Science (non) Fiction

Remembering why I want to teach - having a summer undergraduate student has helped remind me that I do like to teach and explain things, especially things that I love learning about to begin with! It’s fun to see someone get excited about something that I’ve started taking for granted - gives a new enthusiasm for the work which can only be a good thing! And while my research is interesting and exciting at times, the teaching is what I think will keep me going long-term…
Also, thanks to a friend, I am now a new fan of Sandra McCracken, whose music is kind of, well, I can’t really explain it - it’s almost a little folky in places - she’s a Christian, but the songs aren’t all completely about God - but the lyrics are quite profound and I’m enjoying the CD a lot - it’s called “Gypsy Flat Road” - she’s got others but I think they can only be ordered online. You should give it a try! Her husband Derek Webb (who used to be with Caedman’s Call) also has some excellent CDs but I don’t have any of those yet - them singing together is fantastic!
I’m off -
A

Hey all! I just posted a bunch of pics I took last night at the cookout up in Pilot Mtn on Webshots - email me at arockel@gmail.com for an invite to see the pics - I tried a link to the album but it’s not cooperating since it’s a private album - I had a blast and hope everyone enjoyed themselves! Thanks a bunch to Lance and Lynn for letting us take over their home and yard - they have so many fun toys (ATV, pond, rope swing, trampoline)! Kudos to Beth on the veggie burgers and blondies, even if you didn’t think they were fabulous, the fact that they disappeared says otherwise!
Let me know if you have other pics to add and I’ll try to upload them to the same album - I’m having issues with my memory reader - can’t believe I just bought it and it already doesn’t work well - won’t read my big new memory card - grrrrr…
Things in lab are going well - summer students are settling in - I’ll have to post pics of them soon! We’re making good progress and I think/hope they’re learning a lot along the way…
Have a wonderful weekend if I don’t get back here before then!

Ok, so I haven’t figured out yet how to post the pics as part of my post, so they all post individually but at least I can put a caption, so that’s ok…
So, to catch you up, I drove to Durham Monday night for dinner with three of my bestest friends from, gosh, from like elementary/middle school age (since we were all homeschooled, the whole ‘middle school’, etc thing doesn’t help much since we were all together at most ages!) - we’re all in very different places now, although at least through the next month or so, we will all still be in the same geographic location! Alexa is just over 7 months pregnant with her first child (husband Daniel works something like city planning - I think), Frances just got engaged to Johnathan (computer genius in CA) and will be getting married next summer most likely in CA, and Thea just graduated in polisci from Duke and will be working on her masters in Asian Studies (or something like that) at Cornell in Ithaca NY, so we will soon by spread across the entire continent - sniff, sniff… so it was really nice to see everybody together again and get a little bit caught up on stuff - hopefully will be able to do something with most of them again before we all split up and before Alexa has the baby…
Also, our summer students have started in the lab - they’re two guys, rising juniors in college (yep, they’re not even 21 yet!), interested in med/grad school, so one of them is working with me on my project - it’s going really well so far - they’re hard workers and fit into the lab really well, which is funny since the rest of the lab is almost completely female - actually maybe that’s why… anyway, they’re great and it’s one of them whose hand is pictured below holding the melting hail - we had a crazy storm yesterday afternoon and I think we’ll have some more this week - it would rain like crazy and then start hailing (which we could hear on the roof and metalic ducts above our heads), and then go back to rain and then start hailing again - it was crazy! I don’t think I’ve ever seen hail that big!
So the exciting things I’ve done this morning: pay my rent (finally), get my car inspected (it passed!), and get my registration renewed - whoohaaa! Busy morning! Feeling very on top of things - let’s see how long that last…
Well, I’m off to prepare for the afternoon with my summer student - it’s forcing me to be more organized and that’s always a good thing! Plus we have a cookout in Pilot Mountain tonight so I have to finish up here on time!
Peace out!

Hail melting in the hand of one of our summer students - crazy weather here folks! 

Hard to see, but those white dots are marble-sized hail from the storm here Tuesday afternoon - generously captured by a new grad student in our lab! 

Frances, me, Thea, and Alexa (can barely tell she’s 7 months pregnant!) at dinner Monday night 

My blog has been having some issues lately, so I haven’t posted in a few days - not that much has been going on…
Starting Monday, I will be in charge of supervising a summer undergraduate research student, which scares me a little, but I also realize that this is what I’m here for, to learn to pass on knowledge to others - and while it would be nice to use the summer to get ahead on my research, I think in the long run this will be more productive for me, since I want to teach - plus he’ll be helping out with my project, so all will not by lost, just probably slower than normal!
I’m planning a trip to see my brother in a few weeks, so I’m looking forward to that - we will hopefully get to go see Idols of the King at the theater where his wife works (and he also did the lighting design for this show) - it’s all about Elvis fans - should be funny!
I’ve been reading a cute series of Christian romance - but I’m going through them really fast, so I’m about to need something else to read - I think I’ll do a run of classics this summer, maybe re-read my faves (Anna karenina, Jane eyre, Pride and prejudice, etc…) but I need to try some new ones - any ideas?!?!
My dad leaves this Monday for a month in Kenya - please be praying for him and for my mom - she’s going to be busy while he’s gone but I’m sure it will be weird/sad for her…
Well, I’m off to finish up my work in the lab - and take a shower, since I just went for a job while things were running in the lab - I’m going to miss the cooler weather - maybe it’s time to start working out inside again…