Lately, I feel rather like a hot-air balloon. I am still tethered, but gently, by my family. When they go away for a couple of days, as they did the last two, the ropes are so much longer, and I drift in three dimensions, attached to my moorings nonetheless. Sometimes higher, sometimes lower. But I feel the currents more intensely, the danger of uprooting my attachments and being swept away.
This feeling is more intense when I contemplate this weekend’s moving truck rental for round one of dispatching our belongings, that it will be followed by my abandoning an impacted wisdom tooth here in Toulouse on Monday morning, and that I will take my last programmed fortnightly trip to the Paris lab Thursday. Leaving little bits of myself behind wherever I go.
Work is another attachment point, but next week upon my return and before dentistry, I will have to start disassembling and packing up my PCR hood
and my microcentrifuge
and various other bits of kit
and papers
and put them in boxes that I am unlikely to unpack before the end of August.
I look forward to being fully transplanted after the conference I will attend in September, although I wonder when I will prepare the poster for it on results we obtained and rather abandoned over a year ago.
And I still haven’t seen the ISS what with nightly clouds or thunderstorms. Maybe I’ll be able to catch the Perseids at least.
I see the obligatory copy of Molecular Biology of the Cell; where’s the Lewin Genes? You appear to keep your papers much more organized than I do – having an electronic method to organize pdfs (Papers) has made a huge difference for me in keeping references associated with different manuscripts organized.
Good luck with the move! I can’t imagine one of the typical huge US moving trucks (e.g. Allied or North American) navigating European streets and neighborhoods. I’d be nervous navigating even my F-250 in some tight situations; it would not have fit in any potential parking spaces near my friends’ Cambridge house, for example.
I love your analogy. When I first moved over here, my Mum said “you’ll always be attached to us, but only by elastic, and that stretches”. I haven’t yet pinged back in the anticipated fashion though…
Good luck with the wisdom tooth extraction! I had all 4 of mine out (2 were impacted) a couple of years ago. It was less than fun, but soooooo worth it in the long term. Is your husband good at making soup?
I haven’t yet pinged back in the anticipated fashion though…
I have, although I didn’t anticipate it! It’s ok, really, although the impact was a little stressful :)
And good riddance to your wisdom tooth from me as well, Heather. I still have all four of mine – they’re sitting there just like normal teeth. I am evolutionarily behind, I guess.
Ow! to the wisdom tooth. I’ve got all of mine, but compensate by missing four bicuspids.
Lovely bit of writing, that floating/tethered analogy.
Also, how are you going to disassemble your papers? Are you sure you will be able to put the microcentrifuge back together?
It seems important to seek clarity on these points…
In order:
How have you lived all this time without stryer…
Is the conference you are going to the ISDB in Edinburgh?
This one is a small one on neural tube defects in Vermont.
Oh goodness, is the ISDB in September already? I had totally wanted to go. But there is no way in… blast it.
My secret to biochemistry: I go with my gut feeling. Not a namby-pamby pseudo-chemist, I, I am pure squishy biology. :-) You’d be surprised what you can pick up by osmosis.
Vermont looks interesting, hope you have a good time.
Loving the pure squishy biology. Being a fly person I think of myself as more like a smartie – squishy with a crunchy shell!
I’ll have to send you lots of updates from the ISDB – all though the usefulness will depend on whether I go to the same talks you would have chosen.
I wonder if the ISDB will make the talks available online after the conference like they do at Cold Spring Harbor – that would be nice. Of course CSHL restrict access to those who attended…need I comment on that!!
The NTD meeting in Vermont looks very interesting Heather. Just last week, I discussed spina bifida, along with related disorders (meningomyelocele, myeloschisis), in a lecture to physical therapy students. I’ll likely be doing the same with medical students in a few weeks.
I find Genes to be quite useful lately, when I need to review the minutiae of DNA damage biochemistry or DNA repair pathways. Apurinic/apyrimidinic sites, DNA glycosylases of oxidized bases, and all that.
Heather: Good luck with the wisdom tooth. I’m extracting my 3rd in October… and the 4th a few months later probably. (it can grow out a bit more if the one opposite it isn’t there). Luckily the first 2 were real easy so I hope that yours are too.
And the move… wow, I don’t want to think about it too much. Get stressed thinking about packing all my papers and cleaning up “for good”… but good luck! And hope the centrifuge works better than now afterwards. Someone looking at it sounds very clever since they can be a bit shifted after being bumped and moved around.
@Samantha – I have a copy of Stryer, but have survived well for the last 15 years or so without opening it, except once (in response to a post of Richard Grant’s) to see if it had a pair of 3-D viewing glasses in the back (it didn’t).
Richard, I could probably supply you with a pair of 3-D viewing glasses. I had a friend who taught vascular anatomy like that; it was awesome.
Asa, I don’t envy you facing a tooth extraction and a move, like me. Hydroxyzine is your friend the night before, that’s all I can say. For me, so far, not too unhappy yet with my reduced wisdom.
@Heather – thank you. Not necessary at this point, but if I have a hankering to look back at RPG’s protein du jour in glorious stereovision, I may come askin’.
Also – laughing gas. Great stuff.