One Month In Ithaca, Thank You All For Support

I arrived in Ithaca one month ago. Exhausted and overwhelmed were the two best adjectives to describe me. A bit fearful. The excitement of getting into vet school had long ago worn off.

My feelings of foreboding became feelings of despair as it proceeded to rain just about every single day in June. I fought off a feeling of panic that I would be unable to be happy someplace so dreary. And then, a few days ago, the sun came out and I breathed a sigh of relief. I looked around and suddenly things didn't look so bad.

I finally feel a sense of familiarity. I can find my way around most of the time, even without my GPS. I expect it to be grey and rainy when I wake up in the morning and delight on those rare mornings when it isn't rather than bemoan those that are. I know the people in my lab. I even kind of know what I'm doing in the lab.

I am so thankful for all the support everyone has given me-- DashingBoiSuperTech calling during her finals, Dr Cool calling to say hi, LaMexicana's words of encouragement, Dr PullMyLeg, Eagle Eyes, EB, D, SurrogateSyracuseEnvironmentalParents, Dr E and Dr Perceptive, my family--both nuclear and extended.

It's more than just comforting to hear a familiar voice in an unfamiliar place, it's a hand reaching across the distance to help and also a reminder that there is a whole big world out there beyond the rainy, grey streets of Ithaca, a world that may seem far away when I am holed up in my lab or in the library, but a very bright and large world that I will return to one day when my studies are done and for visits in the meantime.

When It Rains, It Pours (AND HAILS!)

How does that nursery rhyme go? 'When she was good she was VERY good, and when she was bad she was VERY bad...' Well folks, that is the weather in Ithaca. Very bad (mostly) or very good (rarely).

Case in point: Yesterday I hitched a ride into school with another student. It was a beautiful morning without a cloud in the sky (well, not quite but you get the picture). 4:30 pm and the sky becomes overcast. From my boss's office I hear over the radio a SEVERE WEATHER WARNING with that beeping alarm. I look outside. It is DARK. 4:45 pm I decide to leave a few minutes early to miss the storm. I arrived downstairs. It is pouring, hailing in some parts of Ithaca, and there are frequent flashes of lightning followed by thunder.

I am luckily rescued by a kind fellow vet student who not only picks me up but feeds me hot soup (folks, that is how you make a friend for life!)

This is the scene in the courtyard of the vet school during the torrential downpour:


The is the scene just a few hours later on my way home from dinner:

The most intriguing thing about the thunderstorm, though, was the giant dragonfly that landed by my foot. It was as big as my foot, which you probably can't tell from this hastily taken photo:

Here's another challenge for everyone-- can you identify this dragonfly? You think that would be easy, just look up giant dragonfly of New York state, but no, it's probably not that simple. I haven't actually tried this time but from previous brief forays into dragonfly identification it usually is something impossible to tell without a dead specimen under a microscope, like 'does it have three bristles on its front leg or four?'

Fistulated Cows Aka Cows With Holes In Their Sides

What do these three cows have in common? They all have holes in their sides.


I did a double take on my way in to work this morning. This is the kind of thing you read and hear about in vet tech school but don't get to see or use. Of course now that I am at a vet school, this is no longer the stuff of myth and legend but there are real live fistulated cows.

fistula: a surgical opening made into a cavity or hollow organ of a person or animal

A fistula allows for sampling of the contents of the rumen, and, as it was explained to me back in nursing school, to transfer contents from the rumen of a healthy cow to the rumen of a sick cow that lacks the proper bacteria for digestion.

It might look painful, but it is not so there is no reason to be upset. Cows are amazing creatures.

Snow In Spring

I woke up the other morning to find that it had snowed. There was a fine sprinkling of white covering the lawn. Later that afternoon, when I pulled into the parking lot, it was still snowing (see above)!

And the view across the street:


But on closer inspection, it was not actually snow (see below), but some white fluffy seeds that are falling off the trees around here and swirling in the wind just like snow! Bet I had ya fooled!!!
For me it was one more reminder that IT WILL SNOW, unlike sunny San Jose, California.
And today is the first official day of summer, but I took these photos last weekend and back then it was still spring, well maybe not mentally, but locals were quick to remind me that summer had not officially started!

Extra credit for anyone who can correctly identify the tree that sheds 'snow.' I'm guessing it's not a native tree but I don't know. Maybe my SurrogateSyracuseEnvironmentalParents can help out here?

Happy Hermit Thrush:)

That's me this evening, after a long day's work, chillin' on the deck at the frat house with Elle, bulldog/pit bull cross in residence. She's a bit of a bruiser, but I've always had a thing for muscle dogs (See my post on my old blog 'Meet Pete').

Sitting outside soaking in the last rays of sunshine, everyone cooking on the barbecue, sipping wine and discussing... anesthesia. Yes folks, don't forget, this isn't any ordinary run-of-the-mill drink-yourself-into-oblivion frat house, but a veterinary fraternity. And I am glad to be here!

Alphabet Soup and Gobble-dee-gook: A Crash Course In The Jargon Of Cellular Signal Transduction

There are a lot of acronyms in science. A LOT. I went to a talk last week and this well established professor said she thinks one should be allowed to include a sidebar or box in academic papers defining all the acronyms so that readers could refer back to it. I agree!

In my lab and in discussions with other students and faculty at Cornell here are some acronyms I hear regularly. My apologies that they aren't exactly scintillating, however, this is my world these days:

• JNK (pronounced "junk" not as in... well I won't type anything crude)= c-Jun N-terminal kinase

• STAT (not to be confused with an emergency, as in "I need that STAT!")= signal transducer and activator of transcription

• ERK (not as in "That irked me")= extracellular signal-related kinase

• MAPK (pronounced "map K")= mitogen-activated protein kinase

• MAPKAKP= mitogen-activated protein kinase activated protein kinase
  

• PKCζ= protein kinase Cζ, an atypical PKC and unique PKC isotope, important because PI3K dependent activation of PKCζ mediates B cell survival by nerve growth factor

• SARS-CoV= severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus

• S protein= spike protein, "a distinct club or petal-shaped protrusion. It is these proteins that give the virions a crown like appearance (Latin, coronae) in electron microscope images." (Li 2006, almost poetic sounding for a scientific paper)

• N protein= nucleocapsid protein

Backtracking a little for those of you that aren't scientists:

• Protein Kinase= a protein, not just any old protein but an enzyme, that phosphorylates, i.e. adds a phosphate group to, another protein. Important for signal amplification within cells and activating or deactivating cellular pathways
  

And I have yet to figure out:

• MEK=??????????

• Akt=???????????
  

The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow

... Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow there will be Sun!

This is my new motto. I was told that upstate New York is beautiful in the summer. They lied.

It has been rainy, grey and chilly most of the time.

I sometimes wonder if I am suffering Seasonal Affective Disorder in the summer???

However, it is mostly that I am no longer seeing Ithaca and Cornell through rose-colored glasses.

I've come off the initial high and landed rather roughly. I'm sick, I'm lonely and I'm overwhelmed with deadlines.

Of course, all that being said, today is a beautiful day and I am determined to get outside and enjoy some of it, explore some of Ithaca and do my best not to let my cold drag me down.