My new reality

Everyone should retire.  I highly recommend it.  My friends were so kind and generous to send me off with many dinners and get-togethers and lovely gifts.  I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.  It’s so nice to see a framed photo, or custom towel, or toiletries, bottles of wine or vodka, and other memorable gifts that remind me of each of you.  In the gift stash I received the book ‘Lab Girl’ by Hope Jahren which I enjoyed immensely.  Hope provides insight into the micro and macro growth of plants and trees.   She relates each phase of plant growth to her own life as she matures from young girl through college, graduate school and as a professor navigating the jungle of grant procurement.  She shares her experiences of unconventional experiments, exciting field trips and grant -writing drama and makes it interesting.  I enjoy her writing style and imagine it is similar to, but better than, my own, making me feel a tad insecure, but what else is new?  I’ll carry on anyway.

I studied botany as part of my ‘self proscribed’ biology degree, as well as limnology, ecology, geology, geography, and radiation biophysics, a disparate array of classes of which none came in handy for my career in big pharma.   If my instructor had taught botany the way Hope writes about it more people, including myself, would be botanists or at the very least, better gardeners and arborists.

A big part of Hope’s story and her career is shared with her assistant and side kick Bill, a truly dedicated scientist and handyman with peculiar, unorthodox habits.  Everyone in science can relate to knowing fun, crazy people.  I’ve often thought that someone could produce a pretty funny sitcom based in a biology lab.  Some examples of my quirky, fun lab mates are (and this is where some of you start getting worried that you may be described herein):  Pam G. at the Univ of Buffalo, who studied ballet with me (yes, I studied ballet until I was 22. ) More accurately, Pam and I took an adult extension class one summer semester, when I turned 22.  She and I would practice pirouettes and jetes around the Faraday cage, where I spent most of my time.  At the U of R, I spent my free time with a great group of grad students and lab techs and my boss, George Kimmich, who as the PI suffered no distance between the ages of his group and himself.  We’d have standing long jump contests in the lab, as well as plenty of pranks to keep everyone on their toes.  At the Roche Institute, Lisa, Rita and George enveloped me into their very New Jersey-an Italian clique and treating me to wonderful visits to Little Italy in NY.  I spent 15 years with Jeanette F. and the group at Lederle, now Pfizer.  So many of us started our families at the same time, sharing baby stories and MOE experiences.  (‘MOE’ was our acronym for ‘Mother On Edge’, starting the work day fully expecting a phone call requesting an early pickup from daycare in the days before 8 hour Ibuprofen or cell phones).   Jeanette also helped me celebrate my 30th birthday and was kind enough to be DD that night, ensuring I enjoy the experience of my first ever shot.   And second, third and fourth.   I can hear her giggling now.  At AZ, the fun was shared amongst so many in the group.  Terry M. and I would chat all day long, certainly annoying to everyone around us, I’m sure.  We planned to syndicate a radio show:  the Terry and Geri show; Terry from the dairy farm in Nova Scotia and me, the middle aged mom from Buffalo.  Who wouldn’t want to listen?  And the rest of my friends, Kelly, Erin, Jen, Erica, Alan, Deanna, Brenda, Mukta, Olga, Lourdes, Rachel, Ken, Tony, Keith, and so many others, each with an amazing sense of humor and enough to share so that together we could make it through a tough experiment or rough day.

At the closing of her book, Hope encourages the reader to plant a tree.  What a great way to rate a book and demonstrate the impact it’s made on you, by contributing to positive environmental change.  I’ll be planting a tree or two.  Thanks for the great story, Hope.