There is a special place in hell...

For women who do not help other women- Madeline Albright.

This is not a dark and twisty post (thank you Meredith Grey!). Its merely an observation that I made recently. There is lots of turmoil at work. Boss is moving the lab to another city, lab is split into the pile of peeps that are going and the pile that are not. Needless to say turmoil brings out the worst in people. Gossiping, backstabbing etc., Our lab is mostly women- so a female senior scientist in the lab just published a paper independent from our current supervisor. She had a MALE postdoc in the lab do experiments that I had taught him how to do. The paper got published and I just came to know that he was an author. How do you think that made me feel? Angry? Upset? Yes I felt that but I also realized that we wax and wane and whine about there not being enough women in fields in Science and Technology and then something like this happens and it opens our eyes. While men have their own negative role to play in this by not giving women enough credit repeatedly, its also the WOMEN who are currently in a place of power that do not allow younger women to succeed. Do you think this female scientist thought about whether to give me the opportunity and dismissed me? If so, why? If she didn't even think about it, then again the question is why? and Ultimately, if I were in that position would I have done the same thing? I would like to think not, but you never know I guess.

Toodles,

S

California Trip

This post is so long overdue its not funny- details that I wanted to include are getting fuzzier by the day. So here goes- H and I took a late anniversary trip to California, Northern Cali to be specific. We flew into San Jose and then drove to Berkeley that day and spent the day there wandering around bookstores and UC Berkeley itself. Two things about Berkeley- lots of homeless people! and makes me want to go back to school but in the US :). We ate lunch at this nepali place called Mount everest- the food was decent (prices were atrociously big, but that is THE theme of the trip :)) BUT the kheer we ordered was SOUR- ugh! I actually texted my nepali co-worker to make sure it wasn't some tradition or way of cooking- NOPE, the kheer they gave us was spoiled, so that left a sour taste in our mouth- pun intended.

After Berkeley we made our way to Monterey, which was our "home" base so to speak. It took longer than normal because of crazy traffic but thats Cali for you!. As soon as we got closer to the ocean, I could smell it- man its the best feeling in the world, the first time you smell the ocean after being stuck in sucky Dallas for years :), but I digress. I made H pull over at the nearest beach before we went to the hotel to check in- and went into the water- and boy was the water COLD- but it was also full of seaweed- I eventually got used to it- but H was like eewwwwwwww and refused to get in the water.

Then we checked in and here is the review for the hotel http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g33068-d82133-r310660667-Holiday_Inn_Express_Monterey_BaySeaside_Monterey_Peninsula_California.html#CHECK_RATES_CONT

We went to this restaurant called Peppers Mexicali cafe for dinner and IT WAS AWESOME- I had their vegetarian chili (thats right people- they make chili vegetarian in the wonderful part of this country and its called California). H and I shared their stuffed green pepper for apple and he had veggie fajitas. This was the second theme of the trip, awesome veggie food available at all times without much work.

Next day, we were up bright and early and picked up bikes at Bay Bikes at cannery row and then started on the 17 mile drive. We got to about 4.5 miles and got hungry. We stopped at several places on the way to get into the water- little alcoves that were free of seaweed- I think they were tidal pools. Anyways, right across the street from the Asilomar beach is the Asilomar conference center which had this charming cafe called Phoebe's cafe thats open to everyone (non-conference attendees) and we had a delightful lunch there. We had tortellini soup and a salad. Then we turned back, because yours truly was tired and the drive/bike ride becomes uphill beyond this point. We returned our bikes and then grabbed a cold beer and some fries at the Cannery Row brewing company (I figured I'd earned it after a 9 mile bike ride? Common people, it was our vacation!!- no judgy).

We then walked down the street for some souvenir shopping etc., and then we went back to the room to get changed and head out to dinner. For dinner, we went to Ambrosia India Bistro and the food was decent- overpriced, but edible is all I am going to say, nothing to write home about though.

Next day was the drive to Big Sur and the Julia Pfeiffer Burns state park. So we started our drive stopped at a few beaches on the way (can't remember the names now, sorry!!) they were pretty decent- not too much seaweed. We went further south on Pacific Highway 1 and ended up at Big Sur Bakery and Restaurant for lunch (we made reservations, but were late, like an hour late). They took us in, but made a huge deal about how we would be the last customers for their lunch service. Boy was the food good!!! We split a salad (good), then I had a soup (can't remember what it was, had red peppers in it though- also good) but H got sandwich with avacados, honey and tomatillo jam- OMG this was one of the best things I have tasted. This place was EXORBITANTLY pricey- and then H went and got their holiday bread or something to go and that was like 40$, seriously? I am just NOT over the price at this place and its been a month.

We headed further south and then stopped at this place where there were lots of cars parked and then hiked all the way down thinking thats where the waterfalls were going to be, but instead we pleasantly surprised when we found two humpback whales. OMG- it was totally worth the hike down and up. They were beautiful. Nature amazes me and this was definitely one of those times that it did.

Then we went further down Pac H 1 and found the falls and honestly after pinterest stalking these falls, they were not exactly a let down, but they were meh!.
Then we headed back to Monterey/Carmel and ended up watching the sunset at Carmel beach. This was the prettiest site I saw on this trip. Nothing can beat soft stretch of ocean sand, people walking about and sun slowly setting, it was so romantic not in like the personal sense but with nature- I know that makes me a freak- but I cannot explain the beauty in words.

We went to Il Fornaio for dinner that night and the food was delicioso (H will roll his eyes at this). I had the minestrone soup and their butternut squash ravioli, H had their vegetarian pizza. I need to digress for a second here and talk about my obsession with butternut squash ravioli. A few years ago, H and I took a wonderful winter trip to Portland, OR and its when I fell in love with the city and the food in the city. But, in downtown portland there was this restaurant called Pastini Pastaria and I had the best butternut squash ravioli I have ever had in my life. The one in Carmel was not that good, but it was pretty good. It felt undercooked. They threw in free dessert (we got the tiramisu- this was really good).

We had to return to Dallas the next day! Alas! One of these days maybe we can move to the west coast- the land of the vegetarian friendly places :)

One thing that I want to note about the pacific ocean is, it seemed like this part of the pacific was angry, all dark and churning and angsty. I liked it- it was a big change from the pacific in LA or San Diego where everything is so ..umm whats the word? Chirpy? Happy? Shiny? I think this pacific was a reflection of where I am in life right now, I guess.

Toodles,

S

Migraine

I recently got a migraine and took Sumatriptan for the first time since my doc had prescribed it.  After an hour of taking it, I started feeling ill, heaviness in my chest, tightness in the back of my neck, pain in my jaw the whole shebang. I called H and we decided to go to the ER and they thought I was having an allergic reaction to the triptan and gave me prednisone, benadryl and pepcid, all via IV. So, I got to go home a few hours later all groggy and hopped up on the meds.  Its been a few days and I am still recovering, I have terrible heartburn to the point that I cannot get comfortable. I have at multiple times been scared that I am actually having a heart attack, the heartburn pain is that intense, then I calm myself down saying I don't have any other symptoms of heart attack, like sweating or dizziness and also my EKG was perfectly normal.

All this incident has done is take my migraine and make it worse (not only the headache but other problems as well). So I have decided that I am going to keep a super detailed notebook to see if I can track the cause of this migraine and also have decided to try and use only more natural remedies. For example for this intense heartburn I have been taking a pinch of Ajwain and chewing on it for a few minutes, also making jeera and mendayam kashayam (Boil some cumin and fenugreek seeds in water and drink it).  It has seriously helped.
I have also stopped drinking my much needed much beloved afternoon cup of coffee and replaced it with lemon ginger tea.
I have also joined the yoga collective  (www.theyogacollective.com). It hosts a collection of yoga classes online for all levels. So far I have watched only one class and so more on that later!!

I am hoping that by making these small changes I can be less susceptible to migraines and all the other crap that they bring with them.

Wish me luck! and if you have any other changes I can make (that does not involve me eating meat or spending a crap ton of money)-- I am all ears!

Toodles,

S

My new planner

In my previous post, I had indicated that I was super excited about this new planner, so as promised here is more information.  A few months ago, my friend HRM, a fellow postdoc, but newly appointed faculty mentioned to me that she was dropping a lot of money on the Day Designer (http://www.daydesigner.com), which she thought was very suited to her needs- a planner for "adults", she said.  I looked it up and while it looked pretty, it was too blah for me.  So I went on Etsy and obsessed about day designer printables for a week and figured out that either I liked everything or nothing. I have to be honest - in total I spent about 40$ on putting this planner together and also none of the actual pages are mine (except the front page)- they were all bought on Etsy, I just put together the planner based on what I knew I would find helpful.  This is the finished product.

I designed the cover on Adobe Illustrator (the infinite hours spent on working on paper/thesis figures comes in handy!!). I got it spiral bound at office depot for 5 $ and it took like three minutes for them to do it. For every month, there is a monthly calendar to give me the overview of that month. This is followed by a monthly budget for the house, because lets face it, while I am scientist and we are not supposed to actually have a home life,  I am also a wife and the home organizer :).

The monthly budget pages are then followed by overview of the week- which helps me plan meals. 

The week pages (four of them) are followed by the daily schedule. 

The list of steps in an experiment I am doing is listed under lab work, along with another other major work-related activities.  The gridded section at the bottom is for any pre-existing appointments so they are front and center and I can see them throughout the day.  I also have a section for what I am making for dinner that day. Along with any reminders I may need for any personal errands etc.,  This particular day looks relatively less crazy, but I have noticed that things get added to these columns as the day progresses.  I also decided to bind together only work days of the week for every month (this does include holidays, as we all know that both the hubs and I often work on holidays!- sad but true).  This led to about 300 pages for just 6 months, so I decided to do it in 6 month installments, so my current planner goes from July-December and I get to do this again for Jan-June.  I thought it would be awkward carrying it around, it hasn't been- it probably helps that I am totally in love with my planner now. Talk to me in a few months :). Also here are the links for where I got the original pages in case you guys end up liking it: https://www.etsy.com/transaction/1045002401 and https://www.etsy.com/transaction/1041058681.  I would like to state that Miss Tina's unplan planner pages are the best! they rock!. They are just so pretty!!. 

Toodles,

S

First Post!!

Let me introduce myself- I am a 33 year old female scientist living in Dallas with her husband (also a scientist). What really defines me is that I love books, I love to travel and I love my family! I used to write another blog then I stopped and then I started and then I stopped. So let us see how this one goes. The compelling reason I am starting this new blog is because I have all these thoughts bouncing in my head and I thought that maybe posting it out into the "inter webs" might help me process some of these thoughts or at the very least get rid of them! The topic of today's post is well to introduce myself --yada yada--- and then also to talk about how I was doing tissue culture (for the non-science peeps that just means I am growing some cells in a dish for experiments!) and suddenly an image of the road to the Chennai International airport flashed through my eyes and needless to say it brought tears to my eyes and then I rationalized it by saying that it was because I miss Amma and of course my Appa. Does nostalgia strike someone so weirdly? I mean I wasn't even thinking about India- of course the converse of this is when I am actually in India I miss my house in the US- so I feel like this back and forth is so very annoying! In other news, I am super excited about this planner I have "built" by compiling a few different planner pages that I bought at Etsy..but that will be another blog on another day!!

Toodles!

S