there have been many things going on around here lately that i haven't yet had a chance to blog about. my cousin robin was in town for work and stayed with us twice in the past few weeks. i got to go out with my friends for dinner at the cheesecake factory a couple of weeks ago, which was great! the weather was warm and sunny, we had really yummy food and fun conversations, and they surprised me by singing and giving me birthday presents. that was really so thoughtful and sweet. i had some time down there at the southside works before my friends arrived so i wandered into rei, my mom's favorite store that she talks about all the time. i had never been there before so i really wanted to check it out. it's a lot cooler than i thought it would be. i'm not really much of an outdoorsy person like i used to be, but they had so many neat things there. i found a purse that i REALLY liked, which is so odd for me because i tend to be very anti-purse. but i have grown accustomed to carrying around a diaper bag (which also conveniently holds my keys, wallet, gum, phone, etc.), and i realize that when erik is finished with diapers (which will hopefully actually happen someday in the not-too-distant future), it will be nice to have something to carry my stuff around in. long story short (too late!), my mom got the purse for me for my birthday, and i really love it! it's the perfect size for all the things i need to carry with me plus i can also fit a lens for my camera or a bottle of water or something.
i had my first thesis committee meeting last week and that went pretty well, although i had to give my presentation twice because one of my committee members was an hour late. his teaching schedule got rearranged because of the G20 so i couldn't really fault him for that, and it was much easier the second time around and i got to skip through most of the background stuff. my project received mostly favorable feedback with a lot of "you should try this" and "you might want to think about/watch out for that." there were a lot of helpful suggestions that will hopefully help to guide me to the successful completion of my dissertation someday (although that day still seems far off in the murky future to me). the worst part of the whole thing was the anticipation of it, and the terror associated with public speaking. i wish i could get over that. actually, the worst part about the whole thing is that my PI really loved the presentation, thought i did an excellent job, and then his wife accused me of copying the presentation from someone else because she had found something similar online. for those of you who know me, you know that i would never intentionally copy someone's work and claim it as my own. when i prepared my presentation, i compiled it almost completely from my own had and data that i took directly from the primary source (papers i downloaded from pubmed). i never looked up anyone else's presentations on the same topic, so i didn't realize the striking similarity of one of my slides to one that queen bitch had downloaded. i admit that it looks very very similar in style and content to mine, although mine is much prettier. however the first time i saw it was a week after i gave my presentation. i suppose it's just my bad luck. i've had a lot of that lately. i don't know if my PI believes that i didn't copy it. i was totally distressed because i don't want to lose credibility. even if he does believe me, that seed of doubt has been planted and it worries me still. and i want to smack queen bitch upside the head for suggesting that, but of course i can't.
aside from my thesis committee meeting last week was a full and *mostly* good week. wednesday my human embryonic stem cells were FINALLY delivered. they arrived in a vapor shipper that looked not unlike r2d2. they are now nestled safely (i hope) in liquid nitrogen storage until we move to our new building in december when i will wake them up to play. wednesday also marked the official start of the G20 craziness (see my earlier post) with the greenpeace protesters unfurling a banner and hanging from the west end bridge. it also marked the beginning of the unrelenting helicopters circling over oakland, schenley park, and my neighborhood where absolutely nothing was happening (other than the storefront for the G20 resistance movement located on murray ave. and right across the street from erik's daycare). thursday was my birthday and lock-down of schenley park for the reception the obamas were having at phipps conservatory for all the dignitaries. i stayed home with erik that day. my mom came in to have a nice breakfast at eat'n park with erik and i. we did a little shopping at the waterfront and then went back to my house. erik played and watched a maisy while mom and i hung out, and a bit later we walked down to rialto to have some pizza for lunch. after my mom left, i got erik to go down for his nap and i watched a movie, awake with hayden christensen. it was ok, full of plot holes, but entertaining enough. during the movie, i got a special delivery of some beautiful flowers from my father-in-law and his wife:
peter came home with a big box of toys for erik from a friend at work, so that kept him entertained for awhile. we fed him some dinner and then let him eat his blue smiley cookie from eat'n park outside. i took this opportunity to take and pose for some pictures:
me being silly, looking at the helicopters buzzing overhead:
peter and i got take out from pf changs for dinner which was really yummy, and i decided that after a busy day with erik, i was going to let him go to daycare on friday and do something nice for myself.
to be continued ...
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