Outlaws

So, yesterday was full of unpacking and organizing the lab AND humor, so I consider it a great day. It took me a while to get the mailroom/mover guys, Humberto and Vicente, at work to loosen up and get used to my silliness. Well, part of it is the language/cultural barrier, but I kept at it. Now, Humberto's cracking jokes left and right and giving me all sorts of grief, so it's a blast. Vicente's a little more mature in years, so he'll probably stay more reserved, but he's very enjoyable. He tells me he's been riding the bus to work for 6 years, and Humberto carpools with four other UCLA people, so he only has to drive one week a month. These guys know what they're doing.

One of the things I like to do is catch complete strangers off their guard by making them laugh. So, on my bike ride home, I was sitting at a stoplight when a motorcyclist pulled up along side of me. I waited 'til it was getting close to the light changing and then shouted over to him, "Hey! I'll race ya!" He smiled and nodded, then left me in the dust... (I laughed the rest of the block... cracked myself up...)

My boss' family invited me to dinner at a restaurant called, "Outlaws," which was supposed to be very family friendly. Big flat screen TVs in every room doesn't count as such in my book (or theirs), but what can you do? We all ordered, and when the plates came out, the servings were huge, but mine was ginormous. We're talkin' one of those oval plates that's about the size of 2 large dinner plates. I had half a chicken sitting in front of me. Dillon, a Kindergartner this year, just stared at me like, "are you really gonna eat all that?" I made a few dents here and there and made plans to eat the leftovers for the rest of the month. Everyone else did pretty well. You see, Dillon's family has a rule about emptying your plate before you get anything sweet. So, he looks at me and points at my plate and says, "you don't get any dessert!" Funny guy.

Pretend it's 10/22, cause that's when I actually wrote it

Today I made my first visit to the UCLA emergency room. The doctors were very nice, and they told me exactly what I already knew: that what I had was probably a spider bite and that the streak mark creeping up to my heart meant blood poisoning. A week of 2 butt-kicking antibiotics and an anti-fungal cream (just in case -- bite is 'satellite-y' and a little shiny) should do the trick. The hitch? Now I gotta wonder if the 8-legged fiend is camped out in my cushy brown chair or in some other item I had in storage and shipped. Believe it or not, this is the THIRD time this exact thing has happened to me in the past 3 years. Bite, streaks, emergency antibiotics. I'm beginning to think I must have really ticked off some arachnid along the way, cause the whole lot seems to have it in for me.

Other than the 2 vampire-like punctures in my epidermis, things are going great. I finally have a mattress for my bed, so no more camping on the floor in a sleeping bag. Yay! I bought a plant and some of that dried bamboo roll stuff for a little privacy on my balcony. The apartments here are so crammed together. With over 10 million people all living in the Los Angeles metro area, it's inevitable. Yet, it's very lovely here, because there's so much greenery throughout the city. They really love their landscaping out here, and I do too.

Now, imagine over 10 million people all driving cars at the same time. It's unbelievable. I took the bus to work the first few days, but quickly determined we just weren't meant to be -- I can't read in moving vehicles, and being a despiser of inefficiency (perfectionist alert!), I decided to try riding my bike. I would at least get my exercise in during the commute. Just under 5 miles by bicycle doesn't seem like much, but throw in the California hills and the fact that UCLA sits at the foothills of some mountains (the ride IN to work is at a constant incline), and that spells YOWSA!! It really is uphill both ways. I'm gonna try to keep it up as long as I can, and I'm hoping it gets easier over time (update: It's Thursday, and I've decided to take the bus in to work but bring my bike so that I can have it on campus with me and bike home. So, I avoid the agonizing incline but still get some exercise and have a way to run quick errands. Brilliant, eh?). Oh, and thank-you Jeff Lutjens for the idea of attaching a plastic crate to the back of the bike. It's a life-saver!

Overall, I'm really enjoying L.A. I love it that you can walk a few blocks or so and find just about anything you might need AND food from all over the globe. MMMmmm... Like food... The only down sides so far, are that I really miss the on-line DVD/video checkout system of the UCity Library, and that I can't find toasted ravioli anywhere.

1, 2 skip a few...

Last week was my first week at work, though we didn't quite have a lab space yet. Another lab that works mainly with frogs and that we'll be collaborating with, let Dwayne (the boss man) and I set up camp in one of they're rooms while our lab floors were being redone and the space thoroughly cleaned. It was really gross -- Dwayne said the previous lab had been there for at least 20 years, and it probably hadn't been cleaned in that time. I can't say for sure how long it'd been, but if you could Photoshop out all of the actual lab, you'd never know the difference, because a thick mask of grit and grime in the shape of it would remain.

Dwayne and I spent the week discussing what equipment needed to be purchased, particularly a new laser scanning confocal microscope and -80˚C freezer among other things, and he asked me to create a plan for where everything in the lab would go... how we should organize it all for a good work flow. Daunting? A bit, but I like organizing things, so it's kind of a fun challenge for me. We also have to write and post job descriptions for the people we will want to hire, most urgently someone to do the animal husbandry and a sort of general technician/helper. We think we have a post-doc lined up (as soon as she finishes her thesis, which as those of you Ph. D.s out there know, rarely happens as swiftly as intended), and we'll probably get an undergrad too. So, it's a small team at the moment, but we're working on it.

Back to the fancy microscope, they can run more than half a million dollars, which of course you aren't going to just find in your couch cushions, so we've narrowed it down to 2 systems. One of them will be demoed at this year's Neuroscience meeting in San Diego the first week of November, so we'll be driving down for a day of the week-long meeting to give it a whirl. There will be 20,000+ scientists there to present and/or listen to the latest findings of researchers in the field. I won't have to go to a single lecture! Ahem, hem, I mean, gee, it's too bad I won't have the opportunity... Seriously, it is interesting and amazing what various labs around the world are doing, but my brain can take only so much information. Our bi-weekly departmental presentation at Wash U was enough for me, and I sometimes walked away from those a bit dazed... though, I guess it could have been the take-out...

Dwayne, his wife, and their 2 children have had me to dinner 3 times already, which is much appreciated, especially considering the fiasco with getting my stuff dropped at my new place. A story for a rainy day perhaps, entitled, "Aubrey opens up a can." Anyway, my boss and his wife want to make sure I'm doing ok. The little one, D'Nae says my name constantly when I'm over, to which I don't really know how to respond. I say "yes, D'Nae?" and she speaks some D'Nae-ish then calls on me again. Over and over and over. It's like an Abbott and Costello routine (I'm beginning to wonder if Finley Wyllie put her up to it, just so I'd feel at home). Anyway, Dwayne tells me that I'm the first person outside of the family who's name D'Nae says. It's an honor I don't know how to comprehend, I guess, or maybe it means nothing at all. Right place, right time sort of thing. Hmmm... I can still remember the first full day I spent with the entire Holden family, helping the youth with last year's talent show, and little India Holden suddenly called my name (for the first time) and wanted me to play with her. I had one of those brief moments where time stops, and you feel the weight of a revelation of sorts. This little person who I barely knew wanted to play with ME, and I remember thinking how amazing that was.

Day 4 (Oct. 10) Eubliette- the place to put what you want to forget

Like my new apartment door keys... None of the keys worked, so we had to have the locks changed right away. No problemo. Gave me time to learn about the Salvation Army. Kathleen and I admired the leasing agent for his uncanny cartoon potential. What an interesting fellow, and very nice. We unloaded --- library internet session... end... ing... now.......

Day 3 (Oct. 9) My cliffs are round! Oh nooo!!

So you're probably a bit worried about the title. Let me explain just enough to make you worry some more. Today we drove past the Aubrey Cliffs in Arizona and they were so 'roundy' and womanly. If you know me well (or have any brain cells at all), you'll get the irony of it.

Moving on. We also saw a Kiva (Native American underground smoke house), some Hogans, old volcanoes, mesas, the Painted Desert and some hippie geodesic domes here and there. Too bad I've never seen a hippie, though... Yuccas are really cool, too. And if we didn't know any better, we'd have thought we were being followed by a Wal-Mart store.

Day 2 out west

We drove through MO, one minute of KS and much of OK yesterday. OK, TX panhandle and half of NM today. I've seen my first tumbleweed, 2 types of cacti (Mesquite and Pinion), arroyos, buttes (pronunciation up to you), wind farms (interpretation of this item may depend on the item listed before it), pueblos and plenty of road-kill armadillos. No road runners yet, though. Bought a hilarious cowboy cactus for my car antenna and then remembered my antenna retracts... I'll find somewhere else for him I guess.

Kathleen and I stopped at this gas station in OK that was constructed fairly recently, but the property was 'decorated' with various abandoned old cars, trucks and farm equipment. It was artist heaven! We wandered around and took pictures of all the cool surfaces, including the bottom of my sandal, which I inadvertently placed right in the middle of a prickly bush (picture to come). Good thing there's no quick sand, fire geysers or R.U.S.s in Oklahoma... We found ourselves back on the road 2 hours later. Kathleen said we must have been 'in the zone.' She says 'nit-wits' a lot, which cracks me up.

Day 1 of the trip

Kathleen and I have not only survived day one of the cross-country trek, but we have indeed prospered (at least in my opinion - she's down getting some exercise while I sit like a lump on the hotel bed, so you'll have to ask her later). We laughed... we cried... but there were NO bottles of beer on the wall, so that's good. Lots of plastic animals and a great meal at Primo's, a little Italian restaurant tucked away in an old strip mall. We did see a Wal-Mart that contained a spa and salon... much giggling ensued. I think I may end up using my inhaler a lot on this trip...