Pictures of my laboratory

Here are some pics of the lab I work in.

My bench space. Notice how clean and lovely it is.

My desk space, hey, this is clean for me. Usually it's a lot worse! It means I'm important!

The hood, or it's proper name, the Biological Safety Cabinet that I play with my bacteria in.

The lab from my desk, although I cut out half the lab on the left side of the picture.

Hatred for Kanye West and...Wine Tasting?

So can I for one second express how much I loathe Kanye West? He is a whinny, immature punk ass little bitch. Always whining about how whinnung about what he should have won, when he should have performed and how much better he is then everyone. He just has this attitude that he should be entitled and receive more than everyone else and that he is God's gift the planet, which pf course, he is not. Now, I feel bad about his mom and all, I mean, noone wants to see another person lose someone they love. I mean, he wins the freaking grammy and babbles about stupid shit, then yell at the people for starting to play the music BEFORE he even even gets to talk about his mom. There is no reason you should get way more time than anyone else. If you want to dedicate it to your mom and give her an emotional shoutout, do it right when you get up there, don't babble about dumb shit then after they've already started to play the music, start to talk about your mom. It's like he waited till the end to talk about her because he knew they wouldn't cut him off when talking about his dead mother and that way he'd get to talk longer. He is just such a prick and so full of himself I can't even stand it.

Anyway, so that rant is over. Well, what have I been up to? Spending time with the fam, doing things. Went skiing with my dad, went to the Air and Space Museum out by Dulles Airport (Udvar-Hazy) with my bro, neice, nephew, mum and dad, and went wine tasting with the rents.

My niece, Caitlin. She's looking at me like, crazy lady, what are you doing?

Dad, Liam (my nephew) and Cailtin at the Udvar-Hazy Center.

Prince Michel Winery


Horton Winery - they had 40 different wines to try! I only tried about 10 though. The wine glass that I took home from here had a cat on it and said "Cats understand. They don't care, but they understand." I thought that was so great and true!

I love this building!

Me outside Horton Winery

The 'rents at Barboursville Winery














Me at Barboursville

Me at the Barboursville Ruins









We went to another winery next, Burnley, but the outside wasn't much to write home about so no pictures there. I did buy a yummy peach wine from there though!

Our fifth and final stop, Keswick.

It was a great day for wine-tasting, weather wise and we had a fantastic time!

It's My Birthday! I'm 25!

So today is my 25th birthday and I got mistaken for a high schooler. Isn't that grand?

Well let's start with the beginning of the day. I walk into work to see the BacT/ALERT (a critical piece of equipment) beeping and flashing with all sorts of error messages. Come to find out, the power has gone out yesterday evening and the damn battery that is supposed to back this thing up has a piece broken so it didn't do it's job. We have 120 samples on this damn thing so this isn't exactly good news. So I proceed to spend the whole day on the phone finding out how to fix it, trying to track down a service agreement to get it fixed, deciding how to proceed with the samples in the machine, checking the graph on the computer for all the samples and starting to write a deviation form for EVERY item in the damn machine. Basically it took up my whole damn day.

Oh, and we went out to lunch at Potbelly. Therese insists that she pay for my lunch, ok, fine. We get to the register and her card isn't working, turns out she lost her credit card and had to deactivate it, and at the same time the credit card was deactivated, the debit card was deactivated too. Alas, she didn't bring her purse and had no other card. Well, I have my purse so I whip it out to pay. Not only did I pay for my own lunch but I paid for Therese's lunch too. Awesome.

My evening plans including going to dinner with my old gymnastics coach then going to the gymnastics district meet. While I am there I am approached by a high school kid and asked, "Are you from Battlefield?"
"No" I reply.
"Which school do you go to?" He then asks.
I respond with "Nowhere, I graduated."
Let me tell you, it really made me feel fantastic. I mean, I know I look young, but seriously, I'm 25. I'd like to think that I at least carry myself with a bit more of a mature and adult air then some punk ass high school kid.

So pretty much all in all it was a pretty crappy ass birthday. Especially after last year when I was in Belize swinging through trees on a zip line and floating on a river through a cave on an inter tube. I guess it wouldn't have been so bad if I at least had someone to spend my day with, a man, or even a good friend, but alas, no. People are busy or far away. Maybe next year. Man, I feel like I'd be so much farther ahead in my life at this point than I am. I still feel like I'm a kid, but on the other hand I feel like such an adult, it's a weird, disconcerting feeling. Confusing, very confusing.

But hey, at least I can rent a car now without paying exorbitant extra fees.

Happy Birthday to me.

2 days till I'm 25!

Well I haven’t pasted on here since I first created it and I’d like to claim that I’ve been so busy with work and extracurricular activities that I just haven’t had time. Sadly that is not the case. Reality is, I just have no life and have nothing to talk about. Sad huh?

One bit of good news though is that Glynnis finally moved to the area! Yay, I have another friend to spend time with! Makes me feel like slightly less of a loser, slightly. Hopefully she won’t be too busy with work and volunteering and what not to actually see me.

Well my birthday is coming up in 2 days. I turn the big 2-5. Quarter century. Wow, a little freaky actually. Not that I feel old or anything, but it just makes me think, wow, I actually am an adult. It also depresses me because I feel like I should be farther along in my life than I am. Not that my life is bad, by any means. I have a good job I’ve been at for 2 ½ years, with a very reputable company in the biological science field. I’ve risen up and am the team leader for my area. I’m well respected at my company. I’ve got to travel to quite a few places for work and give presentations to Ph. D’s and other intellectual types. I’ve been to Belize, Mexico, the Caymans, Las Vegas, Toronto, Austin, TX, Miami and Chicago in the last 15 months. That’s really not too damn bad when you think about it.

But on the other hand I feel like I’m still in high school. I still live at home, which I realize a lot of people my age in this area do, it’s just too darn expensive to rent a place on your own. And why pay hundreds of dollars to live somewhere else when I can live at home (granted I do pay rent there), and be 10 minutes away from work?

Also it seems as though every time I turn around, someone my age, or younger, is getting engaged, or married, or gulp, having kids. And here I am, alone, as lonely as can be, with no prospects even on the horizon. I’m not saying I want to get married right now, because that’s not the case. I just feel as if everyone around me is growing up, moving on, starting their “real life” and here I am, stuck in the same place, waiting and wondering when the hell I’m gonna grow up and have a life. I’m afraid of just waking up one day, being 40, being alone and wondering what the hell happened to the life I wanted to lead.

I wonder, does anyone else feel the same way?

My First Blog Post

So I've decided to join the ever growing number of persons with, glup, a a blog. Why you ask? Well I guess it's so people who I've grown apart from, friends I talk to all the time and anybody else can know what's going on with me. Not that it's that exciting, my life is pretty boring really, but hey, why not.

So what is up with me you ask? Good question. Well, after I graduated in 2005 from Virginia Tech with my degree in Biology I started working for ATCC (The American Type Culture Collection) here in Manassas, VA. I work in the Bacteriology Quality Control Department as a Team Leader/Biologist. Some time I spend working with bacteria, growing it, testing it, giving it my stamp of approval. The bacteria is then bought by research institutions, universities, pharmaceutical companies, food companies, etc. Also being a Team Leader means I deal with a lot of people. People with questions, people with complaints, upper level management, people who need things, etc. I am a middle person between my boss and the other 7 people that work in my area. There are days I hate it and love it, but overall it''s a good job to have. Hours are pretty flexible, I'm not stuck in a cubicle (I have a desk and a lab bench) and it's a great company to have on a resume in the science world, oh and it's close to home.

Ahh, yes, home. I do still live at home with my parents, with can be a big pain in the ass, but hey, I am saving a ton of money, which will give me the opportunity to do other things I want to do, like travel.

Speaking of traveling, my biggest news of lately is that I am heading to Munich, Germany come March 13-18th. I've always loved to travel and want to see as many places as possible (went to Brazil at 18, studied in South Africa in college). My biggest problem post-college has been the lack of a travel buddy. Living at home, I have money and can take time off, but all of my good friends are in grad school and have no money or time or in the Peace Corps (Eileen!) so I have no one to travel with. I’d been thinking for a while about going somewhere solo, just biting the bullet and saying, forget a travel buddy! I figure, the longer I wait to do things, the more I am going to regret, so I am finally doing it! I saw a $430 plane ticket to Munich and I’ve always wanted to go and experience the Bavarian culture, so I plugged in the credit card number and bought it! Traveling to Europe alone? I’m either crazy or adventurous, I prefer adventurous. I turn 25 in a couple weeks and it’s time to start living life and not regretting NOT doing things. The way I see it, you always regret the things you don’t do more then the things you do, so why not get out there and live life?

Well that’s it for my first post, pretty boring, but hey, I’m just getting started, perhaps my life will get more exciting soon! (We can hope!)

Cheers, Cathy