"Look at the beautiful world"

That was one of many witty remarks Marissa made while looking out the plane window this past weekend during our trip to NY for my cousin's bar mitzvah. I was very happy that she was not shy around the extended family that she met for the first time, and Allison would even let a few 'strangers' hold her as well. They both did pretty good on the plane, despite sitting on the plane for almost an hour before take-off. Leslie, however, was another story. I knew she was afraid of flying, but I had never experienced it. Honestly, it was pretty funny, and she seemed to think so too. It was very enduring how Marissa and Justin hit it off right away. From the moment of their first meeting she was his shadow. He was very patience with her and even during one the biggest events of his young life, he took the time to play with her, watch her while she tagged along with his friends, and dance with her. Speaking of dancing, I think she has inherited this from me as well. She was on the dance floor the whole night, Stuart had to drag her off at 11:30. She danced with me, my dad, other little kids, and just about everyone. She was dancing with Lisa's (my uncle's niece) little girl and I asked her if she remember when we did that at my aunt and uncle's wedding?

It was of course a fantastic party - great wine; amazing food; sushi, lobster, pasta-making-man, meat-carving-man, oysters in a half shell, lamb chops, ice cravings, and that was just a sample of the cocktail hour. The band was wonderful and the dance floor was full all night. My family met the rest of the Sherry family and all went well. I met Marisa's (the long lost cousin) mom Penny, who is just a doll! Marissa the niece was at first not too sure what to make of Marisa the cousin, but after a bit they were dancing the night away. I was able to meet a few more cousins on that side and it was the first time in my life, we were not the only Sherrys at a family event.

So for the girlfriend...it was Ok. Nothing majorly dramatic happened, there was enough going on that I didn't really have to see or talk to her too much. I know I could have been nicer and made small talk etc. and I wish I wasn't so upset with my dad (for many reasons) to take it out on her. In all honesty, I hope they are happy and make each other happy. She seemed nice enough and to have a good time with the crazy family. The most painful thing was how my mom was shut out of all of this. When Justin was saying his hov tour at the temple, tears came to my eyes thinking that my mom should be here to see him; they have a special bond. It is time, and it is slowly moving forward and the timing of the bar mitzvah with the divorce and new girlfriend was plain just not good.

All in all, the weekend went much better than I thought, not was I would have wanted it, but a good time.

Mixed feelings

I will be taking off in a few days for NY to celebrate my cousin's bar mitzvah. His older brother was bar mitzvahed a few years back in '05. I remember then, that the 'advertisements' for this weekends party sparked one of those, what will life be like when..., moments. My maternal grandmother had cancer and passed just a few months after the party. At that time my sister-in-law was just a few months pregnant with their first child and I was only a year in to my PhD. I remember wondering what the upcoming birth would be like and anticipating becoming an aunt. Now Marissa is three and she has a little sister. This will be the first time this side of my family (my dad's family) has met Allison and they have not seen Marissa since she was about 6 months old. I am, and know they all are looking forward to seeing the girls.

An unexpected surprise is that several members of my dad's father's family will be attending as well. Contact was lost, for one reason or another, with this part of the family after my grandfather passed at a young age. I am the only one in my (immediate) family who has met any of these Sherrys. I was able to do my elective rotation for my clinicals with my true-long-lost cousin at Mt. Sinai. During this trip I met several other members of the family as well. I am looking forward to spending more time with my cousin Marisa and her husband, and Marissa (my niece) is very excited about meeting the other Marisa Sherry. I am also a bit anxious about this encounter, as my dad has not seen his first cousins (Marisa's dad and uncle) since he was 17 or 18. My dad was and seemingly now, is not happy about how things were handled after his father's does not care to meet them and would be just as well off if they were not there. Of course, I'm hoping, civility will be the discourse for the evening, however, even if everyone plays nice, it will still be fairly awkward.

I also remember thinking in 2005 about the fact that at this party I would be Dr. Sherry (first and only) and wondering about where I would be working and what I would be doing. I never in a million years thought I would be back in Michigan.

However, the most unforeseen change between now and then, is that my parents are divorced and my dad will be bringing his new girlfriend. It is not unknown that I am not happy about this for many reasons. I feel it is way too soon for her to be coming to a large family event; my mom (how is very close to my cousin) is not coming; and I just plain do not want to deal with it. Most of my family I have talked too is not too keen on her being there either, but my dad has put his sister in a tough spot, and can't ask him to 'uninvite' her, after he asked without consulting anyone else. I have nothing against this women, but there is no place for her in my life, so to me, this is just unnecessarily putting me in a situation I do not want to be in. This will be the first time I will meet her, by choice. I wanted to just get it done and over with all at once.

As with most of life, things are not as I anticipated they would when I looked in to the future 4 years ago; some for the better and some not. Large family gathering themselves usually draw out drama, and with the addition of somewhat estranged long-lost family and a not-so welcomed new girlfriend, the weekend will be interesting.

A few pics from the last bar mitzvah (at least I know the food will be amazing)

Lady date

I have a lady date this evening for martini's with L. I have joined a young professional group that I found on-line to network meet new people in A2. I received an email from L the other day suggesting that we had similar interests and should grab a drink. Martini happy hour, grad student in molecular biology, and a tall blond; I think we'll get on just fine!

Smoking or non?

There are only a two things about moving back to Michigan I am not all that pleased with and smoking in public is one of them (the other will be the topic of a later post). It is very true that one does not realize the importance of things until they are no longer around, or in this case, when they reappear. It is some what baffling that we even allow smoking in public places in this country at all. There are numerous countries in the world, including France, that are smoke-free and just under half of the states in the US along with countless cities and municipalities. Even though some may not think so, I do understand the right one has to smoke, however, it is the non-smoker who has no choice in the matter. Once in the vicinity of a smoker, even walking down wind, the permeating smell one can not get away from, on top of the major health issues of second-hand smoke. In my limited experience of a city and state switching to smoke-free, after only a few months, the economic impact to business, in my opinion, was actually a positive one. It appeared that certain bars in Chambana actually had increased business once they were rid of the clouds of smoke. I have found a few places in A2 that have chosen to go smoke-free and there are rumors that a bill is in the works, I sure hope it passes.

Mini me

At Allison's first birthday yesterday, Marissa and her cousin Madison wanted to be a part of the show as well. They both wanted to sit in a little chair of Marissa's. They sat in it together, snuck in when the other wasn't there, and finally when Marissa had the chair to herself and her dad asked her to move (for a picture), she picked up the chair and walked away with it. We all laughed and it reminded me of the time when Stuart and I were little and he asked if I was going to finish my chicken nuggets. "No," I said, and preceded to lick each and everyone, so he would not want them either.

Manners people

First Joe Wilson


then Kanye (link isn't available yet)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9413F9yQvbY

didn't their mothers teach them it is not polite to interrupt people, especially the President and on national TV.

Some progress

After a few failed attempts at getting my transformed bacteria to grow and isolate the DNA plasmid I was finally successful today. The sample still needs to be sequenced, and thank goodness there is a core facility for such a thing, to determine if our gene is what we think it is before I proceed. There are still lots of steps to do before I am able to do my tail vein injections, including learning and mastering tail vein injections. I think this maybe the hardest part, because it requires a large volume in a very short amount of time - i.e. lots of practice. I have cells growing and will hopefully get to an experiment next week; that is the plan, but one never knows in the world of science.

The week has been pretty boring and I'm looking forward to a busy weekend. By Wednesday I took myself out for a drink as cabin fever was setting in. I was in the mood for a martini and found the Babs Underground was a good spot, however, I think I was there WAY too early and it was pretty dead. So I nursed my martini until it was late-night happy hour at Vinology (half off wine by the glass) and had a good glass of petite Shiraz and some Kobe beef sliders. I think I am going to try and make this as much a weekly event as possible - Vinology has lots of glasses that I need to try.

The weekend is going to thankfully be busy. Dinner and a show with Amy - Indian and 'The Producers.' Kelly is coming down tomorrow for a trip to the Homegrown Festival in Kerrytown and then back to Grand Blanc for Allison's first birthday on Sunday.

New purchases

Coming together

The week has been fairly productive in getting research and experiment ideas on the table. I had a few more safety training classes this week and learned today that UMich has had two radiation 'spills' in the last 15 years; maybe that is why they need to have a two hour class. The plan is to start two experiments next week. One in which I will be using some material already prepared by a lab mate (which saved me about 2 months) to inject in to the trail vein of mice to hopefully over-express a specific protein in the liver. There are a few steps before the injection that if all goes well, will take about a week. Additionally, I will start a few liver cell lines to begin examining some metabolic signaling parameters on how my protein of interest affects these processes. The one great thing about being a post-doc is I already know these things are not going to work, at least the first time. If grad school taught me anything it is that one must try, try, and try again. Also there was a sign of hope shining down from the science gods. I had emailed a professor at Mt. Sinai, Dr. Friedman, about getting some hepatic stellate cells from his lab. They are not readily available commercially, and since he discovered them, I figured this was the place to go. Not only did he respond within hours, being the Chief of Liver Disease, but he was more than happy to share his cells and was very welcoming of collaborating. It is little moments like this that really get me excited about science.

This afternoon I had to take a different bus to my car, since I was parked near the stadium where my radiation class was held this morning. It is move-in weekend here so I expected it to be a bit late, however after waiting 20 minutes, I decided it was time to start walking. I met a girl who was also waiting for the same bus, and so we started off together along the bus route hoping to find it. She is starting her master's program in some environmental sciences and we talked about moving to A2 and what we did. We did eventually find the bus and as we approached her stop we exchanged pleasantries about it being nice to meet one another. I doubt I will ever see her again, one of the many random people that come in to our lives for a moment.

This evening I went to a cooking club/pot-luck of sorts. I have turned to the internets to find some like minded people and things to do in town, which was a move corroborated by Louise (lab mom) who told me somewhat jokingly that, "oh, you won't meet anyone here," referring to the lab. I found a group, A2 Women's Club, and we had a Danish themed pot-luck this evening, with a real Dane to boot. I rounded up my dessert and wine and headed over to some woman's apartment I had never met. I guess showing up with wine and dessert is a good ticket through anyone's door. Everyone I met there was great! Lots of different backgrounds and different ideas on topics we talked about, like health care and education. We are hoping to do this monthly, which would be a blessing. I miss the cooking club Desiree and I started in CU.

Finally, I am taking off to go camping with my family this weekend; what a novel concept. Not only am I actually taking the Labor Day holiday off, I'm going somewhere and with my family.