Hold On To that Feel-Aay-Aay-Aay-Aay-ing!

While a Miami University sorority was having a puke-tastic good time peeing on artifacts at the Underground Railroad Museum, Ohio State kids were synchronized dancing to the Glee kids covering Journey.

Keep it classy Miami! But seriously folks, who in their right mind thinks it's a good idea to let college students, in frats no less, rent out space at a museum? I wouldn't let these clowns drink out of my bathtub, let alone near anything valuable.

Come back next week when I "flash mob" here in my cubicle. Who's in?!

Has It Been A Year?

Today was the one year anniversary of my "new" job.

I guess it's not that new anymore but it's still shiny and heart-shaped. With a title like Senior Marketing and Communications Guru In Charge of Everything Awesome in the Heart Institute, how could it not be.

For my anniversary I asked for a Vespa, but I got a new desk instead. This means my head doesn't get radiated anymore whenever someone heats up their Lean Cuisine. So long microwave and mini-fridge!And check out my sweet new computer. Did someone say 21 inches?! I'm practically CEO now.

A year ago life was pretty dull… I knew virtually nothing about cardiomyopathy and no one ate the "leftovers" out of my trash can.

The Boss Man said to me recently, "You thought scientists were boring, and instead you got this wild carousel of delights!"

Indeed.

These days I can expect to be flipped off by the same colleague who also kindly shares his baby carrots with me; invited to dinner by coworkers who fear I eat only frozen pizzas (totally true, you should also invite me over for dinner); given mini-candy bars, hotel soaps and called Boo. Just another day at the office.

And when I call in sick for peeing blood clots, people are actually concerned. A job is only as good as the people you work with, and I have good colleagues in spades.

As for the work, pretty much everyone is smarter than me... you know, saving babies, trying to cure heart disease, scheduling appointments in an archaic email system, doing marketing stuff (whatever that is)... so it's humbling and challenging and most often, fun even.

I'd probably do it for free, but thankfully they keep paying me, cause it's looking like I will have to buy that Vepsa myself. Happy anniversary to me!

Mea Culpa

It was recently brought to my attention that I chew with my mouth open, which means I have repulsed and icked out everyone I've ever eaten with my whole life. So 592 people. Roughly.

My apologies.

Where Would You Wish To Wake Up Tomorrow?

Hope your wish comes true! Tgif.

ZOMG! My 6th Grade Heart Is Melting!

Beiber who? Tgif!

Happy Mother's Day!

Not much has changed since I was in college. I still eat frozen pizza pretty regularly, and on trips back home, I take my laundry. Oddly enough it's more convenient to drive it three hours away than it is to do it in the basement of my apartment building. For one thing, I don't have to scrounge up quarters when I take it home and secondly, well... truth be (embarrassingly) told, my mom does it.

I know, I know. I don't ask her to do it. I don't even want her to do it. It's just that she can't stand to have this much laundry piled up in her presence and rather than wait for me to do it, she just dives in. She swears she finds comfort in this, doing her perfectly capable daughter's laundry.

My dad and I went to church with her on Sunday for Mother's Day. The sermon was about moms of course. I don't remember what he said because I was too busy thinking about how badly the pew was killing my back, but as she was singing along to Amazing Grace and How Great Thou Art I was thinking about her and the millions of things for which I never thanked her.

I swear I hit the mom lottery. She has always been unfailingly supportive and practical, hopeful for the best but always steeled for the worst. A calm voice of reason in an often unstable world. My mom was not the mom to come unglued over minutia of any kind. It's just not her style. Life has real problems, and the difference was always clear to her. This is not to say, unfortunately, that she wouldn't wear me out over a detention or a speeding ticket.

As she sang I thought about all the times she must have paced around worrying about me when I missed curfew or didn't call home when I said I would. The nights she must have stayed awake praying for me when I was sick. The suffering she still endures from my brother's death.

You got to be tough to be a mom. No doubt about that. And yet she maintains a tremendous sense of humor and happiness.

So I went to church with her, took her to brunch, bought her wave petunias and gave her books, none of which hold a candle to the warmth and support she's given me.

You can never repay your own sweet mom. But I do thank her a lot more now. And when she says, "Gina, you must have 40 pairs of underwear!" I kindly don't tell her it's because I do laundry only once a month or so, because she didn't raise me like that, and I don't want to disappoint her.

And I Did Only 6.8 Miles

This is what I've been reduced to.

My feet are covered in blisters, my hip-flexor is... broken? My legs and butt muscles feel like they were removed from my body and pulverized old-school, like with the steel hammer my mom used to use to tenderize meat.

But hey, my nipples feel totally fine. I got that going for me!