3:30 am CDT = 1:30 PDT (aka oy vey!)
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My favorite part of Midway Airport is the security announcement that plays constantly in the terminals. The TSA managed to find a guy with the most stereotypical Chicago accent to warn against leaving luggage unattended. For some reason, hearing those drawn out 'A' sounds makes me feel at home.
For those not versed in the Chicago accent, think of the Super Fans from early 90's Saturday Night Live. The sausage (pronounced saaaaasage) eating Bears fans who croon after "Da Coach" Mike Ditka are great examples of Chicago speak.
Three days really isn't long enough to adjust to changes in time zone. This made my alarm going off at 3:30 this morning, which would have been bad enough, even worse when it felt like 1:30am.
Lacey and I persevered, however, to look bright eyed for the camera. The price we pay for flying across country and still having time to put in a full day's work. It is nice, though, to have the freedom to plan my work schedule around other things going on in my life so I'm not complaining.
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Somehow we managed to pack up the last of our wedding shower gifts from March (finally!) into four suitcases and lug them into Lacey's parents minivan. I'm not sure where exactly all this new stuff is going to go, but it sure looks nice. I have a feeling that all my belongings are going to gradually make my way to Goodwill, but Lacey assures me this isn't the case :)
Surprisingly, when we arrived at Midway Airport there was no line to go through security for the first time in years, giving us time to relax and enjoy some homemade scones before our flight. I had to sneak the second picture which is why its at a weird angle. I'm sure Lacey will be thrilled that I've chosen to share it with you (don't tell her).
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The first leg of our trip was rather uneventful and I even managed to sleep on and off on the way to Denver. Note the cool tent-like architecture of the main terminal and the Rocky Mountains off in the distance.
We were flying Frontier Airline for the first time and I must say I was impressed. Minus the requisite stop at the Denver hub, everything was very pleasant. They offer DirectTV in each headrest, which they normally charge $5 for, but the payment system was broken on the second leg and so the pilot let everyone watch for free. Its amazing how much better flying is when you can watch Sportscenter and Headline News.
After landing in SF, Lacey was off on the BART to the financial district where she works at Accenture as a technology consultant (code for makes more money than I do). All my friends refer to her as my sugar momma and personally I'm ok with it :) She makes out ok though working on the top floor of a skyscraper overlooking the ferry building and the Bay.
Since Lacey was going to work, I decided to fight my strong urge to go home and crash and went into lab. With wedding plans and my qualifying exam swirling in my head, it was nice to get back to working on my thesis project.
Dave, the post-doc I sit next to in lab, showed me the first steps in using DNA microarrays to assess which genes are required in a bacterial species for a physiological process of interest. The technique sounds complicated, but with the plethora of knowledge contained in my lab, I'm lucky enough to have people around to walk me through it or any other method. I'm proud to say I made it through to 5:30 before overwhelming exhaustion convinced me to head out for the day. All in all, a productive day.
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Four days worth of mail awaited me when I made it to my apartment. Two months before a wedding that translates into 13 wedding invitation responses. We're still waiting on a whole bunch more, though. We're anxiously waiting to get a total so we can see if we can invite more of our friends. It's been hard recently with everyone asking about details about the wedding when we knew we probably wouldn't be able to invite everyone. With Lacey's large family, Lacey and I were limited on the number of people we could invite.
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My last task of the day was to get dinner together before Lacey's train arrived in Mountain View. I'm notorious for not using recipes and just throwing things together that I think sound good. 9 times out of 10 it turns out really well.
Tonight I decided to go with vegetables sauteed in olive oil and garlic over pasta topped with mozzarella cheese, basil and oregano (and copious amounts of caffeine on the side). I think it turned out pretty well considering I was falling asleep over the hot burners.
Now its time for a real night's sleep. A whole 7 hours! Woohoo :)
Posted at 09:35 PM
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