This "Little World" I Live In

Megan thinks I should be a writer. I don't agree one bit. I actually have recieved multiple compliments on my writing style in my blog, but honestly I really feel like it's only said to make me feel good. So, thanks everyone, you flatter me. I simply write how I talk in my head. I don't know how else to write, so therefore, I will continue to write how I have been doing so. I've been quoted five times now, and I've only been blogging for like two weeks. I suppose that's a good thing?

I haven't posted in a few days because what I have been dying to blog about, I can't. Let me explain. Generally, I tend to be a very (very) talkative, blunt, say-everything-that's-on-my-mind sort of person. I mean, I always keep it within reason. At work, I mentioned that I was keeping a blog. My supervisor overheard this, and she let me know that it would not be a wise idea to blog about what goes on in the lab. Ask me (in person, or on the phone) and I can tell you details why. Honestly, I'll share anything, with anyone that I know, I just can't post it :) What I do post though, will be general information. I'll still add in everything I do, I just can't add in details that might put our protocol in danger. Like I said though, let me know if you want details on anything, and I'll gladly share them with you in person!

So far, work this week has been a blast. I love it! I love everyone that I work with. I couldn't have asked for a better lab to work in. John and I got to perfuse mice on our own on Monday. We were successful! All three mice were successfully perfused, and we pretty much did them all by ourselves! It was hard for me because it was my first time learning how to handle the mice, and I'm still not very good at it, but Bagrat (one of the post-docs in the lab) helped us and showed us some techniques that helped a lot. We got three good looking brains at the end of the day, and by the end of this week, they will be ready for cutting.

When I first started working in the lab, no one knew who I was, but I quickly got to know them. Working in a lab environment can sometimes be a bit lonely (it's like, you're always in your own bubble concentrating on your own research project in your own corner of the lab), and people in labs tend to be a little awkward (as stereotypical as it may be, it's generally true. I guess I'm one of them though...). Given those circumstances, one of my favorite things to do is to make everyone happy! I don't know why, but it's not a common thing in Baltimore to give compliments, so everyday I try to compliment everyone in the lab. It's like my little secret. And it works. Everyone loves me! And I'm not saying that in a selfish way either. I think it's a joy to create a happy work environment. I know this all sounds tacky, but I seriously just love each day going to the lab and seeing everyone smile!

One of the girls that I used to work with back in Logan, Anna, really likes to analyze personalities. She has told me multiple times before that I have the type of personality that people are easily attracted to, and become close to quickly, and also, really like to tease. Well, I have found that the teasing part is true. Everyone in the lab likes to tease me. It's not like a mean tease. And it doesn't help that I'm an innocent, young girl from Utah either. But I guess that makes it all the better. My desk space is back by this Japanese guy's desk, Jun, and he and I like to talk. He plays cool music all the time. He jokes with me a lot.

To the title of this post: this "little world" that I live in. Megan and I were talking about this briefly today. Before I started work, it felt like I was on vacation. Almost everything I was doing felt like a vacation: going site seeing all day, new bed, still buying random things from the store, etc. I didn't know what I was doing. I knew that this was "home", but it wasn't really real-life yet. Then I started work. I've never worked full time before. Even last summer, I would work at the lab for about 6 hours every morning, and then K-mart 6 hours in the evening. That equates to full-time (or more) I suppose, but I still feel like this is different. Let me explain why. Every morning, I wake up, get ready in the place I happen to call home. And then I walk out into this world. It's a crazy world. A downtown city. Everyone is wrapped up in their own world. All I can focus on is getting around traffic and other people. I can't look at anything else around me, or take my time. There is no time in a city.

I get to the shuttle stop. At Hopkins shuttle stops, everyone just stands there, in silence, looking at whatever is right in front of them. Whatever screen it is that is so interesting to look at straight ahead, I sure want one to look at. Yesterday, and the day before, I actually talked to this guy that just graduated from Hopkins in Biomedical Engineering (which is almost identical to my major-Biological Engineering). The guy reminded me exactly of Cole, who trained me in the lab I work at in Logan. The shuttles in the morning are crazy busy. Sometimes you can get on one right as you get to the stop, like I did this morning, but some mornings, you have to wait a good 20 min. in the blazing Baltimore sunshine for a shuttle to come. Correction, a shuttle with enough space for you to get on to come. The stop I get on at is the last stop before the hospital, so most of the shuttles are JAM packed (they're highly uncomfortable to be in). Every 20 min though, a shuttle will come by that is totally empty for just the stop I'm at.

After a 10 ish min ride to the hospital, I get off the shuttle and off to my crazy little world. The JHU hospital is nothing like hospitals in Utah. I can't really explain what's different. It's just so...old and dirty. The hospital is sanitary, but the outside is disgusting, and all of the commotion is just a totally different world that I can't even put into words. It's nothing like I have ever seen before. As I go to the lab, it's even like a different world than the rest of the hospital. Even though I work in the hospital building, it's a laboratory environment that I work in, just like the lab I work at in Logan. I work in the laboratory world all day.

I come home from this world, much like how I got to work. Except when I come home, it's much warmer. In fact, today was really hot. The high today was 99 degrees. According to the weather, it "felt like" 115 degrees. The high tomorrow is 102 and it's supposed to feel like about 120. Super fabulous. I'm stoked. Anyway. I come home. I usually do something (I go swimming, take a nap, work out...etc.), then I eat dinner, and then I usually spend the rest of my evening with some form of communication. That includes talking on the phone, blogging, facebooking, etc. This is all of course if I don't have any other plans (aka institute. I've never had any other evening plans after work). Then I go to bed. In my little apartment that I call home.

I continue this cycle everyday. It's so weird to me because Baltimore is such a peculiar place. This is perhaps what Megan and I were trying to describe to one another. It's this "little world" that we live in, and we just do it. I never felt this way anywhere but here. Baltimore is strange. I love it.