Now Introducing, Claudia Jean!

Meet Claudia Jean, or CJ, the cat! We ventured to several different animal shelters over Labor Day weekend in search of a dog.  After visiting several shelters and looking online, I still hadn't found one small enough that I was comfortable having them in the apartment.  While at one shelter, after being severely disappointed by the dog prospects, we went into the cat room and Miss CJ came to my side! Well, really my feet, but anyway... I just couldn't leave a cat that was so quiet and cuddly. The shelter had just brought her in from the larger county shelter so a lot of the information about her got lost in the move.  I have no idea how old she and all we know about her past was that she was surrendered but we don't know why her former family had to give her up.

So here's a picture from the first day I saw her at the shelter, she is hunched down so you can't really tell what size she is but she's pretty tall but she's not a huge cat by any means.

She's been here a week so she's adjusted a lot.  Almost immediately after we got home we found out that she can open the cabinet doors in the apartment so that was her favorite place to hide at first.  Luckily, she didn't get in any that have pots or serving dishes in them and she's gotten over that.  Now if she's hiding she's probably under the bed but that's usually only if she is sleeping or if she's mad at us for yelling at her.  Which leads to the other thing she does, I promise we don't abuse our cat and yell at her all the time....but we have a fish.  We were hopeful that she just wouldn't notice the fish because it's up on top of a rather tall bookcase/media tower kind of thing...I know, definitely wishful thinking.  Unfortunately this media tower is beside the TV stand/TV/speakers set up so she can climb up the TV stand and speakers to get to the fish and occasionally the fish catches her eye and this is just what she does.  She hasn't tried to swipe at the fish, but then again, unless she's doing it at night she hasn't had an opportunity to do more because we very promptly yell at her to get down.  And then she gets mad at us and runs away for a little while and won't associate with us.  

Overall, she has turned out to be a precious little cat and she gives me a good break from staring at the computer screen when I'm reading for class (bc ALL of my classwork is on the computer in the form of powerpoints and literature papers).  That's our news for the week! I hope everyone is enjoying the cooler weather!

Being a Scientist and my First Lab Rotation

Like most crafty women, I am addicted to Pinterest and I found this adorable picture from an early education blog tonight.

http://thefirstgradeparade.blogspot.com/

The picture and her post about how each of her students is a scientist made me think about me being a scientist so I just wanted to share about my experience being a scientist thus far.  

So, let's begin with a little background.  I was incredibly blessed to be drawn to an undergrad institution that allowed me to do scientific research all four years I was in school there.  The easy explanation of what I did was work to cure cancer.  In reality, what I did will only very, very distantly influence the cancer field but it was always nice to have a basis for my work.

Now moving into graduate school, I will rotate through three labs this year and at the end of the year I will choose the lab to work in until my thesis committee deems me ready to graduate (hopefully after working in the lab for about four years).  Coming in to choose a lab I was faced with the fact that I can't choose a lab simply because they are working on something related to cancer even though that explanation has become so comforting to me so, I am expanding my view and trying new things.  

So, now about my first rotation.  The lab I am working in does basic research (meaning working mainly within cells, not up to the level of applying it in humans) but everything relates to a disease.  The project I am working on deals with how toxins (and also medicines) are broken down within the body. I've only been working in the lab for two weeks so I'm not really into the details of the project but just being in the lab has reminded me that a scientist is constantly asking questions and looking for new ways to answer those questions.  As Lucas says, I've suddenly become friends with people who are on average 25 years old and these people are indeed changing how I view life and science.  So, I look forward to beginning to ask more and more questions and keeping you and maybe even some little first graders updated on what a scientist is.