Most of the time, I go through my day as if nothing were special or unique or really that great at all. But other days, like today, not for any particular reason, I am struck with the thought "Am I really being paid to do this?" In other words, am I really being paid decent (in my definition) money to go to school, learn, learn more, write papers, have intelligent people critique them, and eventually get a degree from it? Most people my age are already in the 'real world' working or tending to kids or something (what a scary thought). But here I am, at the ripe old age of 24, still going to school, still dressing in jeans and T-shirts (sorry, guys, not much has changed at all...), and learning about what really interests me. I know this sounds nerdy, but I don't care--biology is one of the areas where you can really see God's hand in this world. The fact that everything works so incredibly well, and does so every single time is simply dumbfounding to me. And to think that some people still hold fast to the idea that it happened by chance!
These ideas came to me while I was reading in my big green book about fungal pathogenesis. Fungi attacking plants!! There's strategy, retaliation, specificity, reproduction, what more could you want in a chapter of biology?
Anyway, before I get too carried away with my fungal life, I will stop (there will be other days when I will not stop here--just so you know). I thought I would just share (brag) how incredibly lucky we all are to be doing something we CHOOSE to do. Food for thought...
Many thanks to Guamo for putting in a comments section. :) Hope to hear from you all.

I haven't had such a relaxing weekend in quite some time. Saturday was in the high 60s, and I got to work in the greenhouse ALL DAY LONG--from 12:00 to 7:30 pm. We (my labmate Glenna and I) had the radio on, and we transplanted nearly 150 plants, so we were covered in mud by the time the day came to an end. Still, how many people do you know that get paid to play in the mud all day? Anyway, it was great. It wasn't so great that Dan and I were supposed to be at a birthday celebration at 7, though. We were late for that, and besides me worrying that I smelled like dirt (which I did), we got there, and it was about 15 people crammed into a small area. Yee ha.
Anyway, that was the latest interesting (to me, at least) thing that I have done. I have choir practice and a volleyball game tonight, which will keep me busy. My choir is great, however, and we're doing Kirk Franklin's "Now Behold the Lamb", which absolutely rocks. We're doing it for Palm Sunday next week, and I am really excited about it. Sometimes I think I get too excited and proud of my choir for my own good--we're supposed to be praising God and singing for His glory, but all too many a time, the happy choir director (me) gets a swollen head about how far the choir has come this past year, and forgets the main reason we're singing. I hate it when that happens. Gotta keep on working on that...
Well, speaking of working, I need to go read about fungal pathogenesis for my class in a few hours. I'll try to update you when something more interesting happens, or I'll just blab about whatever for a few paragraphs. If you don't want to read it, there's always that handy dandy little "X" on the upper right hand side of your screen. :)

Reading other people's blogspots has been an eternal procrastination device for me lately, and decided that instead of communicating by writing snide comments to harass people like Guamo, I should be civil about it and make my own site. So I don't know how many people will read it, or how often I will be updating it, but I'll give it a go.
Brief update of the last few years since graduation from college--
First year I worked in a lab at Penn State, working with ectomycorrhizal fungi and their DNA. That's all you need to know about that. I worked for an awesome professor, a 3rd generation Japanese guy named Roger, who is a head shorter than I, and speaks no Japanese. He is now my grad school advisor, and I am trying to finish up my first year without going insane. Enough about school...
Got married last summer to Dan Sharda--met him on an off-campus trip to China, and since we were the two biology nerds in the group, plus, he walked fast enough to keep up with me, we somehow hit it off and voila, here we are. (He's doing the grad school thing now too--except he's killing mice, instead of fungi)
Since I don't have enough to do at school, I was recruited to direct the high school/college age choir at our church, which has been challenging, but fun. I wish you could hear them, they're really good.
Other than that, there isn't a whole lot else going on in my life lately. Lots of studying, but have also been able to play on a volleyball, softball, frisbee, and football team for intramurals here at PSU. In fact, my plant phys class and I just formed a soccer team, the "Chloro Blasts" (no comments, please...), and plan to get our green little butts blasted off the field next week for our first game. :)
Anyway, that's about it for now. I think I have rambled sufficiently. Ciao, everyone, and have a wonderful weekend--let's try to keep the 60 degree weather around a little longer. :)