Good Friday

I had the opportunity to have lunch with Jeremy today. He had the day off and we got to spend 30 minutes enjoying each other's company in the middle of the day. While we spend a lot of time together, it was a nice out of routine event.

Life's been good. Experiments have been working well, so it's been extra busy at work (which I really like). It does get very tiring though.

Getting in the Groove

I haven't been very good at blogging lately because honestly, nothing significant has happened. I will say though that there is nothing nicer than payday.

When I first started grad school, it was the first real significant paycheck. I had worked previously, but the money didn't really amount to much since I wasn't working full time. Having a steady income with very few expenses was nice. When Jeremy and I got married, we felt like our income doubled. We were only paying one set of utilities and one rent, so it was like we got a raise while really making the same amount of money.

While we were anticipating the move, we started saving money like crazy in anticipation of having only one income. For awhile, it seemed like we were only living on one income even though we were both working.

Now, we both have jobs that actually pay money, and I look at our bank account and think, wow! It's actually kind of nice to have money in savings while not having to scrimp on every day things. While we're not just blowing the extra money on luxury items, we haven't had to worry as much about finances. We are also in a place where we can finally save for the future. Maybe we'll buy a house in the next few years. Maybe we'll go on an extensive vacation. Maybe Jeremy will go back to school. Regardless, it's nice to be able to put away money and still live comfortably.

Elevators

I've had several bad encounters with elevators, but none were as harrowing as yesterday. I got to work around 8:30 and got in an elevator to go up 4 floors. As the elevator started going up, it just stopped suddenly and quit moving. I tried calling for help with the call button, but nobody picked up and I was unsure that it even worked. Thank goodness that my cell phone had signal and a coworker was in the lab. She went and found the security guard and the both of them got me out of the elevator. It wasn't a fun way to start the day to be sure.

Nerves

I've been doing presentations for various classes all my life, and only since grad school have I started to get this nervous about presentations. I'm totally prepared for this, and I know the material better than anyone, but I my hands won't quit shaking and I am so incredibly nervous. What is up with this?!

Woohoo!!!

Jeremy found out today that he got the job he was waiting for a response on. His start date is January 5th. He is going in tomorrow to fill out paperwork, but a huge prayer of ours has been answered. It definitely is a huge weight lifted. We're still going to take it slow on buying more stuff for the apartment, I am looking forward to having two paychecks again and rebuilding our savings.

Slow Start

For no reason whatsoever, I could fall asleep last night, which resulted in my oversleeping this morning. I heard the alarm this morning, and I asked Jeremy to hit snooze. After that, I was completely out and didn't wake up until 2 hours later. Since then, it's been hard for me to hit my stride today. I feel lethargic and unfocused. It could be that I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving, but I was hoping for a productive week this week.

Cold

The weather here has gotten deliciously chilly in the last week, and I'm enjoying it immensely. I did notice though that where I sit in lab was more drafty, and I couldn't figure out why. While I wasn't cold, my hands would be freezing, and it was just me. Nobody else experienced this. Well, I investigated this phenomenon more thoroughly this morning and noticed that even though the crank to the window showed that it was closed, the seal around the pane had caught on the frame just enough to be letting in the slightest hint of a breeze. Once this was corrected, I am no longer considering wearing mittens at my desk. It is so much easier to type and stuff with warm hands.

Picking Up

Things are picking up here at work. I'm no longer working on trying to get one thing to work. I have my original project, but I've also started doing more computational stuff on my own (with permission of course). I've also been handed something else that is very intriguing that I've always wanted to try but never got around to. Additionally, I've been learning all sorts of new techniques that aren't new by any means but are new to me. Thank goodness for all of the nice, patient people I work with. Otherwise, I'd still be trying to figure out the little things like how to make media.

Bond, James Bond

The new bond movie was good, but it wasn't great. The plot seemed a little weak, but the action scenes were great. The entire experience though was fun. Jeremy and I walked to dinner and then had dessert at the theater.

Today, we're just spending a lazy day at home before the Tigers play Fairfield. I spent a little time at work doing minipreps. While I was there, Jeremy spent some time at the local library. I didn't get a chance to meet him there before the meter ran out, but it's close enough to work that I might go after work on day next week.

Score!

My PCR reactions worked yesterday! I got a band on a gel at the right size, so TA cloning here I come! I'll get really excited when the cloning actually works since I suck at cloning. This cloning kit though requires only a 5 minute ligation step, and other people in the lab have gotten 100% efficiency with it. Hopefully it'll work that well for me. We will know tomorrow if I get colonies and next week when I do minipreps. I know everyone was just fascinated by the science above. =)

Life-wise, Jeremy and I are going to try to extend our evening walks a little longer. Using his iPhone as a GPS tracker, we determined that we've been walking about 1.5 miles a night. It's not a great distance, but we're trying to incorporate this into our daily routine. We want to start running on the trails, but we've decided to take it slowly to start.

We also decided today that we're definitely going to the Memphis vs. Georgetown game in DC next month. I am beyond excited because it'll likely be the only game we see all year. Jeremy's dad and step-mom are going to come up and join us for the game. They're going to drive it from Memphis. I cannot even imagine. We will make a weekend of it though, so it'll be fun.

Feeling Dumb

Today I feel like I'm back in grad school again, just starting out. I'm setting up a PCR to run overnight, and then I'm running a gel tomorrow. Things that I know how to do, but I just spent the last five minutes asking the grad student in the lab questions like, "So, do you add ethidium bromide to the gel?" and "What percentage gel is do you usually use to run the DNA?" Earlier today, I asked deep insightful questions like, "So, how do we isolate gDNA?" and "What concentration do you usually make your primer stocks?" I can't wait until I get to the really hard part when I TA-clone and transform into E. coli. LOL.

Potential

Jeremy had a phone interview today with one company and a face-to-face interview with another tomorrow. I think it's an exciting time right now for him because he has more opportunities than he thinks. Yeah, it sucks that he doesn't have a job yet, but we're making it. It will get tougher in a couple of months if he still doesn't have a job, but we can buckle down and survive. He's also looked into finishing up some MSCE certifications. I'm glad he's going to finish that up regardless of whether that helps him in his job search or not. It's another skill to have.

Update: Jeremy received a call later this afternoon asking him for a convenient time to come in for a face-to-face interview with the company he interviewed with today. This is definitely promising, and we're definitely hoping this works out.

Out to Lunch

I went out to lunch with most of the lab today. We went to a cute little sandwich place that had really good food. I am actually feeling a lot better than when I woke up. No, I wasn't upset by the result of the election and I definitely didn't stay up late to watch the results. I would've stayed up late had I known I was going to feel like crap this morning. Surprisingly, I've been feeling better as the day's worn on, so that's a blessing.

I Miss A/C

Honestly, I don't know how people do it. The radiators were turned on in the building yesterday because the weather is turning chilly here. This means that in the mornings when I come in to work, it's cold enough outside to require a sweatshirt and a jacket. Before the radiators were turned on, I would keep the sweatshirt on all day and only be warm enough in the afternoon when the sun came through the window. Now, with the radiators on, I'm sitting here in a t-shirt. Apparently, there's either heat or no heat. We'll see how I make it through the winter.

Possibilities

Jeremy has an interview tomorrow afternoon. I hope everything goes well and he gets this job. While it's probably not his dream job, it would be a pretty good opportunity to increase his skill set. Plus, another income wouldn't hurt.

We keep saying that we're going to go out and explore more of the city, but that hasn't come to pass just yet. This past weekend was hampered by a migraine. However, as the weather seems to keep staying beautiful, maybe this weekend we'll be able to explore more.

It's Been Quite a Day

So my experiments didn't exactly work today. It's not a total setback being that these experiments were just a test anyways. As I've been told through my entire graduate school career, if things worked the first time, it wouldn't be called research; it'd just be called search.

On the home front, I think we're just about completely settled. We've still got a few things left to unpack, but for the most part, it'll be rearranging some things. We still need to buy several pieces of furniture, but again, we'll do that after we finish settling in.

I am really loving the weather right now. It's warm enough that I don't need a jacket, but it's cool enough where the leaves are changing. I'm really looking forward to the weekend and exploring more of the city.

New to Everything

Jeremy and I are finally settling in a little in Pittsburgh. We've been getting into a rhythm at work and at home. We've only gotten slightly lost a few times, but with the help of Google Maps, we've managed to find our way home every time.

Work has been interesting. I'm slowly ramping up to experiments. A few things I have tried have worked, but it's strange trying to get back into the swing of things. Everything is done differently and learning new techniques makes figuring things out just that much more interesting.

The good thing is that everyone is very nice. Even though I feel really stupid asking questions like, what water do we use when we make solutions, nobody has made me feel stupid yet for asking the questions.

I think our first month in Pittsburgh can be considered a success. Hopefully things will keep on improving, and we'll continue to love our new surroundings.