Interesting bus ride this morning. As it is the day before Thanksgiving, apparently classes are either canceled or potentially very empty today. On the bus, there were the Chinese, the Indians, ...and Dan and me. Yup. Grad students to the core.
In an attempt to feel more normal (despite the fact that no one else in their right mind is going to school today) I decided to make small talk with Dan:

"What's on your agenda for today?" I asked.

"Well, I have to inject some tumors, run a blot, and hopefully--this is being a bit optimistic, but if I can get some weaning in I would be pretty happy."

So much for my attempts at feeling normal. Not that my day of mixing dirt and fungi is a whole lot better, but whatever. I'm not quite sure why I even try these days to feel 'normal.' I gave up normalcy a long time ago...not sure when, but it was sometime between our first conversation ever (regarding hyaluronic acid and Bradyrhizobium nodules), deciding to serve our wedding party favors in 50 mL conical vials (Falcon brand, blue caps), and unconsciously using words like "aliquot", "constitutive", and "synergistically" in sentences regarding daily life. E.g., "Could you aliquot the ground beef in the freezer?" "It's not like it hurts constitutively, just when I throw a softball from third to first.", "They definitely have a synergistic relationship."

There is definitely a double standard here--if you're a science major and use these words, you're a nerd, you're an elitist, you're snobby. However, if you are a non-science major, you could probably earn a little respect if you use them. It's just not fair.

Several questions for anyone interested:
1. Is anyone going to be in the GR/Holland area over Christmas break?
2. Among those of you who will be around, is anyone interested in a Cranium night? Alternatively, a get together at Steak 'n' Shake, perhaps with chili cheese fries (?) would be manageable as well.

We had a similar night several years ago (I think over Christmas, but I may be mistaken), involving Jared humming the theme song "YMCA" to Doug, who let Jared hum madly until the very end of the timer, Dan having to charade "reproduce" (I must admit I worried about our potential offspring when I saw his idea of what was involved), and many other memorabilia. Since then, several of us have gotten married, gone back to school, gone across the world, gone across the world to go to school, gone across the world and gotten married, etc. Curiously enough, no successful reproduction has occurred as of yet. (I sincerely hope that none of you have been trying to apply Dan's demonstrated method of 'reproduction'. One might think that being an animal physiologist, he'd have a better knowledge about these things, but he is also simultaneously solving the unified field theory, so give him a break.)
At any rate, I propose that it is time for a reunion. If anyone's interested, let me know and we'll try to put a night together.

Because there seems to be some misinterpretation, I feel I need to clarify my last blog--I was not in any way, shape or form implying that God is on the democrat's side. Most of you who know me may know that I was raised on the Liberal Opinion Weekly, so naturally, I know that God is a liberal. (I'm JOKING AGAIN) I was elated that the democrats won the House (and later on the Senate) because I simply want change in this country. I want peace. I want corrupted congresspeople to pay for their crimes against humanity. The best hope for that happening (in my mind) was to have the Democrats take back control of congress. I hope it works, and that we as Christians can stop worrying about whether we are all democratic or republican and look to God's word for direction about what is right and wrong. Personally, I think the United States as a whole is pretty far off from the whole 'seek justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God' thing. Anyway, just wanted to clear that up.

YESSSSSSS!!!!!!!
Pardon me for being political, but
The dems just got Montana!! (The Associated Press) One more to go...come on, Virginians. You can do it!
And an even more jig-worthy piece of news--Rumsfeld is stepping down. God is good!
Very interesting several days here, I can't wait to see how all of this pans out. We need peace in this country and in others, and we need it now. The corruption, violence, and lies have gone on way too long, and I am proud to see that people are finally pissed enough at things to demand a change.