Lightning does strike twice.

Today was a wonderful day. This is true for several reasons. Most immediately, it was a great day because it was the last day of URP. This means that I do not have to look at a pipette, centrifuge or time... let's be honest, mostly a timer... for at least a whole month. Awesome.

The second and larger bit of awesomeness is in regards to me being a doctor. To back track a bit, yesterday was also a wonderful day. -ahem- INTERVIEW AT PITT ON SEPT 8! That, my friends, kicks ass. But anyways, back to the present. URP is over and that means poster session time! Oh boy. Since my poster contained both "NMR" and "Viral RNA" in the title, I wasn't expecting any visitors. I lose 99% of people with the NMR and then the ones that stick around after that are goners at anything biological. Sure enough, by 3:50, I was watching the clock like no other, praying the last 10 minutes would pass a little faster. It was hot and my feet hurt. Dressing "professional" isn't very fun. But then I noticed a lady coming into our row of posters that appeared to be stopping at every single poster. I assumed she was a professor from somewhere that had brought students and was just wasting time. Still, I figured, I might as well give my spiel to someone. And then God smiled on me.

At my last poster session, I got very, very lucky and ended up talking to several big biotech company virologists and medicinal chemists who were extremely interested in our work. This led to a colaboration for our lab. Going into the day, my buddy Matt (who was also in New Orleans) asked if I was ready for any famous poster visits. I was like haha, URP poster session, I rather doubt anyone is even going to ask a meaningful question... or stop at all. Enter my end of the day professor-like lady. She stops, asks to hear about my work and then when I finish, goes through the rant of "Oh goodness, I can't believe you're an undergrad! This sounds like such interesting work and you really seem to know what you;re talking about!" (As an aside, a lot of undergrad "researchers" are nothing but a pair of hands doing someone elses bitch work; they don't actually get to play scientist.) So after that was all done and I explained that Dr. Rita is awesome and actually teaches you things, she asked what my future plans were. To which, of course, I said medical school. She then gets a really excited smile on her face and whips out a business card.

She is from the Office of Student Affairs, Office of Admissions, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Are you kidding me?! So then, as I pee my pants in disbelief, she goes on to tell me that I sound like an excellent candidate, especially at such a large research institution as Pitt and that if I need anything, pop over to her office anytime and be sure to poke your head in before your interview.

10 points for random, yet very important meetings at poster presentations.

I <3 CQ

I'm home! Well, for two days now actually but I wasn't actually awake/coherent before now. But yes, camp was fantabulous, of course! Lots of fun and I only wanted to kill Ty one night over the mask. In fact, by the end of the week, we had our nightly mask fight down to a pretty good routine: Ty pouts, Kailey asks what he's worried about. Ty begs...seriously BEGS, like on hands and knees... not to wear it. Kailey says tough cookies, you're wearing it. Ty pouts until special snack when food fixes all. Good times.

Despite all this, I do have to say that this year was extremely hard for me. Ty is very visibly doing freaking terrible. He can hardly walk, grabs at his head because of headaches all the time and his right side might as well not even exist most of the time. Also, his left eye sort of turns inward now. I noticed this when Jamie and I went to visit after training and it bothers me... like REALLY, REALLY bothers me. It makes him look a little like a DIPG kid. If you don't know what that is, Google it. Basically, it means your kid is going to die... soon. So that crap, combined with everyone asking how I was doing/ commenting on how wonderful I was with him even though they know it must be so hard... yeah, I was a freaking mess. But I kept my "I'm smiling because we always smile" smile (Excellent phrase, Claire) plastered on for most of the week and we really did have a good time.

So here are some great pictures. Enjoy!

Setting sail...

In like 12 hrs, I'm "setting sail" again. This time its for an Island of Adventure at CQ 2008. Oh yeah, be jealous!

Hopefully Ty has an awesome week and I don't kill him for fighting me about the mask every night. I also hope to semi-relax about the whole medical school thing. Duane is checking my email for me because I am paranoid but hopefully, I'll only send one or two annoying texts. Ty will keep me plenty busy, I'm sure.

And in other exciting camp happenings:

1. I have not one, but TWO! passengers. Both Gina and Brittany from Duq/Relay are coming with me. So hurrah, gas will not rape my wallet.
2. We're having a quiet-time upper cabins' activity every night to simmer us down before bed. Who doesn't want to watch a pirate show?
3. Special snacks every night! This stomps Ty's low-sugar diet to hell and back but he does love his food. I think hearing about the snacks was enough to get him excited to come this year.
4. Speaking of which, Ty is SUPER EXCITED for camp. Woo!
5. Last but ooooooooh so not least, WE'RE IN THE CABIN WITH AIR CONDITIONING!!!! Not that we spend huge amounts of time in the cabin, but hey, I won't be drowning in my own sweat while I try to nap.

I think this officially makes me a nerd.

I had a very exciting day at work. My new RNA is almost 1 mM in concentration. MILI-molar, baby! Usually I work in micros. And I have over 1 ml of the stuff. Holy cow!

Aren't you excited too?

A picture is worth a thousand words...

That is what they always say, right? Well, we went camping for the long weekend. I believe this picture sums up one of the highlights.



Also, Duane and Justin, are we not happy that I made friends with our neighbors by teaching their kid to throw a baseball the right way? We got to play the game where you whack the ball back and forth around a pole and cake! Happy birthday grandma we don't know!

What a freaking rip off!

Yay: I just got UPenn's secondary! Dream school of dream schools with its world's greatest children's hospital.

Not so yay: It cost me $80 to submit it. Submitting it consisted of checking three boxes about extracirriculars I'd like to discuss further or something (Camp, Relay and Lab--the three things that are my life!) and telling them my brother's age and if my parents are dead/alumni. The end. Not one freaking essay. Took about 2 whole minutes.



Note:
Dear UPenn Admissions Committe,
If you should happen to read this while trying to hunt down drunken or otherwise incriminating Internet pictures of me, I appologize for calling your application a rip off. But I'm a little on the poor side and would have appreciated at least writing the "why do you want to come here?" essay (CHOP + Dr. Maris= best training location in the world!) before coughing up yet more money in this insane application process. So please don't hold this against me and let me in!