well that's reassuring

to everyone out there reading Thirty Travelers-- it's been a while. hello there.

to hutchens-- here's the address of a site that will translate this post into spanish for you. hopefully you can read the sentence that tells you about the link. http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en

and now for the entry proper:

don't get me wrong, i'm loving grad school. things are going great, i love the lab i'm doing my research in, and classes aren't too rough so far. i've never put this much time into anything before- particularly school- but i'm feeling pretty great about my choice at this point. nevertheless, when staring down the barrel of a 6-7 year program, there are moments that are less than reassuring... some of which i'd like to share with you.

(1) calling the financial aid rep for the dental school to ask about dmd/phd issues, and eliciting an initial response of (word for word): "You're a what student? Are you sure?" I found that odd... "What do you mean am I sure?" I asked. "I don't think we even have a DMD/PhD program. Do you mean MD/PhD? I can connect you to the medical school representative," she replied. ...Crap.

(2) meeting James, the 4 year old son of a post-doc researcher I'm working with named Haiyan. James is really cute and pretty damn funny-- everything you could hope for from a chinese immigrant preschooler. But his interpretation of the work his mom and i are doing is a bit disheartening. After Haiyan showed him a photo printout of a PCR analysis we ran (i'll spare you the details- but it's a black background with white spots), James screwed up his face, looked at me, looked at Haiyan, and asked in earnest, "Mom, why you work so much late with Mistuh Blian? Me you can draw pictures together home." ...Sigh.

(3) being asked twice in the past week by cashiers- one at Broadway Barbecue, and one at Piggly Wiggly- what exactly it is that I do at uab. And then being asked via roundabout hints to stop. One literally just sort of walked away, and the other started talking to her coworker as my voice trailed off to a sad sigh. Molecular biology seems to be the great alienator.

(4) receiving a phone call from my bank requesting an estimated date of graduation for their records since i have a student checking account. telling them 2014. being asked, "really?", hearing some keystrokes, and then, "can you give us another date? the computer blank only works up to 5 years in advance." Thanks computer.

(5) opening mail from my cousin with the following note: "Hey B- grandma found this article in US News & World Report about advances in dentistry and oral heatlh, and she asked me if I could pop it in the mail since it might interest you. It's 12 pages long, which was gonna take more than one stamp. I only found one stamp at grandma's place, and I didn't have time to go get more, so I'm just gonna mail you a page or two a year. That should last just about until you graduate, yeah? Love you. -Coley" No time to buy a stamp, but plenty of time to be a smartass. I love you too, Nicole.

(6) Gob Bluth reminding me that he heard "the verdict is still out on science" as I pass out on the guys' couch at the end of the most exhausting week yet.

nerds rule.
-brian