A Working Weekend

Another week has gone by and I am relaxing tonight-multitasking on the computer while watching Hotel Rwanda which sad to say hasn't captured my interest. I did watch a DVD of Six Feet Under earlier-that show is so unbelievably good although bad things keep on happening to the characters or else the characters are continually depressed about their life.
The past week of work was intensely busy- my boss and I worked together for long hours on our new protocol and in the end, got shockingly good results. I was stunned that it actually worked and it felt like euphoria-one of those good feelings that make you say- damn, I am glad that I am in science. Anyways, not to get all techy, but there are so many neat genetic analysis machines available now -this one machine we used, a BioAnalyzer, allowed us to load our RNA samples on a microchip and analyze them and even print out gels. Well, when our experiments were over, my boss and I gave each other "high 5's" although because things worked, I have to repeat them this next week of course. But she will be out of town and I will have some time to work on my Arizona papers, progress of which has been slow. I have been coming home late and wiped out lately. I am extremely paranoid about getting sick again so I do take breaks and have been eating well and exercising. I did work on my papers this weekend in-between having bird duty. Like bug duty...except more fun, I find myself chatting with the birds-they're good listeners. I think they like my laugh- sometimes they sing back. Well, it's pretty easy unless a bird escapes from its cage- then I have to chase it as it flies around the room. Before, I would have been too nervous, now I am getting used to them.

Let's see- I also went out with my lab to a Korean bbq place near downtown-they bring the meat to the table and you grill it yourself then there are a bunch of side dishes. Some of the stuff is hot and since I didn't know that, I was in tears at some point. Also, went with a friend to an English pub down near Santa Monica beach on Fri nite-the weather was beautiful for sitting outside, had some fish and chips but they weren't nearly as good as Tucson's Kingfisher! Still, it's a casual atmosphere and we even had an English waitress. It reminded me of Scotland a bit-just the social pub atmosphere. Of course, you know you are in LA in reality especially when you have to shovel out 30 bucks for dinner.

I saw Star Wars finally-it was good, much better than I expected. I still have a shitload of movies to see but haven't-I have seen less movies here in LA than Arizona. I know everyone is amused by that.

Well, this weekend I will be returning to Tucson for book group and to go back to my old lab and dig through my data, meet with Rick on the papers, and just do some visiting. It's been almost 2 months since I left- I wonder if it will feel strange to be there as a visitor. I lived there for almost 6 years and that's longer than anywhere except where I grew up. I wonder if it will feel weird to see my old house and someone else living in it? Well, I did need to move on professionally and I am adjusted to LA and loving it. I didn't imagine that I would adjust so quickly to LA and life as postdoc. But an organism that doesn't adapt, doesn't survive, right? It's a necessity.

Okay, well stay tuned for a blog after Tucson.

Julie

Earthquakes

So it's pretty late on a Saturday night and I just finished cleaning my place- yeah, I could have put it off until tomorrow but I just felt like getting it done - you know, sleeping better after cleaning. Besides, tomorrow, I have to work on some manuscripts all day- work was so busy this week that I barely had the energy at night to write. I even forced myself to wake up early on Friday just so I could think about a paper-related email and send one off. On Fri nite I left work early b/c I was there late the night before finishing an experiment. So, I came home, went to Trader Joe's (one also close to me but a few miles further than the other one) which was surprisingly uncrowded, then rented the most recent DVD season of the Sopranos. I must have watched like 5 hours of it, watched some more today, went and exercised, but also went and saw the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith. It is weird to see these stars in person than on the screen- it was a really good movie and surprisingly, amusing.
I've been multitasking at work a lot this week and it's been tiring. Oh yeah- so the earthquakes- well apparently there have been quakes - a few of them this week, off to the south and north and so LA has experienced tremors. The funny thing is that I haven't felt them at all. At work one day, I am standing near my desk and then people come into the lab all of a sudden and ask- did you feel it? I was like- feel what? Well apparently it was a noticeable shudder in our bldg and I was oblivious. People from back east keep on emailing me about it. Others say that California is going to drop off the earth. I am not too worried- you can't control these things and being a Capricorn, as long as my feet stay on the ground...I'm happy.
Allright to bed! Hope everyone enjoyed the star photos. Thanks for your emails and comments.

Julie

Hollywood star photos, link

Hi all,
I have developed my photos from the movie premiere of Mr. and Mrs. Smith and also posted photos of Colin Farrell taken from a different movie premiere. You can access them at my ofoto.com album (I haven't yet figured out how to post photos on this blog).

You're invited to view these photos online at Kodak Easyshare Gallery!
Just click on View Photos to get started.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=s1ndvt3.20mx9xvn&x=0&y=a4jflc

Fridays

So, after the excitement of seeing Brad and Angelina earlier in the week, nothing has really compared. Work was nutso busy for a few days-so I barely got a breath in and then kept on eating these damn cookies kept in one of our lab rooms. Yes, I have great eating habits lately.
Still, I like being busy and managed to eke out a section of this 2nd Arizona manuscript the other night even though I was dead tired, just so I could send it off to Rick and enjoy my weekend.
Today, I had to give my defense talk to this seminar group-I anticipated that there would be tons of people attending not to hear me talk but to enjoy beer and wine for happy hour immediately afterwards. UCLA, as opposed to Arizona, embraces alchohol on campus- it's allowed everywhere. So my boss and I went to Trader Joe's this morning and loaded up on food and wine. Well, apparently Neurobiology had a competing happy hour with ours so maybe that's why only 8 people showed up to hear me talk. So, I had practiced alot and it was not necessary. One guy showed up- Roger Gorsky, who happens to be the grandfather of steroid hormones and sex differences so initially I was like, holy shit and intimidated, but he's such a nice guy that you forget that he's famous after a while. Well, despite the low number of attendees, lots of food and drink got consumed. My boss and I put away some wine and got really chatty- I had a nice buzz going. The buzz continued for a few hours. No worries- I got a ride home. I have been getting rides a lot- it's a switch from Tucson where I chose to be the designated driver. Now, I drink some wine and other people drive me home. It's funny. I was just relieved that the work week was over. I have a Tucson friend visiting for the weekend and then a bbq at my boss's house on Sunday. I am going to try to find this fresh fish market here in Santa Monica and bring some fish to grill. My boss is planning on giving me one of her grills (she got a fancy one recently) so I have asked her to give me lessons in grilling since I don't have a clue. Well, it should be a fun party- apparently her and her hubby make these fantastic margaritas. I may have to crash on their couch- hahahah.
Meanwhile, the weather has been cloudy but in the 70s- very nice. My flowers look a bit droopy but I probably just need to water them more.
Well, hopefully I will have my movie star photos developed on Sunday so I can post them...

Julie

My first Hollywood experience- I saw Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt tonight!

Hi all,
So I had my first true Hollywood experience tonight. After work, I walked
with my labmates down a few blocks from UCLA to this movie theater in
Westwood- Westwood is the area surrounding UCLA, full of shops and
stores. This movie theater was the site for the movie premiere of Mr. and
Mrs. Smith- the new movie starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. They had
cameras out and a red carpet with a barricade for fans along the carpet
leading up to the theater. One of our undergrads in the lab went down
earlier, around 4pm (I went around 6pm) and managed to stand right behind
the red carpet so she had a great view. I, on the other hand, was busy
finishing experiments so couldn't get down there as early. But I managed
to give my camera to our undergrad who was up front. However, we did get
a spot behind a second set of barricades, about 15 ft from the red
carpet. There were tons of people there. Earlier they had given out
t-shirts - white for girls saying "Mrs. Smith" and black for boys- "Mr.
Smith." The announcer guy was from a local radio station and he managed
to get some stars up on his box platform to talk. At about 6:30pm, guests
started to arrive but the stars didn't start to arrive until about 7:00pm.
The first recognizable arrival was Mary Hart, the anchor from
Entertainment Tonight. There were a couple of people from tv shows who I
didn't recogize too well although I did recognize Gary Dourhan- the black
guy from CSI, also Nicolette Sheridan from Desperate Housewives, David
Hasselhoff (Knight Rider), Cindy Crawford, David Boreanz (Angel), Lindsey
Lohan (preening for photographers and waved to fans and got overcome with
how excited everyone was, she's not that pretty blonde and yes, looks
really skinny), also Jon Favreau from Swingers, Kimberly Stewart (Paris
Hilton's new best friend). Well, then the actor "Pedro" from Napoleon
Dynamite showed up- got up on the platform and everyone was super excited
to see him- he was like "Did everyone vote for Pedro" and also did a
little dance for everyone. Then, one of the movie's stars, Adam Brody,
showed up- Adam is the cute dark-haired boy in the tv show "OC" and he is
totally a nice guy. He was chatting with the radio guy about music bands
and making jokes.

ALLRIGHT- so now you want to know about major stars. So, I was looking off
to the wrong side and I heard people screaming Angelina Jolie- I found her
signing autographs about 10 ft away from me-she looks taller in real life.
Her hair was all poofed out and she was wearing a black dress. She looked
larger than life. She spent a lot of time near my side signing and
avoiding the photographers. So, I had about 10 min to watch her. She is
beautiful of course especially when she smiles. She also got up on the
platform to talk with the radio guy and sounded just like on tv- just
thanked the fans, etc talked about the movie. She sounds really sweet and genuine. Meanwhile, she passed right next to my undergrad lab mate with my camera who proceeded to get a close shot of Angelina (stay tuned for photos!). It was so surreal. Then, Brad Pitt was over on my side signing autographs- his hair was dyed blond which wasn't too appealing but he is still cute in person. And tall! I got a really good look at him and apparently, he chatted with our labmate- just really nice and cool- like "hey, how you guys doing" and they got him to sign the back of their research articles. I saw his signature - two initials. They also got close photos of him. Both Pitt and Jolie spent a lot of time signing autographs with fans. I spent a lot of time screaming and observing. They were really 15 feet away from me. If I had gotten their earlier, I would have been able to speak to them- so crazy! And no, I didn't see Jolie or Pitt interact at all.
Anyways, the stars went into the theater and I headed home. I am still
flabbergasted that I saw them in person. The funniest thing is that I found out that people in my lab loved reading the movie and entertainment rags so we have been trading US and People around the lab- the most embarrasing thing is that my boss left a People magazine on my desk! Meanwhile, I am going to get my film developed so stay tuned...I will post photos on the blog, oh- I am going to try to post Colin Farrell photos taken by a labmate some time ago at another movie premiere.

Julie

Toilets & Stop signs

So as I write this at home, I have a nice view of a toilet sitting in front of a stop sign in front of my house. It's been there the past few days- not sure where it is from or if it will get moved but it's amusing nonetheless. I guess it's been over a week since my last blog. Last weekend was fun though-I went out for Japanese food with some people from the lab- to a "Little Japan" area near my house- lots of odd stores and restaurants. On Saturday, I ran errands, exercised (more on that later), and basically did some pleasure reading while eating lots of crappy food-a needed R&R. Although I had Monday off, I spent all of Sunday and part of Monday working on Arizona manuscripts. But then I went down to the 3rd St Promenade near the ocean and saw a movie, The Interpreter, with Sean Penn and Nicole Kidman. It was really good. My first movie in LA. Then, has some bbq with a friend and have spent the rest of this week really busy in the lab. The long days wiped me out. I come home by 8pm, eat dinner, and then go to bed. Tonight however an old postdoc friend of mine (from my days in DC) and her friend are arriving in from LAX to spend the night before driving to a wedding tomorrow, south of LA. It will be really nice to have company and it will force me to go out and do stuff. We are going to check out this hip restaurant on the Promenade near the beach. They will be my first overnight visitors.

Meanwhile, I am relishing this 70s weather while checking weather in Tucson-90s, yeeech!
Okay- so last Saturday I opted for my free personal training session at Bally's gym, which came with my membership. The guy knew what he was doing but shit, he worked me so hard that I could barely move my legs for a few days, it hurt to sit. It means that I have gotten lazy with my workouts. However, he was like (in a Czech accent) - "my goal is to have my clients reach between 10-15% body fat" I was like holy shit- that's not healthy. To do that, he told me that I would need to see him 2-3 x a week for like 3 months (cause I am 23%). Of course, I was like-bottom line- what's the cost- of course, 50 bucks a session and so 3 months-1000 bucks. I was like- sorry, no can do. Besides, I am happy with how I am and just want to stay fit. I think these trainers try to demoralize people to get them to use them. The annoying thing was he kept on asking me about my research while I was trying to concentrate on lifting. At least I know how to use the machines properly now. I looked up stats on women's body fat and if you are less than 28%, that's healthy so of course I will point that out to him if he ever calls. So, I guess this fitness obsession is part of LA. Other than that, people around here are really normal and again, friendly.

So this weekend I am going to take it easy, work on some papers, etc enjoy myself.

Julie