So, long time no post!  I’ve been in Bastrop for the past two weeks, getting ready for classes and rotations at the lab.  My incoming class at Smithville is a total of FIVE people.  I’m not kidding.  Thankfully, that’s not all of the first years in the GSBS program, as we saw yesterday while in Houston to fill out some paperwork.  Also while I was there, I found out that I am one of the lucky few who are actually funded for two years by the Dean’s Office of GSBS.  Very neat!  I don’t know why they think I’m as smart as they do, but they’re in for an awakening!  These first few weeks are sure to be a struggle, but then I’ll be back on my feet and off running.

Meanwhile, the town’s still rather boring.  The town closes up by 10pm every night, and any semblence of a social life is thirty miles away in Austin.  As you can probably guess, thoughts in my head are starting to form about a more efficient vehicle and living in Austin.  That won’t be for at least another year, however, since I prize my credit score. 

Life’s also a bit sad without Bryan around.  He’s been living the highlife in Waco with his friends on the weekdays, and comes to visit on the weekends.  Its not terrible, but I do feel like a total dork for being home every night while he’s out on the town.  I don’t have a choice, and that makes it all the more unbearable.  Oy veh.

Other than that, everything is going well here.  I start school Tuesday, and have nothing to do until then!  Woo hoo! 

Today was my second to last day team teaching a science/computer camp.  Its been a three hour long job, for four days a week, and I’m making more than I was at Academy full time.  And I love it.

Today we got lazy and let the kids watch a history channel movie entitled ‘How the Earth was Made’.  The kids were totally amazed by tectonic plate movement, Pangea and the ‘SUPER ICE AGE’.  I had fun stopping the movie and explaining everything to them.  Just to watch their faces light up with understanding is one of the most rewarding actions I have ever encountered.  The kids that Stacy and I have are so damned smart – I wish every kid was like these are.  Oh, they make the morning fly by.  It is going to be sad to have it come to an end tomorrow.

The Bryan countdown is down to NINE days.  Yes. Very excited about seeing my goober.  I can’t wait.

Oh, but I have competitive news to Bryan’s arrival – I just landed my third rotation at MD ANDERSON.  I get to do three ten week lab rotations with different ‘prospective mentor/professors’.  Okay, so I already had two down:  One in reproductive cancers (and xenoestrogens) with Dr. Walker, and a second in epigenetic factors of carcinogens and teratogens with Dr. Bedford.  Guess who I’m doing my third one with???  Oh yeah, that’s right:  The Dean.

Dr. Richie, the dean of Research Park, asked me to do a rotation through her lab.  She specializes in studies of the thymus (that organ above your heart that produces young antibodies).  When you’re about twenty years old, your thymus stops producing naive T cells and begins to turn to fat through a process called involution.  This means that after this time, your body won’t recognize and fight any new diseases that you encounter.  Dr. Richie’s research interest is in either keeping the thymus from involution OR being able to restart the thymus’ ability to produce new T cells through a motif on an outer thymus cell’s DNA.  While talking to her today, she made the comment that they basically have this theory explained by data, and now are just looking for a way to make it happen in the animal model.  If her lab group can actually pull of ‘restarting’ the thymus, elderly susceptability to common diseases like the flu and TB would be irraticated.  IRRATICATED!!!!!

…And I could be one of those partners in that lab.  Pretty cool, huh?

Oooh, I’m so ready to get back to CenTx.  It’s going to be an AWESOME fall. 

My relationship is finally over…  with Baylor. 

 The past weekend was a whirlwind of activities, from family arriving, graduating, packing, partying, etc.  While I was tired nearly the entire time, it was so wonderful to have people that I love and cherish so much around to celebrate this culmination of my trials at this university.  Looking back, it is easy to see how much I have grown, from a skiddish, do-right freshmen all alone in Central Texas to the driven, independant, and sometimes crazy woman I (feel I) am today. The change is rather amazing to see within myself, and I know that my past four years of struggling have been well worth it.  I have figured out who I am. 

For the next two months I will be spending my time in El Paso with my parents.  My dad asked me to come home for the summer, which he would never do if it were not for some really good reason.  For those of you who don’t know, I haven’t moved home in over two years; my last two summers were spent at school, working on my thesis.  It seems that my parents needed to have some ‘Michelle Time’ before I truly do move out on my own.  They sold it to me as a means to pad my bank account while I pay no rent and work.  As for myself, I am mildly dreading the next few weeks, since I have a)lost my freedom and b)lost visual contact with Bryan.    And NO BRYAN, I WILL NOT GO BUY A WEBCAM.

Aside from that, life is going rather well.  I am slowly destressing from classes, and becoming quite excited about graduate school.  I understand now that some greater being really did have a hand in directing my life towards research, for it has become both my sanity and passion.  I can see that the next few years are going to be awesome, and its all going to be for my dreams.  How cool is that?

Hopefully now Bryan will begin to look for employment in Austin, and we can begin the next leg of our wild journey as close friends.  One thing at a time, one thing at a time. 

 :)

36 days until I graduate!  

Anna and I have a count down going on our lab board concerning the days left until we graduate.  So today it’s 58 days left!  I am starting to become amazed by how quickly the last few years have flown by.  Really.  It’s pretty awesome to think that I’m basically finished with my undergraduate studies.

 I’m not completely out of the woods though.  I still have some loose ends to tie up, such as my thesis.  And I don’t want to think about it.  BUT, if you’re around during the week of Dia del Oso, and you have nothing better to do but listen to my thesis presentation, then, by all mean, please do!  Provided I get past my defense, I’m presenting that week on my research concerning bioaccumulation of TNT using a C14 tracer.  

Okay, I think that is all for now.  The Bears are losing to Purdue, and therefore I am depressed. 

Hi guys!  I FINALLY got Bryan to wake up and explain to me why my u&p weren’t working.  So sad, really, that I’m going to grad school and still cannot figure out how to navigate the internet!

So, if you haven’t heard, yes, we’ve succumbed to having a website about ourselves.  I’ll admit though, that I had been leery about it.  Bryan and I have only been dating for a year, come tuesday, and although we’re madly in love (most days), a website is a lot of committment.  And I’m not one for committment!

But here it is.  This should be fun!  I’m getting ready to start off on this crazy journey to graduate school.  At the moment it looks like I’ll be moving to Austin so that I may study at UT Houston’s Science Park, a molecular carcinogenesis research facility under the umbrella of the Health Science Center at Texas Medical Center, but located in Smithville, TX.  Confusing, I know. The program is just one of UT Houston’s many (and I mean MANY) biomedical programs centered out of Houston.  The reason this particular program is located in Smithville, however, is that the radioactivity counts in Houston and the surrounding areas are too high to complete the sensitive counts needed in this particular area of research.  That’s why this program is located out in the middle of freaking nowhere.  The upside to its isolation is that the site is between Austin and Houston, and is actually closer to Austin, so I can live there!  I visited both the Smithville and Houston campuses over the last couple of days, and enjoyed it immensely!  Now I can’t wait to start the program! 

Hopefully this website will help both Bryan and I keep up with the people that we don’t mean to neglect, as well as share our good news and brag about Lucky’s latest trick.

Chelle