And then, like true New England preps,...

we used lacrosse sticks to dig out our car.

Things I Could Do With My Life:

1) Complete my PhD. Try and get a job in academia. Two categories:


i. Big Research University – Spend all my time and energy chasing money to do research to get more money to do more research. Publish papers once in a while to validate myself as a person.

ii. Liberal Arts College – Focus on teaching undergrads, all who will grow up to be doctors (read: much more successful than me). Become a raging hippy/feminist. I kind of like this option, plus I already have the hair for it.

*Side note: both these academia options require me to spend at least 2 years as a “post-doc”, aka grad student who gets paid a miniscule amount more, but in return is expected to be 100 times more competent.

2) Complete my PhD. Get a job in “industry”. Not totally sure what this would entail, but I do know it would involve me being a “sell out” and looked down upon by all my peers who took the “pure” route of academia. On a positive note, I would get paid well.

3) Jump ship after 2 years with a Masters degree. Go to:

i. Business school. With a bachelor’s in engineering, a master’s in neurobiology, and an MBA, well… surely someone would hire me…. Right?

ii. Law school. I feel like I could be a good lawyer. I look awesome in pencil skirts and high heels. Actually, on second thought, I don’t think this option is that reasonable. I would punch all my classmates.

iii. Med school. I am capable of memorizing endless amounts of info. I can rock a white lab coat like it's no one's business. I better look good in a white coat for the amount of debt I’d rack up via this option.

4) HAVE MANY BABIES!! STARTING NOW!!

to do list

Tomorrow I will:

- Do brain surgery on 5 mice, ever so carefully drilling a tiny hole in their skull, injecting stuff into their ventricle, and then gluing it all shut.
- Teach a class full of students about the amazingness of their kidneys. This week's lab is going to be especially fun. Ever seen the faces of undergrads when you inform them they have to work with their own urine? Lots and lots of fun.

- Turn 24 years old.

She's baaaaack....

Chelsea is the one on the left. I am the one on the right, clutching my super important sticks in one hand

while subtly strangling Chelsea with the other. I was always good at multi-tasking.

Tomorrow, Chelsea gets back from an 18-month religious sabbatical in Guatemala. I'm still convinced she went just to improve her standing in the Favorite Child competition, but that's a discussion for a different day.

So...welcome home Chelsea! I really don't have anything else to say. I was going to make a chart (yay charts!) depicting the shared and distinct traits between the two of us, but the only things I could think to put in the chart was:

Meredith (only):
- Can do math
- Generally calm

Chelsea (only):
- Can name all the members of the Supreme Court
- Speaks Spanish

Both:
- Bad eye-sight

It was a really boring Venn diagram.

Also, remember how you asked me to check your emails and Facestalk while you were gone? Yeah.... I may or may not have been super dilligent about that.

Anyways, welcome back :)

Last year vs. this year

This is what I was doing a year ago:

I was partying it up in Taipei with two of my favorite people, waiting for the fireworks at Taipei 101. Also partying and waiting for the fireworks were 800,000 Asians, every single one of whom I bumped into, was accidentally groped by, or otherwise awkwardly interacted with during the course of the evening. Consider the following:

That is the Taipei metro on new years eve. I would never recommend it to anyone with any amount of claustrophobia issues. We only survived because Dave was a foot taller than everyone else, so we relied on him acting as a periscope.

So, last year was super exciting. This year, we briefly considered going to NYC to watch the ball drop, but since I haven't quite recovered from last year (see the above picture), we decided to play it low-key. We will be welcoming 2012 by eating this:

And also these, which I've made before and were specifically requested by Dave:

(Side note: If you are thinking, "Who is this person who cooks actual food? What has happened to the scowling, ramen noodle-cooking Meredith we know and love?", then do not be alarmed. It's just that I cook now. In fact, I've basically transformed into a domestic goddess. Or something.)

We will then be watching Community and playing Blockus and Jenga untill midnight, when we'll use pan lids as cymbals and make an appropriate amount of noise.

Bottom line: yes, we are lame-o people who stay in on New Years. But I'm going to enjoy the crap out of it.

Happy 2012 to all, and to all a good night!

out of focus

While trolling the interwebs, I came across this picture today:

(from dooce.com)

I immediately liked it, because it reminded me of being a (blind as a bat) kid at Christmas time. I remember standing out in the street looking at the house after the lights had all been put up, or sitting in the darkened front room with the decorated tree all lit up, and I'd slip my glasses down my nose and enjoy the lights. I thought I was so much luckier that people with good eyesight because I could see the lights in a way they couldn't. They could only see the lights in focus, but I, I had this extra option. I could see the lights as blurry, glowing orbs, all the colors overlapping and twinkling. It was so magical.

Once apon a time, it snowed. And then all the freaking TREES fell on all the freaking POWERLINES!!!** Which brings us to today's topic:

Random person: "Hey Meredith, what do you think it's like to live in a refrigerator? "

Me: "Oh, you naive random person, I don't wonder; I know."

Let me tell you what it's like:

It's cold and dark and there's no internet or hot food or running water and you sleep wearing a hoodie and socks and maybe even your jeans just so they'll be warm in the morning. (Stop judging me!)

But! If you're lucky enough to be a grad student who lives in a refrigerator, at least you can escape the dark coldness for the well lit, internet-supplied haven of your lab! And while there, though you can't seem to generate any data that may actually lead to your academic progression, you can generate graphs such as the following:

Stay tuned to see my upcoming data on the weakening of my mental state as a function of days spent without electricity!


**Seriously, how was this not anticipated by the lovely people at Connecticut Light & Power?