Thanks

[quick editorial note: I turned comment moderation on for old posts but forgot to set Blogger to email me when there was a comment needing moderation. Oops. Sorry if you're the commenter who sat waiting so long.]

In the spirit of Thanksgiving last week and today being World AIDS Day I wanted to thank the doctors, nurses, and support staff (and researchers?) at UAB's Family Clinic (or whatever it's called now). When Nettie was born (and the months leading up to then), my parents, brother, the rest of my family and I (and possibly her bio-mom, but how would anyone know?) were worried and unsure about her chances of being born healthy and getting to grow up to be the wonderful pre-teen she is today, much less to be the beautiful young woman she'll be in a few more years.*

Scientific American had a special issue devoted to HIV/AIDS right about the time we found out my (now former) SIL was HIV positive. That helped a lot. We had some current information all in one place, and it was understandable. It also helped with the OB, because while I'm sure he was a wonderful doc, he didn't start out knowing much about what could be done to help the baby's chances of being HIV negative; my brother could go in with good information to get the OB looking into it.

After the birth though we were a bit in the dark again; SA had articles on pregnancy and birth and HIV infection in babies/children but, as I recall, nothing on when you know an infant isn't infected. This is when the Family clinic came in and were just wonderful. (Not all of our experiences at Children's were wonderful, or even good, but that wasn't FC's fault.) The doctors and nurses were not only good at doctoring but had good bedside manner and were willing to answer any questions we had; the social worker, too. (She even gave Mom and me meal vouchers but we didn't get to use them -that was the Day From Hell.)

The Family Clinic is (or was 10 years ago) a group from UAB and had "clinic" at Children's Hospital in Birmingham one day a week (Montgomery and Huntsville 2 other days a week, iirc). Their goal was to treat every HIV positive child (and HIV exposed infants) and, when needed, the parents of those children in the state. (A lofty goal and one I'm sure they fell short on - a lot of people would have trouble getting to the hospitals). They also did research on HIV in infants and children. They had drug protocols, testing schedules, and stats. Just learning the statistics on when babies test positive and hearing that Nettie, at 8 days old, didn't have any of the common early signs of infection helped put us at ease. Or at least helped us not worry TOO much. And a year and a half later, knowing that she didn't have to be tested any more, was very nice confirmation that our beautiful healthy little girl was going to stay that way.

Now if we could somehow skip the middle school years, everything would be perfect.


*What? How? When? She was just a little baby, like, yesterday!

Thank You!

I've been procrastinating majorly on part of a project because, partly, it was going to be a big pain in the ass. So I finally decided I better get to work on it or face the possibility of not having a glowing performance review in June (Although it's kind of embarrassing how wonderful an employee I sound like on paper.) and had thought of one possible way to avoid moving large quantities of paper from the other building to the Sed. lab, looking at each strip of paper, manually type in measurements two different places, and then import that data into a modeling program. Rinse and repeat about 200 times. (I'm measuring coal thickness from well logs.) Not a highly mentally taxing activity but a pain.

My idea didn't pan out.

Then Honu-girl showed me a way to do the measuring in the modeling program and it does all the figurin' for me and will store the data in the places I designate. This particular program isn't perfect - some bits could be better, needs some others, some are just awkward to use.... (once or twice I've wanted to go up to the programmers and slap 'em silly) but this particular tool/window has been a godsend for me. (and I haven't run up against any annoying quirks, yet.)

Thank you, Honu-Girl. You are wonderful. You saved me.

Wow, am I lucky!

I thought my family was crazy but these two, Evan at Mutant Babies (formerly of Atheist's Wager) and Female Science Professor have shown me they could be much worse.

Thank you Mom and Dad for raising us so that by the time we were out of our teens we, mostly, didn't resort to petty fighting. (Wish I could say you are still setting a good example but the whole thing with Pat is just silly on both sides.) And for raising us so that we would never suggest throwing a glass of cold water in a toddlers face to calm him down. I doubt there is a parent of a grown child out there who never wanted to do something similar to his child at some point but at least we wouldn't suggest anyone else do it and wouldn't actually do it. Particularly to a 1-yr old.

Thank you for teaching me that I could do and be anything I wanted. I never doubted that I could be a geologist. I'll also take the liberty of thanking you on behalf of my sister-in-laws (present and former) for teaching my brothers how to wash clothes, do dishes, pick up after themselves, and cook. They may not be primarily responsible for these household chores but they do know how to and can help out.

FSP's family is so different than mine. I'm a little amazed she is a science professor coming from a family with such rigid gender roles. What her family must think of her and her husband's life?!? I sometimes forget how wonderful my family is. When we get together, everybody is in and out of the kitchen, fixing food, cleaning up, playing with little ones,...no


I don't know how deeply entrenched the gender roles in FSP's family or if she was encouraged by her family much in school but I'd like to tell you about my family. I had a shirt when I was little that said "Girls can do anything" and they made sure I knew it.

Mom's father, Paw Paw, had a hard time with Granny working (A man-of-his-position's wife volunteers and plays bridge, she does not work.) but he always supported my mom. When she went to college, she assumed she'd be a teacher (the other option was nurse, and WOW do you not want my mother to be your nurse). Even though she was married and had kids her parent's encouraged her in her education. When she realized school teacher was not her calling and went to graduate school, Paw Paw couldn't have been prouder, I'm sure. I know he was proud when she got the appointment at UAB. When she and her first husband separated and then divorced, he always supported her. (Of course he also thought Mom had hung the moon.) He never took me to see the trains. He took Pat, even though he'd been retired for several years. But I was a girl and why would I want to go see his trains? Still, he believed I could be anything. (Paw Paw thought the sun rose and set in my eyes, which is OK since I thought same about him. Hell, he thought that about all of four of his grandkids, his daughter, and wife.)

I don't know where my dad learned to be such a good man (Grandpa died when I was 3) but he is. He treats me like I'm still 12, but he's pretty good. He was even a stay at home Dad for awhile. As soon as I discovered geology he was all for it. If I'd wanted to study slugs, he'd have been right there, too. My brothers and sister, of course, have always encouraged me and are proud of me, their sister the scientist.

I don't know where I'd be without them.

That sucked.

While not on the same level as recent sucky events in my life - this evening sucked!

I was feeling a little crappy towards the end of the work day. As I started to drive home I debated go straight home or go to my ballroom dancing class (rumba part 2). I stopped at McDonald's to get a soda (no Tums in the car) and decided I would go. Class will be fun, I'll be around people, and it should be a nice distraction.

At class we start out lined up on opposite sides of the gym to learn and practice steps apart then we pair up and dance to practice together. First the teacher went over what we did last week, then she put on the music. Damn, if the guy who can't count to four walked over to me*. "It's OK", I thought, "I've got last week's steps down pretty well, maybe I will actually help him learn them better." So after three and a half minutes of not being lead around the floor, except to do outside turns instead of inside ones, I figure I've done my time and he'll dance with some other unaccompanied lady next time. NO SUCH LUCK.

So, now we learn the steps for the quick underarm turn. I missed some of the instruction to call Mom back but got back in there to get the steps. Cue music. I stand there and pray that one of the helpers will come grab me and whisk me off so I can actually practice the move. No. Can't-Count makes a bee-line for me. I only get a few decent turns in, with some help from the instructor's assistant. End of that song, or two, I say to the other single ladies as we line back up "OK, someone else's turn next time." They just kind of laugh it off. (We've commented to one another before about how bad this guy is.) We learn the cross-over break steps. I don't have as good a grip on these for some reason and keep getting my feet backwards. Guess who I got to dance with to practice these steps. That's right and I now have no f-in' clue how to do it right. When the music stopped, the teacher said for us to keep dancing (we had another 5 minutes or so) and she'd continue to walk around and check up on us. "Practice all the steps you've learned. Put them together." Whoopee. I told Can't-Count I had to leave.

Meanwhile my stomach feels about as good as it did when I arrived (really need to get some Tums). And my mood has most definitely not improved. In fact, when she said to just keep dancing I was about ready to cry. Once in the car I got mad; it was that or cry and it is really hard to drive and cry at the same time. (I know, I've done it bunches.)

So, now I get home upset, hungry, and with massive indigestion. And my home smells like shit. At first I can't see why, so I start to think "great my house just smells like poo now." (Honey had diarrhea a couple weeks ago and today is the first really humid day since) But the smell is awful strong to just be lingering. Then I see that she has had a mild bout of the runs. I don't yell (she can't help it if she's sick.) but I do put her outside while I clean it up to prevent my seething at her. Then I notice that there is a large puddle on the floor, too. That I yell at her for. I still haven't made up to her yet. She is looking very pitiful (and hungry) over there. I guess that that bread was moldy; couldn't tell after she pulled it off the counter and ate it (my fault, I forgot to put it up).

I'm feeling slightly better now that I have ranted to all of you on the Internet. Thank you.

*Quick note about dance class attendance with respect to gender: very few single men come. There are, usually, three guys without partners (tonight 2) and at least five girls most weeks. Gentlemen who are unaccompanied are suppose to make sure that all the ladies get to dance and not monopolize one lady (this goes for actual dances, too). Additionally, there are several of gentlemen from the intermediate class, who come to the beginning class to even out the sexes. Tonight there were two helper-dancers.

Open Letter

I'm going to have this letter sent to a service man/woman but thought I'd post it as an open letter, too, so more people can read it. It's not very long.

Dear Soldier,

Thank you. Thank you for volunteering to serve our country. Thank you for all the sacrifices you make. Thank you for serving whenever and wherever called. Mostly just - thank you.

Please know that despite my misgivings about the war in Iraq, I support you and your comrades. Despite my disappointment at the actions of some individuals, I am proud of you and our military. America may be divided about the current war but it is (almost) unanimous in its support of military personnel.

You are all in my thoughts and I pray that you will come home safe and soon.

There is a lot more I could say but that pretty well sums it up.