Ok. So I've officially survived week one of my new job and am moving on with the second. Thank the Lord God Almighty that I at least have a job. I need to remember to sign my health insurance forms, find my chemistry book, and bring in an ethernet cord. Who says you never use stuff you had in college?

So...this job is also at Wash U Sch of Med, much to the chagrin of the unemployment office, but a different lab. Totally different department. No more stem cells...well, maybe. We'll see. I might work with them here. I know I still want to work in tissue engineering, but this job could be a means to an end. My boss, Dr Fontana (Luigi) nicely hinted to me that if his boss likes me there's the possibility of an MD/PhD program down the road. Hmm. Dr Shew, eh? lol. The timesheets say Applied Physiology department, but my id says Geriatrics, Div of Medicine. Go fig. I'm actually doing something with the blood serum of calorie-restricted human volunteers, trying to help Luigi find out what it is about these people's sera that makes them less prone to cancer and perhaps live longer. Could be cool, no? One of these days I'll actually learn this fancy ELISA procedure (enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay) to determine what antibodies are in the serum...I think...don't ask me to explain yet cause I'm not so sure about it anyway!

I've been isolating PBMCs and aliquoting sera, learning some ins and outs of the lab...I don't think I have everybody's name down yet, but at least they all smile at me...

The family is thinking of getting a new car. A Toyota Sienna, to be more precise. Ok, so it's not really a car. But it is silver, which, after green, blue, and maroon, is my favorite color! ha. Too bad we can't get the superduper deluxe version which has a rearseat dvd player. Ah well. I'll just have to get a new computer, with dvd drive...pet peeve: why don't dvd makers make the extras viewable on macs? I don't understand why that would be so hard. Silly people. You don't like the artists! ah well.

hold your horses, there's more coming soon!