fresh life

basking in the glow of that 100th post was so delightful that i had to keep on doing it for 5 months. i mean, the Roundness of that number is supremely satisfying. now i will have to quickly work my way up to 200. or 1000.

so... for any loyal family members who still have an honorary slot for me on their blogroll, i am back. i'm no longer in vancouver, but rather sitting in one of my favourite toronto starbucks, in the most hidden corner, watching the snow pound down on the roof of the U of T bookstore. i don't come to this starbucks very much anymore, now that i'm working out of a lab at the scarborough campus. i was thinking earlier this afternoon that i've been coming to this starbucks for almost 4 years. i remember writing the manuscript containing my honours thesis data here in the fall of 2004, sitting across from my (now ex-) boyfriend [ed. note: that paper was subsequently published in april 2006]. i have read textbooks and journal articles here for 4 different courses. i've had coffee with at least 8 of my friends and colleagues. i've had a few moments of inspiration, each of which spurred a jog back down the street to my former lab. i wrote several sections of my Master's thesis here. i attempted to put together the first and second incarnations of a manuscript describing my Master's data here. neither of those were completed, but the third version of this paper was recently submitted [and, unfortunately, rejected on the first round]. i think that i've actually sat at each and every table here, at various points in time.

it's kind of too bad that i've done all of these things in this starbucks and not in an independently owned establishment. i've recently started frequenting a Much Cooler, Independent, Fair-Trade Serving Coffee Place in a different neighbourhood. they serve you coffee at your table, bring you glasses of water without your having to ask, and have shelves full of books lining the walls instead of vaguely ugly wallpaper sent from corporate offices in the states. i like the new coffee place a lot. in fact, i would say that it is my new toronto-location crush. i feel that i shouldn't go there too often, for fear that we might tire of each other early in the relationship. i'm restricting myself to one afternoon a week. perhaps in another four years i'll write a similar post and talk about the inspirations i had and papers i finished while sitting at the little table in the back with the wobbly chair. i'm looking forward to getting to know Much Cooler Coffee Place over the course of my PhD.

yes, i'm well into my PhD in my new lab with my new supervisor in the new department. it has made me so happy to return to a more traditional academic environment, in which all of the grad students regularly convene at seminars and colloquia. i've TA'd for the first time in 3 years, and managed to inspire a couple of undergrads to apply to come and work with me on my science. i took a course about food. i danced in a show. i love my new PhD life here, but appreciate the old Master's one now that it's over.