4 years and still waiting..

Missed the travel award from AHA for the 4th year. Seems quite elusive this one.. Here's my saga with this award... I didn't apply for one in 2008, in my first year of submission at AHA when it was an oral ppt. In 2009, it was a poster - so dint get it. 2010, I had an oral ppt but it did not fit into the categories listed out by AHA. 2011- again a poster. The chances of getting the award while your abstract's selected for a poster ppt is very bleak.. I guess it's because of the scoring. Your abstract gets selected as an oral or poster presentation depending upon the score it gets, with oral being the higher of the two. It's obviously not the end of the world that I haven't gotten this.. I'm happy with the award I just recently received (Needless to say, infinite thanks and gratitude go out to the mentor).. But I really want to keep track of how long it's actually gonna take me to win the AHA travel award.. I don't know why.. but just want to. I remember a friend got it the very first year she applied, and I know of colleagues who have received it 2-3 times (although you're allowed to receive it only once).. but its still evading me. And I will wait to see if sometime in the future I can succeed in living up to my expectations wrt this award. Amen!

The daily road trip

It's over 1.5 months since A and I have moved to Orange County, California and decided to do killer commutes to work everyday, with him having to drive 120 miles up north to LA everyday and back, and me having to  drive 160 miles down south to San Diego (and back). The surprising part is we haven't become sick and bored of the commute yet. Recently, with the state of affairs in this country, I've come to the conclusion that husband and wife living in the same city and having jobs has become a super luxury. You should consider yourself really fortunate and lucky and be prepared to make lots of adjustments to keep it going, which is why A and I each spend 3 hours on the road everyday driving, trying to live under one roof and yet hold on to our precious jobs.

I was initially a little apprehensive about being able to do the long long commute..people were trying to caution me that its not going to be easy and its a drain of energy, resources and even money (we are still paying our debts to this country and trying to do our part to revive the economy.. after 3 years of helping the airline industry, its now the gasoline and automobile industry!!). But quite interestingly , I am actually enjoying the commute. It's like I get 3 hours to do a bunch of things that I would probably not think of doing otherwise. Listening to music, catching up with friends over the phone (HANDS FREE, connected to the car), listening to audiobooks are quite common.. Sometimes I do those and some other times, I end up praying.. just play the Rudram, Abhirami Andhadhi or Vishnu Sahasranamam and thank/crib to God. I realized I get to sing a lot and practice my music in the car.. of course its not the ideal way to practice, but who cares.. its fun. I get to listen to the audio of some of my all time favourite Thalaivar movies over and over again..

All in all, I'm totally loving the time I get for myself. Its sufficient time to destress, to introspect about life, people, the funny ways of God, lab, science, research and everything else. It's turning out to be quite a jolly experience actually! 

PS to self: When life throws lemons at you, learn to make lemonade of it!