Coffee from a Reusable Ceramic Mug

First, you may have noticed a change of title. Matthias and I came up with this together because is somehow accurately captures something about us at this time. I think it may be time for a photo change soon too.

There were several times this week when I would write a post in my head about some interesting stuff like when I got to sit in on a meeting with Shirley Ann Jackson who was the wisest high level policy maker I have met. She was at work earlier this week, and I was dragged into a meeting with my boss at the last minute. She is the former head of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and she had some great things to say about energy security and the future of U.S. energy policy.

It was a crazy week, in general. I actually lost a week in planning. I kept thinking that I was going to Irvine next week, when I am actually going in two weeks. This is really good because I will give a science talk while I’m there, and I really need to practice because I have been out of touch on the details of the work I’ll be presenting. Luckily, I’ll be presenting in a pretty formal setting, so it shouldn’t be too intimidating. One of my colleagues pushed me to give the talk, and I actually appreciate the chance. As my coworker said, staying in touch with the research gives me street credibility with the other scientists.

One other pretty cool thing that happened this week was meeting an old friend. I went into a meeting to help a coworker run a meeting (apparently, I am rather good at that). I heard a young scientist talking as I came in, and I thought, “He sounds familiar.” I looked at the guy and recognized Paul who was at Caltech with me back in 1997 when I was part of the SURF program. He was one of a group of about 5 or 6 of us who hung out all summer and enjoyed the southern California lifestyle - that’s pretty much what made me want to go to Irvine. He looked at me for a few second, and when my coworker introduced me, he almost jumped out of his seat. We had a chance to catch up a bit at lunch, and it turns out that he is up in Boston where another former SURFer lives. I reconnected them over email after the meeting. it is a small world.

There was a lot of activity this week, which is why these posts never went up while they were fresh in my head. There was some annoying things at work too, and some interesting discussions, but a lot of that is forgotten already. I was at a party tonight, and i talked with my friend who is preparing the briefing book for the G-8 science meeting later next week. It’s kind of funny that she is preparing the meeting, and she is not actually allowed to sit in on this meeting. She will meet the EU Big wig that I’ll be picking up at the airport on Tuesday. That entire day will be spent networking, so I better iron my clothes and wear comfortable shoes!

I also did a the little experiment I did this week to see how many time violent images or imagery (can be from discussions, radio also) went into my brain in one day. I really lost track (so I’ll have to try again), but I had heard/seen violence in some form ten times before I left for work from NPR and internet news! That was in a quiet news day. I think I need to go on a diet from violent images, which means less internet news. I need to go back to reading Thich Nhat Hanh and Gandhi to remind me to stay cultivate peace and compassion and avoid the things that cultivate violence.

As an end to an interesting week, one of the lurking (lurking is meant in the nicest possible way) observers to this blog sent in a comment, and I was so excited to hear of another ex-pat who has set up shop in/near Regensburg! Her blog has all of these links to other ex-pat blogs. My favorite title for an ex-pat blog in Germany is “Germany Doesn’t Suck.” I totally get what that title is about!

This is a really cool summary of the budget! That might sound boring, but understanding politics and any policy is really just a matter of knowing who controls what aspect of the budget.

With all of this talk of meeting mom’s old friends, it’s only fair to post some flash back photos!

Last night, I was reminded, again, how small the world is. I met up with an old friend of my mom’s, Mary Anne, from Ohio. Her and mom met on a bowling team that mom joined while she was at her first job (as I remember the story). They ended up going to Hawaii together along with Linda, who ended up moving to Phoenix with my mom some years later.

The reason I met Mary Ann is because her daughter, Anne Marie (confusing), lives near here with her husband. She is in a production of “Thoroughly Modern Millie” with The Arlington Players (not to be confuse with ‘Arlington Players’ another theatre group in the area).

The community theatre is just down the road from where I live, and we ended up meeting for dinner in the building next to my work. It is a great little Hibachi place. It was really nice to meet Mary Ann and her family (including her neighbor who made the road trip with her). I love meeting a group of really nice, down to Earth people who feel like extended family even though we just met. I have found that to be a rarity in the DC area.

I went to the theatre not knowing anything about the production. It was SOO cool to be back around community theatre again. There is a feel about it that brings me back! I remember high school drama club and being involved in some productions at the community college many years ago. I have to say that this production was much better than all of that. The performances were great, and I really liked the musical. I have Anne Marie’s website now, so I hope I can use it as a means to find out more about the local theatre. I always like the big productions because they are fancy and you can get dressed up to see them, but something about me is drawn to the small theatre groups and small galleries. There is something so much more personal about the experience.

The head of my work send out an email and with a letter of condolence to V-tech today, and he also summarized the work of two of the victims who were funded by us. I just thought I would share.

Interestingly, I had a similar reaction to some other scientists I whose blogs I have looked at recently when I heard that the shootings happened in an engineering building. I assumed it was an engineering student who snapped. There are a lot of stories of scientists and engineers snapping at different points in their professional training (there are a couple here). When the first year exams were over at UCI, they didn’t give us the results until after the professors have gone home on a Friday. We thought that was just to torture us, but it was actually for safety because the exams can make or break a scientist’s career. They make the administrative staff stick the results in the students’ mailboxes after hours, which is probably not so safe for her/him either!

I changed my name today to make Matthias’s family name my middle name. I dropped the Louise - I feel so Louise-less. I don’t know why but it makes me happy after I walked out of an office with a different name. I kind of wanted to celebrate. Instead, I went into a coffee shop and wrote some declines of astronomy proposals….

I have decided that ‘unGooglable’ is an adjective describing information that cannot be found online using a Google search. I thought of this, with a bit of cynicism, when I heard that certain news channels have paid for ‘premium’ Google priority for phrases that might draw people who are obsessively searching for information on the horrible shootings yesterday. Actually, I am taking an internet-and-TV-news-fast tomorrow. When things like this happen, they are awful, and people, especially those in morning, need to let themselves feel the pain and work through it. The way the news feeds into fear, anger and all of the other emotions that fan be fanned out of pain upsets me. There is no point in exposing myself to it, so I will wait until I don’t feel inundated with manipulating stories and images while trying to stay informed about the world outside of my little apartment. I left radio out of the fast because the soft, rational voices of NPR help to drag me out of bed int he morning, but I even had to shut them off today. I will eventually dive into the details of the story, but I find clarity and precision of reporting are often not found immediately after such an event.

On a lighter note, Googlability is something I have to consider when writing about stuff that happens at work or even with our private stuff. I have a cool story about an upcoming opportunity, and I would like it to remain under the Google-dar. Plus, it’s fun to add the links….

You see, I had a meeting with a coworker and a representative from a science organization in my favorite country. As we were wrapping up the meeting, she and I were catching up about the two-body problem of a dual-career couple (we have met before and chatted a bit). I mentioned that I have trouble making connections in said country, and that makes it even harder to try to establish things there professionally. She had a bit of an epiphany and suddenly turned to ask if I was interested in helping her to pick up a science big-wig who is coming to DC to give opening remarks at the embassy, with my boss’s boss’s boss about a new science organization on the content!

It’s funny that one of the questions for the interview for my fellowship was “If you found yourself sharing a cab with the science adviser to the President, what would you talk about?” I wish I remember what I said - they did higher me, after all. It must have sounded good. Would asking for two jobs be over-the-top?

On a lighter note, I was given a shock this weekend when I tried on some shorts at the store. I saw my thighs in the mirror! I was under the illusion that I was ten pounds lighter and in great shape (as I was before I left Germany). Silly me. It makes sense when I consider how much of my time is spent in my office chair these days. I walk for miles on the weekend, but I haven’t been able to get into my exercise routine during the week since my first trip to Germany way back in February! I have a crazy yoga practice that I whip out when I find my body getting out of control. Let’s see if it does the trick again. I just did it tonight, and I feel SOOO much better! Sometimes, I forget how much my body and my spirit likes vigorous exercise.

I have been eating pretty well considering how many things are going on - usually, my thoughtfulness about what I eat is the first to go when life gets too busy. It has been a few years of changes, but I think my diet has improved considerably over the years, so that even when I am stressed, I am eating pretty well. Luckily, I have a picky stomach that forces me to take care.

After talking with my mom today, I think I have decided that this time in life is just a rough point for most people. It is a point of many transitions and a point where we start to realize how little control we really have over anything in this world. We have some good friends going through similar stresses at the moment, so we have a built in system of support, which will help us a lot. I am sure we will be laughing together at these times in the future - actually, we laugh a little bit now. I am so glad that I have great friends!

I came by this today by random set of events, and it really touched me, so I thought I’d share:

Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

It touched me so much because it is very similar to a particular part of my personal practice. Usually, when a see the words of a prayer, there are parts that really resonate with me and others that don’t. This is one of the rare times when the prayer, in its entirety, is something I can stand behind. Interestingly, St. Francis is the guru of my yoga teacher, Mirka. She does meditation retreats in Assisi based around the life of St. Francis - perhaps it is time to check out one of those retreats.

Life is an interesting, even if rocky, journey at the moment. I am grateful for many things. One thing I am terribly grateful for at the moment is the knowledge that there are at least two people in this world who feel that my presence in their life can help to ease their suffering when life gets tough. That’s a good thing to know.

Mom and dad are in town this weekend for Easter and the cherry blossoms. Being the great kid that I am, I got the 24 hour flu as soon as they arrived. I, literally, turned to my coworker at 5:30 on Thursday and said, “I feel quite ill, I need to head home.” As I walked home, mom and dad were parking the car. I brought them up to the apartment and went to bed until 8:00. I woke up to take some drugs and sit in the living room. I guess I finally over heated my brain in the past two weeks! My brain heated up to a fever, which broke somewhere around 3:00 AM, and then I had a sleepy Friday recovering.

Today was much better, flu-wise, but it was freezing! It actually snowed over night, but we were not going to let that stop us from being good tourists. We headed out to the cherry blossoms. The wind was whipping most of the day, and we realized that the blossoms weren’t blowing, it snowed off an on through out the day (dad kept asking when global warming would start).

I had to lend dad my hat to protect his ears, and I wrapped my scarf up with extreme elegance, as always. Dad said he felt like a dork in my hat, so we got him a more macho head band! Dad insisted that I add a sentence stating that he is, in fact, not a homeless man sitting next to my mom in the above photo.

We saw a crazy duck in the Tidal Basin. He was a great fisher because we saw him catch two big fish in the minute or so we watched him! He was oddly low int eh water too, which made me think that he had eaten so much that he was actually less buoyant! I wonder if he eventually sank. It was some time around the duck that dad took this great photo of mom! I don’t know what she was doing, but she looks pissed! I just had to add it to the blog because it is so funny. I can just see her saying, “What are you lookin’ at, punk!!?!”

We took a long time in the FDR memorial, freezing our butts off. We were all impressed with the wisdom of all of the quotes credited to him. Dad claims that he couldn’t have possibly said all of those great things, because with all of his talk with balance, life lessons and caring for all, he sounded too much like a woman - I agree that all of his wisdom must have really been Eleanor’s thoughts. She was quite the lady - first delegate to the UN and all!

Eventually, we headed back to a small little garden behind the Smithsonian castle. Mom and dad discovered it on Friday while I was unconscious back home on my couch. We quickly ate our picnic lunch (hands freezing!), and then we headed into a small little building called the National Museum of African Art. It is a deceptive little gallery because it is four stories deep, and the architecture was great. The exhibition was minimal, and I wish it were more extensive. Some if the detailing in the pieces were incredible, but the display lacked a focus. I really enjoy museums that leave you with a story. I think that’s why I like the Holocaust museum so much; it does that better than any museum I have ever seen. Anyway, after we reached the bottom of the African museum, we discovered the underground passage ways of the Mall. We realized we could move on to the museum across the garden from down below.

We attempted a trip to the Air and Space museum to watch an IMax movie, but the crowds were huge, and we were all getting tired (some, more than others, but I am not naming any names). We decided to head back home, grab a coffee at Starbuck’s and relax. All and all, it was a great tour of the blossoms.

Later, I made a vegetarian-wheat-free lasagna, and mom even tried to eat it! She can be really picky, so I am impressed that she gave it a try given that she claims to dislike almost all of the ingredients that were in it. I really need to work on that recipe though. It has a lot of potential, but as it is written (coming soon), it is too bland for my tastes. I need to figure out the spices.