Can it get any worse

It has now been over a week that I have had this stupid cold/flu bug. Although I no longer feel like I am going to die, I still feel like ass. I feel yucky, sick and just plain tired and old. What better way to make a girl feel than to visit her awesome hair stylist to get a wicked new do before her birthday?
Except apparently her stylist of >5 years has left the province. WTF!!!!!!!
I LOVED my stylist. I would go in, say "do whatever" and come out looking great. I had developed that relationship so that I felt comfortable when she took my hair from looking like this:to cutting it all off so that it resembled this:
Seriously, I need a haircut, one that is low maintenance and that I don't actually have to think about. She did this for me!

I am doing the only thing a girl can do in this situation. I'm visiting the local ToniandGuy Salon and hoping like hell they don't fuck it up.

I want KFC

Oh thank you everyone for you kind words. And Thank God for grandparents. They took the monkey all weekend and I just slept. On Sunday I felt slightly better, but then my body had other thoughts. I think I'm OK today. I dumped the monkey off at daycare and have come home. I have eaten in 5 days because food makes me nausea but right now all I want is some KFC with extra gravy for my fries. Isn't that crazy!

Oh and I somehow managed to get the papers graded on time. Only to find out that the PI is off until monday with the flu!

Staying home and watching Golden Compass while debating if I should get the KFC or not.

Encouragement please

I have had my ass kicked by a cold virus. In bed for two days unable to open my eyes, ass kicked. I finally had the energy to hold my son today and to actually open my computer up. I have 75 papers to edit before Tuesday night and I just want to crawl into a corner and die. It seems like everytime, monkey gets sick, I get sick. I am so run down and I don't know why. I used to do so much before monkey was born, I had so much energy and was so strong. I need to work out. I need to get energy and build my immune system because I can not be sick like this. I don't know how I'm going to do it. How do you do it?

Quite the honor!

This morning I was feeling quite grumby as it was a late night with a way too much red wine last night. However, when I turned on my computer this morning I recieved an email from Kelly at The Health Zone informing me that they had put together a list of the top 50 Women in Science blogs. I am truly honored to be part of the list. I would never have thought to be put on a must read list, but it does feel cool to be listed with the likes of FSP, Dr.Isis, DrdrA, ScienceWomen and all the other amazing bloggers. What a nice monday morning treat. Go check out the site. Oh and way cool that DrugMonkey was sited as well.

How to be a Good Phd Advisor

I'm not sure how many PI's read this blog, but in case there are more than 1 of you, here's a couple tips on how to be a good advisor. These are totally based on New PhdAdvisor:

1. 1. Be compassionate and talk to your students about things outside of science.
2. 2. Be professional and maintain a professional relationship with your students (current advisor does not talk negatively about the other lab members / colleagues.
3. Model good conflict resolution skills, people management skills. For example Mr. SM had been wanting that new TV for, like over a year. We finally purchased it because I wanted to watch the UFC match between GSP and BJ Penn (After watching it, I really don't know why I wanted to in the first place). I mentioned this to GradAdvisor prior to telling Mr.SM. She quickly advised me not to tell Mr.SM that I wanted to watch the fight. She reminded me that hubby really wants the TV and that not everything is about me. To be exact she said "tell your husband that you think he really deserves to buy the TV because he has been working hard and passed his exam." You are giving him permission to buy the TV that he wants, thereby making you the AWESOM wife. She reminded me that he doesn't need to know that I want the TV only that I want him to buy it for himself. You may think this is trivial but it she really does model and provide advice on how to deal with people so that you are able to get the outcome you want. Another example is when I was annoyed with the Daycare because they had decided to bring someone in to provide music classes for the kids at a cost of $15.00/per child. I was pissed because no one asked me (a) am I OK with my child participating in this and (b) whether I was willing to pay for it. I said to advisor, I am not saying that I don't want my kid to participate but I want to have the option to say no. She looked at me at said, "I agree SM you totally should tell them that you would like to have opportunity to say yes this is something I want for my child." Again it doesn't seem like much, but phrasing it the way she did would be more positive than how I said, even though we are saying the same thing. When discussing conflicts, saying things less agressively usually results in a better outcome because the other party is not put on the defensive. I really really appreciate GradAdvisors providing these learning opportunities.
4. A couple weeks ago Grad Advisor told the scoop on some new data that was collected in our lab. She provided me with a hypothesis, some questions that needed to be tested and asked me design some experiments to test them. She is not spoon feeding me, nor is she throwing me in the deep end. She's thrown me the ball and asking me to run with. Once I have some ideas on some experiments, she'll help me find the holes and to optimize them. I have a way cool advisor.
   

As a teaser I heard this Guy talk, I'm sure a few of you physiologist types know who he is. :) He gave the most awesomest talk that I will summarize tomorrow... or maybe not cuz I really haven't told you about the MIL yet either!

FYI

If you have a broken 4th & 5th toe due to smashing into the wall that clearly moved, perhaps you should recognize that you do not have very good proprioception. This lack of proprioception combined with not yet have your morning coffee would be a good indication that you should not, under any circumstances, try stepping over your childs large metal TONKA truck. Especially if you are holding said child, because when you hit your broken toes into the metal truck, you are going to want to drop you child and scream in pain.
Also, perhaps, you should not think that you have time to sort flies before having to leave to pick up your child from daycare, after the alarm indicating it is time to leave has gone off. It may result in you having to run on your broken toes while carrying a computer bag. It does not look pretty and definetely does not feel nice, to say the least.

On another note. Its been rather monkey intensive around here. I have some thoughts on the whole Rihanni, Chris Brown thing and I would like to talk some science too. I've just been swamped doing said science.

Can I please get some eyes that work?

Because apparently mine did not register the hallway wall that has been in the exact same spot for hmmm, 55+ years this house has been standing. Which led me to smash me little toe into the corner of the wall, as I ran into my room to show Mr.SM the Shoe Fairy's gift. I smashed it so bad that I think I actually broke the 4th & 5th toes. They have been swollen since last night, I can not bend them, touch them or put any pressure without feeling intense pain. Now they are also purple. Do you know how hard it is to turn brown skin purple?

Remember those boots, they were made for walking but they will be sitting in my closet. Do you know what is worse then limping around school all day b/c you're a moron that can not see where they are going, despite having apparently functional eyes. Having to explain that no you are not limping because you sprained your ankle, knee, have sore muscles. Nope you're limping because you can not apparently walk and do something else (like think) at the same time.
The icing on the cake is having your son run excitedly to you, grab your legs and jump to give you a hug. Only his >26lbs lands on the busted toe. Are you supposed push your son away and scream in pain? Nope you swallow hard, hug the boy and tell you love him too. You somehow do not yell out the FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK that is searing through your toe and screaming in your head. Good times people good times.
PiT can you share some Doritos?

Sorry Dr.Isis, but the Shoe Fairy visited me instead!

Yep not only did she visit me instead of Dr. Isis, but she visited me TWICE!!!

Mr.SM is gone to our cabin up at Big White to set a up a BBQ. He left early (4:30am early) this morning and will not be back until tomorrow afternoon. While he's been gone, monkey and I have enjoyed a wonderful morning. We woke up, made pancakes together, ate and drank some "coffee". After watching some cartoons and vacuuming, we went out to town. There's a street in HomeCity that has some fun shops, good cafes and the Best Used Bookstore in the city. I really wanted to get monkey some new books and figured a trip to the bookstore, lunch in a cafe and walking around in the city would be fun since it was a beautiful spring like day. Well, we had an awesome time in the bookstore, got 3 super fun books for $20 taxes in.
At lunch, I realized what a big boy I have now. He sat across from me in a big person chair eating his yogurt and sandwich while pointing out the lights and the fans. I can't believe how fast they grow up. I just wanted to grab him and never let go.

After lunch we happened to walk past a popular HomeCity shoe store that was having a Rack Sale. We saw the shoe fairy hanging out in there and wanted to say hi. Plus, we thought she might get a chuckle out of this:

She was mighty impressed that I was cultivating monkeys' shoe knowledge at a young age and felt I was a very deserving, so she gave me these:



While I was checking them out, I let the monkey out of my eye sight for <0.05 secs. When I looked up, I couldn't see him anywhere. I went running out the open front door of the store. He wasn't in the street. Thank God I think. Back into the store, the clerk that was helping me watch the monkey had no idea where he was. My heart stopped beating.
Then out he popped from the behind the sales counter. After my heart started again I scooped that boy up and didn't let him go. The Shoe fairy felt bad for distracting me and causing that little heart attack. To make up for it, she gave me these:


Obviously, all is forgiven.

I should be posting questions

Because so many of you agreed to be interview. You all are so good! But instead I am addicted to my PVR. I was able to watch all of Bones and now am skipping the commercials on Greys Anatomy (except this break so I could post). I am also realizing how much I do during commercial breaks. However its good because its stopping me from stressing about the daycare situation, which had me hyperventilating and crying this afternoon because I was having a I am a bad mother attack. Yes I am just spewing forth information. that is what I do when I am feeling like I need to talk. Its how I sort myself out and figure out what I need to do. Which right now is chilling. with my PVR.

edited to add: stupid PVR is not recording private practice in HD

Polytechnique Massacre

Say that to any Canadian that has memory of 1989 and they will know what it means. The media up here has been all abuzz about the movie that is coming out on Feb 6th, which tells the story of the massacre. Since monday, when I first found out a movie was coming out, I felt that I should blog about this. I knew that non-Canadians and those too young to remember 1989 need to be told. Yet I haven't. I haven't wanted to discuss it or my feeling about it and I didn't know why.

Please go visit acmegirl and read her post about what happened. As I read it, I realized that she was saying what I should be, but also explained what I couldn't. Thank you for AcmeGirl for giving my emotions words.

The answers are...drumroll....

Well I guess you need to know the questions first don't you? Actually you probably need to know why I'm answering five questions. Well it all started out (for me) from Cath@VWXYnot. I thought it was cool way to get to know a blogger, so figured I would play along. If you want to play along, the rules will be posted after.

Here are the Questions and Answers:

1) You changed labs recently. Any regrets?
Hell no!!! Do I miss some of the folks I worked with? Totally. I do not miss the drama, lack of direction, or the infighting. What I am most sad about is that amazing FPD#1, who pushed me to leave does not keep in touch. FPD#2 does and I'm so glad for it as she's really cool. I sometimes wonder why she was so adamant that the best thing for me was to go, but then doesn't keep in touch. Oh well, it was the best thing for me and that is what matters.

2) When Monkey is old enough, will you show him the posts you've written about him? (Some of them are just so adorable!)
Good question. I really don't know. I do want him to know how much I love him and what a true monkey he is / was, but how would I show him some posts and not others? I still have to explain the MIL kerfuffle and I am sure there will be future posts bitching about his dad. Oh and yah, my language is not always young person appropriate. I am pretty sure that I will share all these experiences with him, I'm just pretty sure that they would have some serious editing/revisionism in them.

3) Describe your perfect weekend?
Ooh that is hard. Hmm, let me think for a moment.

A perfect weekend would be sunny, monkey would be not sick and would be well behaved and most importantly the mister would be home. We would not have to go to any family functions or have to run a million and one errands. We would be able to chill, go to the aquarium and have fun hanging out together has a family. Of course there would be gourmet food and excellent wine every night!

4) What you would be doing if you hadn't gone into science?
I think I would be working in the financial industry, probably doing PR/Marketing of some sort. I was first going to say that I would be working in the healthcare field but I think that would've led me back to science.

5) Can not be posted or answered as it may reveal too much information!!
Actually I think most of you have figured out what HomeCity is but just in case, I'm not answering this one :)


Now it's your turn! Do you want to be interviewed?

If you do - here are the rules:

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me" AND leave your email address (or blog link) in the comment!
2. I will respond by emailing you (or commenting on your blog with) five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions. (If you don't have a blog, I can post your answers here).
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.