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As you can see, I can't even come up with an original-like title, but I am posting at least.

The last 6 months have been a whirlwind. I successfully defended my dissertation, revised it, submitted it, cleaned up my lab records & copied what I needed to, moved to Tennessee, started a new job & have been swimming in work ever since. There is so much to do and learn that I still feel stressed out, but the environment is a lot different, so it seems like its more energizing than depressing.

I have basically switched back to molecular and cellular work, though I doubt I will ever let go of my systems perspective on things. I'm still doing a little bit of anatomical work - and have gotten some preliminary photos to optimize my image analysis on - but mostly I transfect cells (make them manufacture protein by providing them with DNA), run Western blots (to look at relative amounts of protein), and do synaptosomal uptakes (use radioactively labeled choline to measure the amount of choline uptake into neurons).

Nashville is nice, now that the snow is gone (sorry, Northeasterners, I don't mean to gloat), though I haven't ventured out much. I have good friends as neighbors; we play cards once or twice a week & sometimes watch Star Trek. And of course, the holidays involved quite a bit of traveling and visiting with people. For Christmas I drove to Pittsburgh with my neighbors, which was an exciting ride with the Subaru, a.k.a Ol' Greenie (at least in my mind). Unfortunately, D's cars had both kind of quit on him, so I left the car with him, flew back on Jan 1, and bought a car the next day. I was not planning on buying something new, but am pretty happy overall, and I think I did okay on the negotiating. Hopefully next time I won't be as rushed, and can improve on the dealmaking :)

But, ick, car salesman are sleazy... I felt like taking a shower once i got home from that ordeal, and was pretty upset for awhile that I didn't walk out of there. I don't know whether it was the New England cheapness in me, or what, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I was behaving irresponsibly by buying new. I even had to go talk to the neighbors and have them remind me that it has a warranty, and nothing is really going to break on it for awhile.

On the upside, it's pretty fun to drive, and now I am looking forward to road trips with a functioning CD player, air conditioning, and cruise control. I even have one of those push button key chain locking devices. I know, I'm behind the times by about 15 years, but it's still pretty cool to me. I'll be taking it on an inaugural trip to Pgh at the end of the month, and D & I might go to Memphis for a weekend sometime later in the spring (or fall, depending on the cash flow situation).

While I am in Pittsburgh though, we're going to get some tile for the upstairs bathroom, and may tile the floor in there too. D's had a contractor in for the past week or so, and the plumbing & electrical are pretty set, now we just need the fixtures, etc. D got a roommate too, so there's a little more cash coming in to help with repair costs. And hopefully winter will abate soon, so the heating costs will subside a bit too.

Otherwise, I work, come home & work some more, sleep, then go to work. I have to admit it was a little relaxing at first to have some time and space to myself, but now I feel more settled in, and miss his company. I'm looking forward to findng an appropriate apartment with him, and setting up a dual household again. My current place looks like a big dorm room, which I suppose is appropriate, but we'll need something bigger when he moves down here. In the meantime, I'm trying to make the best of it by getting as much done as possible at work, and getting a handle on the new literature, etc.

It's not exciting, but at least it's posted!