Updates from Nebraska

Here are some things I've been doing!

Eating!

I don't really like the blogs where ordinary people (who are not chefs or fancy cooking people) post pictures of food and are all, "Look what I made!"

But! I went to a farmer's market, like an adult. And then to a store where they sell food other than cookies! And I made a meal that didn't involve frozen things.

So, LOOK WHAT I MADE!

LOOK AT IT! I'll know if you don't!

Lettuce, radishes, & carrots from the farmer's market. Apple-gouda chicken sausages in red sauce. Bread from a legit bakery. Mexican Coca-Cola with real sugar from the Spanish half of this little grocery store I found.

And, because I also love stores where they ONLY sell cookies, here are some cookies I bought to take to work tomorrow!

Orange Kool-Aid chocolate chip cookies from Eileen's Colossal Cookies

I guess Kool-Aid is really important around here, because it was invented in Hastings in 1927. They have a big celebration in August called Kool-Aid Days, and I'm pretty sure the elementary schools do plays about the birth of Kool-Aid, where small children fight over who gets to play Edwin Perkins and who gets to be the Kool-Aid guy/jug/thing.

Hastings, I am your father. OHH YEAAHH.

Anyway, the cookies are AMAZING. They taste like the sweet, delicious love-child of an orange creamsicle and a chocolate-chip cookie.


And, because I love carbs, Back Alley Bakery is pretty much my favorite place ever.

Bleu cheese bread (aka, "I WANT TO EAT ALL OF THIS")

Toasted 5 Seed (aka, "I could honestly eat it for every meal. Or just all the time without even stopping.")

Why would I get fat?

It's cool. I work out.

Also, while we're talking about food (and, to be honest, when am I not talking about food?), here is a picture of the Ethiopian food I shared with Eric when we were having a Kansas City adventure in May:

The injera bread looks picked-at because I was like, "NOM BREAD I LOVE BREAD," and Eric was like, "I'm trying to take a picture!", and I was like, "OMNOMNOM."

Here is some other Nebraska stuff!

This is what I see from my car!

Sometimes, this is what I see from my car!

Because in Nebraska, rain falls upwards. And sideways. Because that makes sense, right?

I have been following a vet around after work! I saw some yeast from a dog's ear:

This yeast is not in the ear. It's under a microscope!

I played with a kitten!

Yes you are the cutest thing ever, aren't you?

"Yes, I am!"

I made these:

Because this is what was on tv:

Oh, Nebraska!

I also did some laundry.

I am this classy and I don't care who knows it.

I have been doing work and stuff, too!

I drew blood from some heifers!

Isolating monocytes from the blood:

Cellz N Da Hood

I practiced all kinds of tests! I've counted cells with a hemacytometer, used a Cytospin to prepare slides, grown cells in flasks with liquid media, isolated monocytes, processed blood serum, and SO MUCH MORE! This is my first cELISA test:

Different day; same shirt

I am also allowed to use a microscope with a digital camera attached. Clearly, my affinity for the microscope was underestimated. THE POWER!

Neutrophils. BAM!

Fuzzy eosinophil! BAM!

Monocytes! BAM!

Cells that look like Mickey Mouse! BAM!

THE MICROSCOPIC WORLD IS MINE TO CONQUER!

Anyway, in case you didn't read this and just skimmed to the bottom, or in case I wasn't clear enough, I love my job! I love my supervisors! I love microscopes! I love food! I love immunology! I love animals! I love learning things! I love my summer!

Graduation and Hiking!

Anyway, after driving to Manhattan and spending the night and getting Joanna and Eric and driving home, it was time for a graduation!

We look cute?

YES! Our disguises work!

Oh hey! A graduate!

He is up there. Promise.

WHOOO! GO CONNOR!

With Mom & Aunt Deb

Oh, and he picked up some extra velvet cord things for honors stuff or whatever, because my little brother is JUST THAT BRILLIANT!

After the ceremony, we went home and had a party with LOTS of food and LOTS of fun and pretty much NO pictures! But I do have some better pics of the graduation. I'll post those sometime!
Food highlights: potato salad, rice salad, Dad's burgers & hot dogs, baked beans that didn't burn, truffle cheese, three other cheeses, chips, Kahlua cake, and I AM GETTING FAT JUST THINKING ABOUT THIS.

(Con, I am SO PROUD of you! Congratulations on not only completing high school (even though I would've disowned you if you hadn't managed that), but on also managing to kick some serious ass and win some stuff! You are amazing, and you're going to do awesome things with your life! I love you!)


The next day, I headed back to Nebraska. Along the way, I had to drop of Eric and Joanna at various Kansas locations. And we had to stop at Trader Joe's. And Sonic.

And then we saw a sign for wetlands!

WETLANDS!

In KANSAS!

So we stopped to hike that shit.

A silo with lots of snake holes!

A map! So we don't get lost in the wilderness!

WETLANDS! Home of the chiggers.

We're just on a boardwalk. In KANSAS.

Sorry I missed your call. We were in the wetlands. In KANSAS.

Kansas.

That's pretty neat.

And then I dropped them off and was bitten by a cat and got caught in a giant scary lightning storm!

And then I was back in Nebraska.

The end!

PS - Joanna took a lot of these pictures. Thanks, Jo!

PPS - I didn't lose the foot.

Eew.

PPPS - Either I am allergic to wetlands, or I am the tastiest morsel of human chiggers have ever seen. Or maybe I am allergic to chiggers? Either way, this is an awkwardly itchy situation. I look like I have a pox.

PPPPS - Worth it.

Updates & On the Road - NE-KS (Graduation!)

The first week of my internship at USMARC was FANTASTIC! I really had no idea what to expect, and everything has been a wonderful mash-up of helpful people and interesting things and fascinating ideas, and I've just been kind of wandering through it all like a happy sponge.

I don't know if there are rules about what kind of pictures I can post. I want to say probably not? Because government stuff isn't secret, right? But also it kind of is? Anyway, I signed a whole bunch of papers this week, so I'll look through those before I post pictures of the lab and stuff.

So! Here is some stuff I'm pretty sure I can share!

Like my bed!

Aw, look how made it was!

And my giant closet!

It still looks like this. Pretty sure it's haunted.

And my bathroom!

It's a bathroom!

And my kitchen!

Look how there aren't dishes in the sink!

And the books that came with my room!

I'm staying in the dorms at the Great Plains Veterinary Educational Center, which is right by USMARC. The rooms are very comfortable and nice, and they're stocked with linens, cookware, dishes, and pretty much everything one could need for a 2-8-week experience in Nebraska. Except for food. I like food, so I buy that. And clothes, but I had those already.

Here is my very own desk in our lab!

Notebooks, reference books, things to work on

I made a Powercat. My mentor/supervisor gave me purple sticky notes!

I am working in the Animal Health Unit, in a lab that works in immunology. Our primary project is Ovine Progressive Pneumonia Virus, which is lentivirus in sheep that is similar to HIV in humans, FIV in cats, CAEV in goats, SIV in primates, etc. So far, I have worked on culturing cells, toured USMARC, observed necropsies in the vet center, sat in on a streamed cattle welfare conference, taken blood from heifers and isolated monocytes from the blood, done cell counts, prepared slides, and done SO MUCH MORE.

I've been keeping a journal of everything I do - when I have access to a scanner, I might post pictures of some of the more interesting pages. I've learned a lot this week, and next week looks great, too!

My mentor/supervisor/boss? is really fantastic, as is the technician in the lab. The two of them have made me feel super welcome, and they've gone out of their way to give me maps and brochures about things to do in the area.

After a week of the coolest internship ever, I headed back home for Connor's high school graduation! I took a leisurely route (read: I was easily distracted.):

I stopped in Hebron, because I really wanted Subway. I didn't find a Subway, but I did find the WORLD'S LARGEST PORCH SWING!

History lesson.

I sat the shit out of that swing.

Drivin' on up

Two issues with the swing:
1) While a miracle of swing-based engineering, this swing is not on a porch. Is it still a porch swing?
2) I sat on the swing. I swang on the swing. I took a picture of myself on the swing with my phone, so I could send it to my mummy, and my phone deleted the picture. SO! I have no proof that I swang on this swing. But I did.

As I was heading out of Hebron (which is, apparently, the Oregon Trail capital of Nebraska!), I saw this:

HOLD UP! TURN THIS CAR AROUND!

I turned that car around. After driving down a gravel road and passing some interesting locals and a few children's baseball games, I found this:

A sign. A SIGN?!

I guess they turned the camp into an RV park. But it's a nice RV park, with trees?

Anyway, on the road again. I found Fairbury! Still needing my Subway, I followed the "Business District -->" sign. Subway is a business, right?

No, but Korbel Drug is!

And this thrift store!

Hungry, discouraged, and low on gas, I headed back to the road that would take me to another road, which would take me to another road, which would take me to a few more roads that would lead me home.

And I found it!

For the record, Subway does not pay me or give me free sandwiches for promoting them on this blog. But I would be okay with it if that was something they wanted to do.

Then I drove some more!

Harvesting stuff!

This town always makes me giggle.

TRAIN!

Then I saw another sign, so I pulled off the highway again!

Pony Express, WHAAT?

HERE IT IS HERE IT IS!

Here is a wall in front of it!

It was closed. At 8pm on a Friday? Nonsense.

That sign on the door says "CLOSED." Balls.

Anyway, here is a sunset!

Up next: the actual graduation!