There are a lot of things I'm thrilled about today. My nutcasetastic helmet finally arrived and it's great, tomorrow is pay day and next Monday is Labor day here in the US. So, I've been thinking:
Long weekend with NO work MONDAY?
A new book?
Sunny weather?
Beach?
Hell yeah, I'm in!
Yay for Monday-less weeks, late summer laziness and Stan. Talk to you on Tuesday, folks.
I know, I know, things have been quiet and boring around here for the past few days, but I've cooked up something to break the silence. Yay me… Then...
Although I had something totally different planed for today's post, a late afternoon call from mommy dearest changed things a bit.
AND NOW I GET TO SHAMELESSLY BRAG ABOUT HOW AWESOME MY BROTHER IS.
Ha! My baby bro is (bragging points as following):
I am currently sprawled on my bed, MacBook on my lap and glass of chardonnay in my hand. Blogging and unwinding. It's half past eleven pm and I just came back home from my first evah Broadway show.
Since I hate being cliché, I didn't go for Mamma mia, Stomp or The Lion King.
Instead, I chose the most cliché-filled show I could think of for my Broadway-de-verginization. A cheesy, but endearingly funny rom-com. Why would I do that (just the thought of the cheesefest makes me want to puke a little bit) when there's just somuchgoodstuff around there in the mainstream department?
My answer is simple: Zachary Levi. D'oh.
He might not be the most well-known household name, but if you ever watched Chuck, you must have loved him. If that bit of info doesn't ring a bell, simply scroll down.
All images shamelessly copy-pasted from here with the sole purpose of making you drool.
He's tall, dark and nerdy, and totally adorable. Has an amazing smile and kind hazel eyes. And boy, can he sing and dance. And he can tell a love story:
"Chuck versus the Goodbye" final scene.
Well, he might actually lack a bit of crude sex appeal, but he's just too cute not to love. Although. Hmmm, let me rethink that:
Ok, maybe I did underestimate his sex appeal just a smidgen.
Anyways, back to the show. It was just about everything I expected from a Broadway musical: flashy, chock-full of jokes with predictable punchlines, with catchy tunes, and seriously sugary. But thanks to the relatively small size of the theater and the tiny cast it also felt intimate and personal enough.
I'm actually really happy that I went. I had a great time and yes, I might have drooled a little bit. I couldn't really help it. Zack Levi is just adorable. End of story.
Science is fun. And exciting. And surprising. And humbling. And it can be a bit magical, too.
SOTD: The Moody Bues - Tuesday Afternoon. Because there's nothing better than a bit of magic lab fog on a day like this...
But, honestly, sticking around the lab for endless hours can mess with your brain. Rational thoughts become more and more tangled around fuzzy ideas and you slowly start to go crazy.
When THAT moment arrives, you absolutely need to unwind. Coffee usually saves the IQ, but sometimes you just can not leave the bench to go get yourself a steaming cup of brown lifejuice with just the perfect dash of milk in it. YUM!
When that happens, alternative unwinding techniques NEED to kick in...
… enter: MAKING FOOOOOOOOOG!!!
Woo-hoo!
Simple, fun and really cold. Just pour water over dry ice. But, please, make sure NOT to toss the dry ice chips directly into the sink or drain, because THAT might make your drain pipes crack (=worst case scenario) or just block your drain for hours due to a chunk of superchilled ice forming in the drain (=most annoying case scenario).
My newest ride is a VERY cool, vintage, satin black, proudly English, 3-speed Hercules. I'm calling it Stanley. Or Stan for short.
And I am a woman in love.
Stan.
Before buying, I did me some research via Gooogle, obviously. I left work on Friday with a list of bike shops in my hand and my mind firmly set. I was looking for either a vintage city bike or a (beach) cruiser.
Recycle-A-Bicycle in the East Village was my first stop. And there's where Stan was. Chilling in the shop, apparently waiting just for me.
SOTD: Queen - Don't stop me now. Like you ever could, even if you tried… ;)
It was love at first sight, although he was a bit above the price range I have originally set for. But it took me 2-minute test spin for the decision to be made. Moreover, R-a-B works for a very good cause, so justifying the splurge was a no-brainer. They actually are a non-profit that accepts donated old bikes that get perked-up in their shops so that they are mechanically flawless. All sales proceeds directly support training, educating and employing kids and adults in bike maintenance, biking as a lifestyle and environmental awareness, which is ALWAYS a win in my book.
Stan's ride home via the East River Greenway.
With amazing views of Queensboro bridge,
Roosevelt Island and Long Island City.
The ride home was my first bike ride in quite a long time. I admit, Gotham's crazy traffic can be quite humbling for a new pedal pusher, but the first ride from the East Village to the UES actually went smoothly. I seriously look forward to long day trips on weekends and shorter, fun & errand filled ones after work.
Stan already has a practical basket, front and back lights, a pink bell and matching chain lock. I still need to get him a U lock for added safety (HELLO! There are way too many bikes with missing front or rear wheels around this island for my taste). And I need to get me a helmet for my OWN safety.
Believe me, I am freaking talented when it comes to various bump-head-against-solid-surface-or-object activities, and my ample experience in the field simply calls for an effective brain protector. High cuteness factor is just an added perk :)
And the list of things I love about this city is constantly growing. From the enormous and glamourous, all the way to the touchingly humble and the mundane. Of course, there's manythings that constantly remind me New York is not perfect, but its perks surely make up for a whole lot of its shortcomings.
Witty signage is one of those things that makes New York so fuckingly New York-ish and, thanks to what's pictured below, has just cemented its spot among the top 20 things I absolutely, irrevocably, undoubtfully, definitely love about it.
Seen today at one of the research campuses on the UES.
Although it started all nice and mellow with sunny weather, exceptional coffee and some more deubiquitinases papers reading (just let me have the excitement about this one, kay?), the day finished on a substantially bitterer note. Yuck!
I had a meeting with the boss after lunch - the day was actually still in the "yay, positive!" zone at that point. And even after the meeting, we were still firmly in the "yay, positive!" zone. Because the boss is a cool guy and the meeting went well and I left his office with the impression that I am gradually getting where I was supposed to be getting. So, "yay, positive!" all the way, right.
Right?
Hmm…
Around 4 pm the results from Mycoplasma testing of my cell lines came in. And again, they were positive. Which means that MOST of the cell lines I was supposed to work with are infected. With a sneaky, nasty infection that does not significantly affect their growth in my case (meso cell lines pretty much grow like crazy), but definitely DOES affect other aspects of their biology. The very aspects I was supposed to investigate in these very cells.
For those who've never heard of Mycoplasma before, let me just introduce you. These devils are tiny bacteria without a cell wall. Why is that piece of information crucial? Because most antibiotics used in cell culture are actually the ones that kill bacteria by interfering with their cell wall. Since Mycoplasma do not have a cell wall, those antibiotics have no effect on them. And to add to the messiness, Mycoplasma are a really widespread "occult" contaminant of cell cultures. Many researchers do not really care about the little fuckers. But since this type of infection can seriously affect a lot of cellular processes, having Mycoplasma in your cell culture can skew a substantial part of the results generated using said cell culture. NOT exactly what I was aiming for.
Well, all in all, it is not as tragic as it sounds, since we have ways to get a new, healthy stock of some cell lines and we can cure the irreplaceable ones. So it's definitely not the end of the world… That would be the rational response to such crappy news.
My response was a bit less rational.
I was so mad that I was "blessed" with inheriting infected cell lines that I just dragged my bummed ass to my favourite coworker's bench and sat there for half an hour, feeling sorry for myself and angry at no one in particular (Mycoplasma is definitely NOT something people would get on purpose). A whole bunch of people tried to cheer me up or to explain to me that they were not the cheer-you-up kind of people. The poor devils don't know me yet, so I then explained to them that I did not need nor expect any cheering up or anything of the sort. I just need a bit of time and something to distract me.
SOTD: Richard Cheese - Die, Motherfucker, die (Dope cover). Need I say more?
You think I overreacted? Me too. But you see, it was not the horribly high Mycoplasma titers themselves that bummed me, but the fact that I CAN'T WAIT TO GET TO WORK on my project and this "nursing the cells" gig I'll have to do now means that I'll have to wait a few weeks more for the real action to start. Emphasis on wait.
The distracting obviously worked, as I now feel better. Luckily, my favourite coworker is a workaholic overachiever and I suspect we'll find ways to keep me busy while we wait for the grass to grow cells to heal.
Jules
p.s. Check this out. And donate if you can. Because these guys rock!
Here's a step by step recap. Trust me, it's SUPER exciting and you really shouldn't miss it!
Friday, 6 pm to 7 pm:
Instead of leaving work for a beer, I had this EPIC fight with my homeboy Ž via texts. Excessive texting is dangerous indeed, my friends. Of course, the fight was in Slovenian, so that kind went along with the theme.
Friday, 7.30 pm to 8 pm:
Subway ride to Long Island City (Queens). Thank the heavens for air conditioned subway cars. Talk about cooling off… ;)
Friday, 8 pm onwards:
Meeting a bunch of Slovenians for a drink at this awesome speakeasy in Queens. Fantastic cocktails, bartender was a bit cranky, but nice enough. And did I mentioned the cocktails were fantastic?
Gin and vermouth are quickly becoming my very close friends!
…zzzzzZZZZZzzzzzz…
Saturday, 8 am to 9 am:
Coffee and Skype. Good times.
Saturday, 9 am to 12 pm:
Some easy peasy work at the lab. No biggie, but unskippable.
Saturday, 12 pm to 1 pm:
Post office. Oh yeah, the pink slip finally appeared in my mailbox meaning that a nice care package from Slovenia was waiting for me at the local USPS. This time, it ALMOST arrived smoothly. Huge improvement and, yeah, I managed to successfully retrieved the package this time.
Saturday, 1 pm to 2 pm:
Greedily opened care package. Šljivov pekmez, a vast assortment of homegrown herbal infusions, "fleur de sel" salt from my home turf, which REALLY makes food taste better, a few beloved pieces of clothing, my favourite swimming goggles AND a huge 1 kilo pack of lemon Cedevita (I am old fashioned that wayand only ever choose classic old school flavors for my artificial vitamin drinks).
That should keep me going for a while!
I LOVE YOU, MUM!!!
Saturday, 3 pm onwards:
Binge watching a White Collar marathon while downing painkillers, clutching a hot water bottle and feeling really miserable. No, this particular case of feeling miserable did NOT have anything to do with cocktails. Let's not talk about that again…
…zzzzZZZZZzzzzzz (not peaceful at all!)…
Sunday, 11 am:
Coffee and painkillers. Who would have thought? Coffee DOES help with that kind of pain. But if ever given a choice, I'd take coffee and Skype over coffee and painkillers, no discussion.
Sunday, 1 pm to 3 pm:
Work, same thing as the day before. This time, my level of enthusiasm was a few pegs lower than the previous day. No shit, Sherlock...
Sunday 3 pm to 3.15 pm:
2 (!) slices of pizza for lunch. New York's finest junk food finally found me.
Sunday, 3.30 pm to 6 pm:
Slovenian picnic in Prospect Park. Thanks to some awesome Slovenian-Facebook-word-of-mouth, this little gathering happened. It was so cool to meet a few more awesome people, most of whom are in the arts and have been living in New York for years. Although I wasn't in the best of shapes, I had a great time and do not regret dragging my ass all the way to Brooklyn for this.
Here's to more events like this, Slovenians!
Sunday, 7 pm onwards:
Blue Jasmine and a beer with a cool coworker (not Slovenian, though - kind of spoiled the overall theme, but she's seriously cool).
Cate Blanchett outdid herself. Woody Allen is a genious.
I loved the movie. Such a step up from the last, hugely underwhelming Allen I saw up north in freezing Tallinn last year.
An hour-by-hour account of what I did during the weekend? Like anybody cares, right?
All in all, it was a bumpy weekend and what I think ('cause I care, you see) made it stand out in the sea of all my NYC weekends is the fact that this one was chock full of Slovenians who managed to make a home for themselves here in New York.
And I am seriously falling in love with the concept that I kind of am one of them, making New York my home.
