotten in, that's probably where I would have gone. Now, I'm just ready to go visit everyone and see where I fit well (though if I could fit best at Yale, that really woud be something).