Super Invisible Girl Returns

It's been 14 years since my last blog. Bloody hell...I read through...okay, I cringed through my old posts and sorry to say folks, my writing has not improved. I do write for a living now but I am technically on medical leave, so don't expect anything great. I will try to punctuate and spell better, but that is all you are getting. If you have problems with mediocrity, please leave now because that's all i am promising.

For those who have been dying to know, I did end up finishing my PhD. I sounded fairly depressed in my last few posts, so I wouldn't be surprised if any of you harbored doubts whether I'd finish. I am happy to report that I am a sucker for punishment, so I stayed and got it done. I then went on to do a post doc and then moved back to India. I married the ubergeek and got a job I liked doing and turned out to actually be good at, and then i got cancer. So unfortunately, if you have just started reading this blog, you are at the cancer stage of it. It is likely to be mildly depressing but i will try and keep it lively.

My sidekick super Lupe left this dimension in 2013 and I now run around with a posse of crazy cats (this means there will likely be cat pictures. In fact, this might turn out to be a blog about cats, I cannot say).

I will try keep the cancer content to the minimum but seeing that I have started chemo, be prepared for the occasional post about losing my hair, the nausea, and death. Mostly I am doing this because it is something I enjoyed a long time back and I could use some of that happy sauce again.

You know you're stressed out when

1. Personal hygiene becomes optional

2. You leave for school in the clothes you slept in.

3. Food is orange juice and a gummi bear.....dessert is another gummi bear.

4. Your daily exercise routine consist of you hyperventilating every morning because of an anxiety attack.

5. Your eye brows have turned bushy and you sport a mustache.....and you're a girl.

6. Alcohol for breakfast seems like a fantastic idea.

7. You spent 3 hours scouring the internet for a drug that will prevent you from falling asleep....ever.

8. Your roommates haven't seen you in ages and now think you're weird because when you are home, all they see you do,is sit in front of your laptop.....they probably think you're surfing porn.

9. The last time you "partied", was when you danced alone in your room to music played by your neighbors at a party you weren't invited to.

10. You start contemplating alternate career options that match your skill sets and organ donor tops your list.

The second year blues

I couldn't hold out any longer, I'm blogging again.

I've been thinking about it of late, what actually made me want to be a Biologist....and I realise I dont know.
Oh sure, I wondered about it, just like how I thought it would be cool to be an Astronaut or a Doctor or the Captain of the Starship Enterprise or a grocery store owner(umm..very briefly during ages 6-9,when apparently the thought of being behind a cash register warmed the cockles of my black heart). But I dont ever remember having that one coherent thought , where I knew clearly this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.
Did I just end up doing what I do today by default? A natural process of elimination? Because I got good grades in biology and sucked in Physics?
Dont get me wrong, I like my research,I like the entire process of asking a question and figuring out ways to answer it and on some days, I'm even good at it. But could there be something out there that I could be potentially great at, what if I was meant to be the world's greatest dog walker?
What if I never find out....

Move along now, nothing more to see here

I have decided to stop blogging for now as saving the world is a lot harder than I thought. Weekends aren't enough, its becoming a full time job......and there is that PhD thing that I am doing on the side.
If anyone still reads the blog, I might write stuff now and then after an especially exciting day, or I might just change my mind and blog tomorrow, seeing that I'm a super hero and can really do anything I want.

But for now it looks like the story of the naked women at the Y will go untold, its a sad day indeed.

I miss..

.... the sound of home
the sloppy wet kisses of Lupe
snatches of train conversation during my commute
the trashy tabloid stories of Midday
Finding long forgotten books at those pavement book shops
those annual book exhibitions that I would sneak out from work to attend
coming home to the familiar smell of a home cooked meal
midnight walks along the street with lupe....and Alby and his posse for company
The faithful services of BEST bus #137 coming back from work
the undeniable convenience of a rickshaw ride
Sunday Mass and the reassuring presence of familiar faces around.
Knowing that there's family right down the hall
knowing that Goa is just a short plane ride away (...even though I rarely made it)
Monopoly with Ubergeek (which I almost won)
Ubergeek
Wierd birthday dinners with the whole family
the company of my dysfunctional siblings
reminescing about MSU with my "lost in neverland" friend
Mum and Dad trying to make me Fat whenever I'm in Dubai.
Lupe sleeping next to my feet
...not feeling alone so much.


Next week's post..Naked women at the Y ,by public demand... that ought to brighten things up.

Its Christmas!!

Merry christmas and Happy new year everyone...I'm on the road so the blogging has temporarily stalled...but I'll be back with exciting stories about those damn presbyterians, naked women at the YMCA, the strange toilets at Chicago O hare airport, how I almost missed my American airlines flight and almost got on the United airlines flight, how one should always carry bathroom slippers if you plan on staying in a hostel, and how I rule at Monopoly...

Blogging along

Its Finals week here...so there are a lot of umm..finals. I have two coming up in the next few days and assignments to submit, papers to grade etc. Finals week also coincides with the Superhero Annual Congress, where all Superheroes convene to discuss matters of grave importance, such as who shrunk Pluto, how to get our own Actions figures, why Spiderman gets all the endorsements, removing blood stains from spandex etc. So its a busy, busy time and my Blog suffers.

In other news, I can't locate the Anteroventral cochlear nuclei, I manage to slice everything around BUT the AVCN. I faithfully tread to the lab everyday in great hope, but the AVCN still eludes me.I can see it, its thats tiny greyish blob below the paraflocculus but soon as I try to slice the damn thing, its disappears ..its like its mocking me.Speaking to it in soothing tones doesnt seem to help much either. Tomorrow, I shall try using the element of surprise, jump at it from behind....To all my non-biologist readers, this is all part of the cutting edge research I do everyday.

In other, other news, this will be my first Christmas without Family in this strange land. Hopefully I will not get depressed and denounce Santa claus to little kids.

And finally, Super Lupe is the best side kick ever....I just felt like saying that.