So, I am finally getting around to blogging about my day of commencement on May 21st.

It was an odd morning. I was anxious about getting there on time, because some parts of the trip were unknowns. You see, we walked to the train station (a known) and took the train up to the town where the campus is located (a known). Then we had to wait on a shuttle to take us from the station to the campus. Mind you, this is a shuttle that they only ran for that day; it wasn't some sort of permanent campus shuttle. Well, my fears were realized when we waited for 15 minutes and there was no sign of the shuttle. I about had a heart attack when the group in front of us said that they'd been waiting for 45 minutes! Fortunately, just as we were giving up on waiting for the shuttle and had decided to try to find a taxi, the shuttle came around the corner. Thank goodness! It made for an anxious morning, but it all worked out in the end.

Most of the photos that we have are of me with my family and friends.

But I do have one that I'll post of me being hooded by my advisor.

That thing around my neck/chin is the front of my hood.

Here is one of me in my Ph.D. hood that we took after the ceremonies were over.

Doesn't it look spiffy?

There is a slideshow of photos on Flickr that you are welcome to look at, if you want to see more photos.

Afterward, we tried to get the shuttle again, but finally gave up and walked about a half-hour to the train station. It was actually a nice walk. We lucked out because it was looking stormy and like it might rain any minute, but we made it to the station without getting rained on.

We had an excellent dinner at the Atlantic Fish Company.

Afterward, most everyone went back to their rooms to nap/relax, and this gave me some much needed time to catch up with SeaQueen.

The funny thing was that our dinner was so late in the day though that it kind of took the place of both lunch and supper. You know what that means? There was nothing else to do but to go out for dessert later in the evening! We went to Finales, a place that specialized in desserts. I've had one of their desserts once, but I've never been to the main dining room. HB tried out a flight of ports while I had a pot of mint tea. Everyone else mostly had decaf cofffee. And of course I had a molten lava chocolate cake. It was sooo gooey and tasty. I ordered it with vanilla gelato, which is so much like ice cream that I really couldn't tell the difference. It was excellent and was a perfect way to end the day, with tea and chocolate.

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Well, this installation of Hot Exercising Chicks and Chicos is going to include the past 2 weeks, because I didn't get a chance to post last Sunday and didn't feel like doing it on Monday.

So, have you been sticking with exercising?

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This is the flowering bush that is behind our house. I can see it when I look out of the kitchen window. I had no idea that it would produce flowers. So you can imagine my surprise and Joy! when it produced a flurry of pink blooms.

In other news, we are headed to Boston tomorrow for my graduation! The ceremony is on Sunday, and HB, my parents, Texas Seestor, and HB's parents are all flying into town for it too! We are going to stay for a couple days to do some sight-seeing as well. It is bound to be an enjoyable time.

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I'm a day late in posting this, but now that I've got you here, how did you do this week?

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This photo is very similar to the one that I took of the red tulips. I am showing you this one, even though it is similar, because the pink tulips deserve their chance to shine as well. I also like the appearance of the daffodils in the photo.

Have a happy Friday and a good weekend. I'm really looking forward to this weekend. I'm finally going to read the new(ish) Diana Gabaldon book that came out around Christmastime. I hadn't wanted to start it while I was working on my thesis, because I was afraid I'd want to do nothing but read her book. So for the past couple weeks, I've been re-reading the two previous books in the series. I just finished the one before it last night and am all set to start the new one now. Yippee!

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Well, I just (well, an hour and a half ago) completed my first day of work at the University of Minnesota!

I am happy to be back to work. I had gotten to the point where I was tired of being in the house everday and was going slightly, or not-so-slightly on some days, stir-crazy. I was also ready to be back in the lab DOing stuff. I don't know if I'll ever be able to make the transition to where all I do is read and write about science. This is what happens to primary investigators (P.I.'s) as they become more senior and as their lab becomes more established. They slowly end up moving farther and farther away from bench science. I think that is why my P.I. wanted to be the one to teach me how to dissect today. Not only did it give me the best teacher possible in the technique, but it gave him the chance to get back to the bench for a bit.

I really enjoyed it, because it is always better to learn from the P.I. than from someone the P.I. has trained.

So, that was cool. Tomorrow, I'll get to try to dissect on my own. Everybody has warned me that the first times they tried to do the dissections they couldn't find the right structure and made the cuts wrong and everything just looked like a big ball of mush. But that with time, you get better at it.

I'm looking forward to trying.

Today, I dealt with a lot of technicalities in a new job. Had to find the parking lot and how to walk to my building. Then get my employee number which allowed me to get my ID, email, and parking. Oh and I also did one hour of online training. But in the process, I learned my way around the buildings a little bit better. And I got to eat lunch on a bench outside while it was kind of sunny.

All in all, it was a very pleasing first day.

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This week, I had to admit to myself that all of this exercising is not shrinking my body size back to what it was before I came to MN to write my thesis. You see, somewhere amidst the inactivity of writing, I discovered that I could no longer fit into my jeans. Fortunately, I still had a set of pants that I could wear when we went out. However, with my new job starting tomorrow, I could no longer put off going jeans shopping.

Just for a moment, imagine going to a store and having to go up one size in jeans. Doesn't it make you pause? Why does a number matter so much? Because it is a size that I vowed to avoid. At least at this time in my life.

But I bit the bullet, and picked up that size and tried them on and sure enough, they fit like they were made for me. Bummer.

But at least I found some jeans. I was getting kind of desperate at Kohl's because all of the jeans I tried on had these really short waists. The jeans didn't even cover my underwear they were 'riding' so low. Fortunately, Penny's had some 'normal' jeans that did cover my underwear. Isn't that a requirement for jeans usually? I had thought so. And it wasn't like I was shopping in the juniors section. We are talking jeans for adult women that don't cover underwear! Gives some explanation for why there were so many available to choose from when we are going into shorts, and heaven forbid Capri pant season. (I'm not a fan of Capri pants on myself. You, you can go ahead and wear them to your heart's content. Me, I'll pass.)

And there you go. My weeks of activity have as yet made no dent in my body size. However, I have not given up. Plus, my goal is really to be more fit. But I had secretly hoped that I'd lose some weight too. I'll keep at it and we'll see what happens.

How did you do this week?

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All week long I have been seeing and enjoying this flowering tree in our front yard.

I had no idea that it was going to flower, so you can imagine my surprise when I saw the buds and the first flowers coming out.

I was hoping to photograph it on a sunny day, but I didn't do it on Wednesday like I should've and it has been cloudy since then. Consequently, I am showing you pictures I took a couple hours ago. I kept hoping that the sun would come out to create some shadows and contrast, but not today. Probably tomorrow.

and in large

Tomorrow, it is supposed to be nice and sunny and 69 degrees. I think it will be a perfect day to go to the zoo! I had wanted to go to the zoo last Saturday with HB as a premature celebration of having everything turned in, but it was rainy both days last weekend. Not exactly weather for traipsing around the zoo.

Tomorrow though, ought to be perfect! Have a good weekend everyone!

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Talk about a day! I tell you what!

Today, I officially have everything turned in for my degree. No more revisions or corrections or forms to be signed. Everything is IN and I am OFFICIALLY DONE!
(if that doesn't deserve all caps, then I don't know what does)

In addition, I accepted an offer for a post-doctoral position! Just within the last hour. So, this news is hot off of the presses, so to speak.

You see, when my revisions took longer than usual due to my health problem that I had back in February, I lost the fellowship that was going to fund my salary at the lab studying obesity. I had hoped that maybe there would still be money to pay me, but there wasn't.

However, as the saying goes, when God closes a door, He opens a window. So, my window opened up today. I am joining a lab that still studies some of the hormones I get excited about and how that applies to drugs of addiction. So, I'll kind of be studying drug addiction. I've always thought it was a fascinating topic, and now I have the chance to study it myself. Isn't it handy how that door-window thing has worked out?! I think so.

My official first day is next Monday, the 8th.

Today is my red-letter day. I am official, I got a great job offer, and I got a package in the mail! AND we are going out for a celebratory supper!

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