LoL #34: As Nickelback would say...

In the immortal words of Nickleback "It's been a while....." since I've sent an LoL. And actually in all fairness to Chad Kroger and the boys I should quote them as saying "Tsbeenawhile" because I don't even know if they're aware that there should be four words there.

Anyhoo, some of you have been bugging me about what the deal is with the lack of LoL's lately so here's number 34 with extreme apologies for its delay to those of you that missed me and with extreme apologies for its arrival to those of you that were thankful for the dealy in my quasi-weekly annoyance.

I'm sure y'all want to know what's new with me I can't say that too much has been going on (moving, painting, bridal showering...). I did realize though that this is the first year of my life (that I can consciously remember) that I don't have a summer break. It's kinda stressin' me too so y'all can bet on me completely cracking sometime late August (take your bets now - will she break before or after recieving her MCAT scores????). Not to say that I don't have some vacation days with plans to take more than a couple three day weekends, (4th of July Michigan trip, Minnesota the week after, and Wisconsin in early August!) but I'm talking none of this month or more time off, summer job, free Cantera movies, chillaxin at the beach, cool summer stylin time. And you know what? It sucks!

No just kidding. Welcome to the real world (...she said to me ...condescendingly....). It's certainly tolerable. And it occurred to me the other day that what I need to most appreciate about my job (besides the paychecks which are now devoted mostly to living expenses) are the things that make it unique. Consider this a crash course in how not to hate one's job but basically it came down to asking myself, what is it about where I'm at and what I'm doing that I can't experience elsewhere? The list I came up with was 1) the people ; 2) the training ; 3) the impact I can have ; and 4) Chicago. Now for those of you looking over my list and singing the Sesame Street classic "One of these things is not like the others..." let me explain. Obvioulsy the people I work with, what I'm learning, and the progress of our research are all unique to Northwestern but as for number four I realized how cool it is to be in the most spiffy city of Chicago day after day. Especially in the spring. We started a lab techie tradition too of eating lunch outside on the really nice days. Sometimes we check out cool local restaurants (Italian, Japanese, Thai, and Cajun so far...) but sometimes we just eat our sack lunches quickly and then go wander around. There's something way cool about sitting on the lakefront, hiking around Navy Pier, or window shopping the Magnificent Mile that provides just enough of an hour long break from PCR, tissue culture, and measuring mouse tumors to convince me that it actually is summer.

And there's always Sno-cones too. Sno-Cones just scream summer. Which is why last summer I purchased a Sno-Cone maker (Target clearance sale - Yeah baby!). So now anyone who comes to visit Karrie and I (hint, hint, y'all wanna come see us!!!) can have a free Sno-Cone! And if Icy-Sugary delicacies are not your cup of tea you can have something warmer ...like a cup of tea ...heh heh ...just kidding. Actually you can have a capuccino cause my sister Anne bought me a Cappucino macine at a garage sale as a housewarming gift and I actually figured out how to work the thing! (Now I'm gonna open up my own Coffee and Sno-Cone shop... with the ultimate goal of world domination of course.)

Speaking of summer yummies too, we got free ice cream sundaes at work today. It's this whole Staff Appreciation thing where they give us free food now and then but there might be something to the theory of pumping us full of sugar to increase rates of productivity. And to wrap things up I guess "This is how you remind me" about being productive, cause I gotta get back to work! Hope all is going great with y'all!

Chad Krogerfully Yours,

lisa :)

p.s. Just in case any of y'all are clueless, Chad Kroger is the lead singer from the group Nickleback and "It's Been a While" and "This is How you Remind Me" were two of their hit songs.
p.p.s. There's also a brief John Mayer reference in this e-mail cause he rocks!
p.p.p.s. And a quick shoutout to Tony with Kudos for making the multiple "p" ps's cool again and cause he's the one who made fun of my usage of y'all which of course is the reason why I now use y'all every chance I get! ;p Y'all can blame him if y'all don't like all the y'alls I use in talkin to y'all!