Ittay bittay kittay committay

Did you ever wonder what a freezer full of cat cadavers would look like? Well, wonder no more. Behold:

[Figure 1: Me in a freezer full of cats.]

As a grad student, I have to (get to!) TA a couple sections of an anatomy/physiology lab. Part of the class involves using preserved cat cadavers to help the students learn about muscles, internal organs, etc.

However, I think I'm spending too much time thinking about/dealing with the cats. Between doing cat dissections myself, studying up on cat anatomy so I at least seem like I know what I'm talking about, and helping my students dissect the cats, I spent about 20 hours last week on cat-related issues.

Why mention this? Because the cats are invading my dreams. Seriously.

Example one: I'm teaching one of my lab sections, when a student suddenly says, "Meredith! This cat is breathing!" I rush over, and sure enough, the thing is coming back to life. I yell for someone to get some radioactive stuff (really??) to inject into the cat to re-deaden it. Someone gets it. I inject the cat. The radioactive stuff doesn't work. OH MY GAAASH, WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO NOW?!? I wake up in a semi-panic.

Example two: I have a cute little (alive) kitten. Some unknown person wants to take it and use it for the anat/phys labs. I spend the whole dream running away and wake up exausted.

So there you go. I am being driven insane by dead cats. Or maybe the formaldehyde fumes are starting to get to me.

Tomorrow is Friday, guess what that means??

FREE FOOD FOR THE GRAD STUDENTS!!!

Win.

Come on, Irene!

Well, it's official. We moved to Connecticut. And naturally, the first weekend we're here there's a hurricane headed right towards us. Neat.

Church is cancelled tomorrow, school is cancelled on Monday, and I've got the chorus of this song in my head:

Time flies when you're having fun

One year ago today:

I remember during all the bridal showers and pre-wedding excitement, more than one person said:

“The first year is the hardest!” (or some variation of this lovely thought)

WHAAAT?! First of all, no matter how well meaning you are, why the jack would you say this to someone who is getting married in a few weeks? And secondly, maybe the first year is the hardest if you’re a BYU success story that went from Just Met to Just Wed in two months, but Dave and I had been together for long enough that I pretty much knew what I was getting into. We’d been on several camping trips together, which in my opinion is the key to getting to know someone. The way a person behaves when sleep deprived, bug bitten, and without indoor plumbing gives you a lot on insight into their personality. But I digress.

This doom-and-gloom prediction of “the hardest year of marriage” planted pictures in my head of me and Dave, three or four months into married life, shrieking at each other and hurling kitchen items across the room because we'd discovered all sorts of unsavory habits in each other that we hadn't been aware of before.

But seriously, if the past year was the hardest it’ll ever be, me and Dave are in for a charmed existence.

Because it’s been great.

P.S. This HIMYM clip pretty much sums up me and Dave's relationship.

First impressions of Connecticut

1. There are lots of trees
2. It's more humid then I anticipated
3. They really like red brick buildings (see Figure 1, above)
4. The people in the cemeteries have been dead a long time... and apparently this makes Dave nervous (see Figure 2, below)

Happy Commitment Phobia Awareness Day from a recovering commitment-phobe.

The irony of commitment is that it's deeply liberating--in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life.

-Anne Morriss

a post about bacteria

So today I was attempting to check out my bacteria under the microscope (yes, I finally coaxed them into growing) and it was giving me some grief. The bacteria I’m working with produces this stuff called green fluorescent protein, so to see if it’s alive and well I look for little fluorescing specks. I was getting frustrated, decided maybe it was too bright to see my bugs, so I turned off the light and continued searching for any sign of life.

Then I saw a little speck of light! Hallelujah! Using my mad microscope skills, I slowly brought the field into focus, and can I just tell you… it was beautiful. Really. All those little bacteria, fluorescing like crazy on a black background, looked just like a billion sparkling stars.

Stars and bacteria. Completely opposite things. But both are kind of amazing.