I started a blog! How modern!

Wow...jumping into the 21st century by starting a blog....and one of the last people I know on the face of this planet to do it. Go me!

I guess I'll start out with the basic, introductory entry...even though the only people who will ever read this are people who already know me...but I guess I can't think of a better way to write my first entry.

I was born on a chilly September night back in 1978 (wha wha whaaaa).....and now here I am, 30 years old...a wife and a mama...the Bean Girl, all growed up...

You may ask me where "Bean Girl" came from....well, back in my high school days, I worked at the Toledo Zoo, slinging hash at catered company picnics. One day I had been standing in front of the smokey, hot charcoal grill, cooking burgers for yet another picnic of 300 people...and it was like 95 degrees outside....then they made me go serve baked beans. I'd had a bad day that day and then one of my co-workers called me "Bean Girl". I promptly responded to them: "Eat me." I then promised myself that my first book would be titled "Eat Me, Said the Bean Girl". Well, I never wrote that book, but I do still remember being the Bean Girl....and I do still dream of writing that novel.

But I'm not a novelist like I once thought I'd be....despite my love for writing, I ended up in the science and research field. I'm an Imaging Scientist, specializing in preclinical oncology studies using microPET, microCT, MRI and Bioluminescent imaging. I certainly hope it at least makes me SOUND smart...I work with pharmaceutical companies all over the world in the development of new cancer therapeutics. It's intersting work, especially if you are willing to get into the "guts" of cancer and all the biological pathways of the human body. The work can be monotonous, like when an imaging run goes for 14 hours, and all there is to do is an IV every 14 minutes, or just keep trading out subjects off the bed of the machine and hitting the start button...but it can also be very cool, like when I have to do intracranial implants...which is injecting tumor cell lines directly into the brain using a drill/gas tight syringe/precise stereotaxic frame. I get to do all kinds of cool stuff like that - peritibial injections (placement of tumor cells between the leg bones), orthotopic injections (injecting cells directly into an organ...liver, spleen, heart, etc), and many more things...clients come up with CRAZY stuff sometimes. Often times as I'm putting the coil back into the MRI and getting ready to image the next subject, I'll catch a glimpse of myself in my full PPE (safety goggles, face mask, hair bonnet, lab coat, etc) in the shiny chrome around the bore of the magnet...and smile. It's a pretty damn cool job, and think about it...we are directly helping to develop CANCER DRUGS. We could have a hand in CURING CANCER. It's pretty freaking sweet when you get right down to it.

Anyhoo, what else....well, I'm a wife - married 4 1/2 years....and a mama to a truly adorable 3 year old girl, our little KP. P and I met in our early 20's and it was LOVE at first sight. We had both just come out of horrible relationships (well, mine was a horrible and legally-binding relationship) and we had both been out living the single life for a while and just sort of fell into one another. His sister introduced us, as my friends and I used to hang out at the bar she worked at all the time. He and I were pretty much inseperable after our first date, which was to a Chinese restaurant then back to his place to watch Billy Madison (I told you, we were in our early 20's!). 4 months after we started seeing each other, he bought a house, and 5 months after that, I moved out of my little duplex in Point Place and into his house, bringing with me two dogs - Corran and Summer (who was just a puppy at the time). We got engaged on Valentine's Day 2003 over dinner at J. Alexander's, and in May 2004 we had a lovely beach wedding in Myrtle Beach, SC. After living it up that whole summer and having a HUGE reception here at home for the people who couldn't come to the beach wedding, we decided in the fall that maybe we wanted to try to have a baby. "Let's go off birth control for a month and see what happens", we said. We went on a trip to Florida for my 26th birthday in September 2004, and lo and behold 3 weeks later I got two pink lines on a pregnancy test! Talk about getting lucky on the first try.

I was a horrible pregnant person....I tried to do everything right...I cut out caffeine completely, I didn't touch a drop of alcohol, I didn't even eat lunch meat or imported cheese like they tell you not to (and not eating feta cheese for 9 months was about the hardest thing I've ever done), but I still had a crappy pregnancy. I barfed my brains out the first 3 months, had a bunch of tests come back weird in my 2nd trimester which led to all these specialists and genetics counseling and such only to find out that NOTHING WAS WRONG to begin with! I got monstrously fat, had high blood pressure, and in the end had to be induced after going 2 weeks past my due date...and even then, I went into the hospital to be induced on a Wednesday night and did not deliver that child til FORTY EIGHT HOURS later. Oy vey.

However...it was worth every minute I spent hanging over the toilet in my first trimester, or wondering when the hell my labor would be over and if they would just TAKE THE BABY OUT ALREADY...because KP is the coolest little person EVER. We do everything we can with her and of course, she's spoiled rotten even though we try really hard not to do so...but with only 1 kid, it's hard not to give her EVERYTHING. She's in preschool at a nearby Catholic grade school, and doing great there. She loves her classmates and we love that she gets the socialization. Beyond that she also belongs to a storytime group at the library and, luckily, almost all of our married friends had babies just around the same time KP was born (I swear there was like 6 of us pregnant all at once...my sister in law and best friend included) so she has lots of little buddies to play with. She's a gem. Every parent says this about their kid, but she's SO SMART and of course she's sassy like her mama, too :)

So here we are in our little brick house with our awesome little family. P and I have been through much in the last 7 years and we are stronger than we ever have been. Things just keep getting more fabulous as every day goes by and sometimes I have to stop and remind myself that I really DO live this life....it's so great and I just awe at how it could get any better, but somehow it does.

I also have two siblings that I'm super proud of...my little sister (well, she's 25, but still little to me) just got married this summer and she is a psychologist. They live out of state. My baby brother, who is 9 years younger than me, is going to dental school. Free dental care! Yay! No more paying for dental insurance like a sucker :) I am very close with my parents and they recently built a house closer to our end of town so it's nice to be able to drive there in under 10 minutes to visit rather than trek across town. I have a fab circle of friends and, as much as I love my fam and try to hang out with them as much as possible, I also make lots of time for my friends. I love seeing them, chit chatting with them, and occasionally tearing up the town for a night with them! I couldn't live without them.

Well, I think that's long enough for my intro. Nothing that most people who would care enough to read this don't already know....but still, I had to write something. I plan on filling this with my random thoughts, fun stories and of course, pictures as I'm secretly a photographer at heart.