Cold Spring Harbor Labs, truly in the Rolls Royce category when it comes to research facilities wants to move beyond the microscope, beyond the omics and take their science to human subjects. That's science speak for it's time to see how our observations in the lab may help persons diagnosed with cancer. That's also science speak for, this is exciting.
Yes, I get it. I'm a science geek and I've stated on more than one occasion, I don't know precisely how or when this happened. I do remember gagging in the hallway in my sophomore year in high school when the smell of the formaldehyde or whatever they used back in the day to preserve those frogs and earthworms was wafting through the biology wing of my rather large suburban school.
I'm not a fan of frogs or worms but having that small scalpel placed in my hand was not for me. Just because I don't care for these creatures didn't mean I was ready to start digging around their insides. I may have excused myself for an extended bathroom break. I may have taken a zero for the dissecting unit in tenth grade biology. I'm not sure.
Today, everything is different and a few days ago, CSHL joined forces with the largest hospital consortium in this area, North Shore LIJ. I may not be a fan of NSLIJ as it was in one of their hospitals that I was dismissed as the idiot with the big mouth back in October. Maybe they will find their way back into my good graces.
I love the title in Genome Web.
CSHL, North Shore LIJ Pact Marries Omics Research, Clinical Oncology to Speed Rx Discovery.
I'll be attending the Annual AACR meeting in about ten days. The scientist <--> survivor program is one that is filled with many projects and as fate would have it, the group I am part of was assigned questions about "omics" -- genomics, epigenomics, proteomics.
Maybe I should take a ride down the road to get a leg up on this omics stuff before I hit Philadelphia?
Maybe, I should think about getting that poster prepared?
Maybe I should practice my oral presentation?
Maybe I should think about every other damn deadline that seems to be hanging over my head at the moment?
Or, MAYBE..... just maybe.... I'm going to have a bit of a celebration as I watch that thunderclap go live at 3PM Eastern as METAvivor launches their Sea to Sea campaign.
Followed immediately by a conference call after which I will hop into my car and head in the direction of Sloan Kettering to assist with a seminar on blogging. That seminar, being offered by the Visible Ink Program is the hook upon which everything else in my life hangs.
Without Visible Ink, there is no blog. Without this blog, there is not advocacy. Without the advocacy, there is no meeting, no volunteering and no passion for research and science and clinical trials and everything else that has come my way.
Maybe, instead of feeling like I'm a hamster in a wheel, I'm going to take a deep breath, allowing the air to bathe me in gratitude.
Life has been kinda sucky. But I'm putting the sucky parts in a box for now. When I tie up all of these obligations, I'll let the bitch session begin. Trust me, it's gonna be good.
Right now, it's time to keep laughing..... and to share what has now become one of my favorite in real life moments EVER. It's Upstate AnnMarie, Stupid Dumb Breast Cancer and me. Laughing til we almost fell over!
And then remembering we had to get our acts together to speak at an event together just a short time later:
And maybe that's just barely scratching the surface of what I'm forgetting about... and maybe that's why this blog isn't getting updated nearly as frequently as it should.
But maybe, I AM right where I belong.
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