Thoughts for a Friday

As I sit here as an enslaved grad student in my Immunology lab (and pretend that I am doing DNA sequencing analysis while I am actually blogging), I am going to gather my thoughts for this week.

1. No lab results = depressing week!

I spent the entire week doing an experiment that measures protein levels of a down-regulated gene...and I can't get my actin control to work...which means that I can't interpret the blot of my protein extracts...which means I have to start over. bllaaaaaahhh!! A week's worth of work/time down the drain. Tis the life of a researcher, right? I should probably get used to lab failure. But still, it was slightly sad to put so much time into no results. And my PI wasn't too thrilled either.

2. Wrong class!

Yesterday I went to the upper west side YMCA to take a zumba class. I was all excited since I haven't taken a zumba class since Luana's AWESOME class in Hawai'i! I'm new to the Y, so I just wandered around until I found the group exercise studio, and went to the front of the group. So then the instructor gets up and says, "Who doesn't know that this isn't the Zumba class and that the instructor is gone until next week?" I looked around and no one else did anything...so I was too embarrassed to leave since I was standing in the front, and I just stayed. Turns out, it was an Indian folk dance class!! hahaha! I stayed and danced for the entire hour and a half! I guess I got a new experience out of it. It was actually kind of fun, even though I probably looked pretty stupid and out of place.

3. MSSM hospital stairs are my new enemy.

There are these stairs that go from the Icahn research institute to the hospital that have this little "ledge" that sticks up from the front. I have tripped on them THREE times this week. Are these things a health hazard? Am I just not picking up my feet? I hate those things. Its come to the point where its hard for me to get embarrassed from tripping and falling on my face because it happens so often.

4. Chocolate Show

[see last post]

My mouth is watering just thinking about all of the chocolate that I am going to eat tomorrow!

5. YogaWorks

My friend Annie showed me this little studio called YogaWorks...and I am in love! They have this fantastic studio that teaches all sorts of yoga...including Ashtanga, which is what I practiced in Hawaii! Its my favorite type of yoga, and I know it well since I've been practicing it regularly, so I was so excited to try a class. My first class was awesome..it kind of made me feel at home in a way, so I will be going back often! Yoga has become my saving grace from the craziness of life, if you know what I mean.

6.NYC: best food ever!

I have officially determined that NYC has the best food EVER. I've probably said this a million times by now. But seriously I am finding a delicious new place to eat every few days. I went from one extreme to the other: remote pacific island --->busiest city in the country. And I love it. I recently discovered Crumbs bakery, and though it is amazingly yummy, it doesn't compare to Magnolia Bakery (my kryptonite).

7. My sister is coming out for Thanksgiving

I feel like I've hyped up the food so much, Noelle (the foodie of the family) is coming out to visit the food....I mean me. Wait, no I don't---she really is coming out for the food! haha! We will probably consume everything in a matter of days. Plus A group of our friends are having a Pre-Thanksgiving- Thanksgiving dinner..so there will be a lot of food around in the next few weeks.

Welp, thats it. You get a gold star if you made it through this whole post.

I should probably get some work done. Have a great weekend!

Chocolate show?

I just heard that there is a CHOCOLATE show here in New York city, running from yesterday through Sunday at the Metropolitan!

[Photos taken from Chocolate Show Website]

Seriously?! A show completely dedicated to chocolate? You better believe that I'll be there!

They claim to be the largest show in the US that is dedicated to chocolate.

Events include sampling tons and tons of types of chocolates and chocolate products, as well as cooking demonstrations and a chocolate fashion show.

YUM! I will let you know how it goes!

Woes of the colorblind

Just when I thought my colorblind problems were over...

I stumbled upon microarrays...

(Full paper here)

We have a required class called Journal Club where we discuss papers that are relevant to the current module we are studying. Each person is required to speak about the data of at least 1 figure and how that contributes to the overall findings of the paper....

But what are you supposed to do if you can't read/interpret the figures because they are all in GREEN AND RED?

Answer: You sit behind the TA so she doesn't see you and forgets that you haven't presented on a figure. Problem solved. :)

ING NYC Marathon!

...was today!

Turns out, the finish line was 2 blocks from our house in Central Park, so the traffic and amount of people was intense.

This year the marathon hit all 5 of the boroughs; starting in Staten Island, and going through Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Harlem, and then ending in central park.

We got a sneak peek of the finish line the day before:

I wonder how you can get passes to sit up here at the finish line..? That would be pretty awesome.

Today it was hard to get through the crowds to watch the end of the marathon, but Seth managed to squeeze in and took some pictures/video.

Isn't this picture awesome? I love the ghost effect!!

Can you believe someone could run 26.2 miles in 02:08:14? Crazy! It makes me want to be able to run that fast!

Oh and I found this picture on Seth's phone. I thought it was pretty, so I stuck it up on here. I love this city.

Cold weather is here!

I am officially starting to experience my first cold winter.

It's only about 37 -50 degrees here, but its COLD to me. COOOOLLLLDDD! Plus its all rainy and windy a lot of the time, which makes it worse!

But I lovvvvvve the change in wardrobe, i.e. jackets, sweaters, scarves, boots, etc.....things I only get to wear when I visit California for Christmas. Its about 37 degrees when I leave for school in the morning, so I layer up with sweaters and scarves, grab a delicious, hot caramel apple spice, and make my way to the upper east side.

And the scenery here is absolutely gorgeous; seeing the leaves change and fall, and all of the holiday decorations are starting to come up.

Ice skating at Rockefeller Center has started, and I can't wait to go! I also can't wait for the lighting of Christmas trees and elaborate decorations to be set up. I feel like I couldn't be in a better city for the holidays. (I could do without the snow though....not looking forward to that).

Anyway, this week I went to a "Dino DNA" party....in simpler terms it was a nerd party with my fellow graduate classmates where we watched Jurassic Park on the tiniest tv ever and "oooohed and ahhhhhed" at the parts where they talked about Dinosaur DNA....hehe.

It was a lot of fun, but I have to admit it has been strange to go from a school where all my friends were LDS to a school where I am the only member. So being the only sober person at these parties..??...not totally my scene, but I feel like I have to make an effort to get to know these people since we are going to be in the same program together for 2 years. All in all, it was fun to take a break from school and hang out with my classmates (even though I just watched a lot of people get trashed!) I didn't want to commute back to the upper west side in the wee hours of the morning (a few weeks ago there was a stabbing at the 96 st train station), so I ended up crashing at my friend Annie's place for the night, and we ended up having tons of fun. What would I do without good friends like that?

This weekend, Pattie and David are here! We've had some great fun so far...even though I had to get up at 7 today to go to lab to finish up some gene regulation experiments (curse lab work on Saturdays!) The NYC marathon is tomorrow, and it ends in Central Park which is just 2 blocks from our apartment, so maybe we'll check it out.

side note: In celebration of my "late Halloween," I feasted on one of these from Magnolia:

I can't wait for the Thanksgiving ones!