Work, Travel, Work: A busy month

I've been busy.  Work got pretty exciting, and then I went on vacation.

The vacation was built around friends' wedding.  Since it was in Pennsylvania, I really made the most of my trip.

First, I spent two days in Pittsburgh, during which time I hung out with family: my mom, my grandmother, and my niece, as well as my aunt and sister, as much as the short time allowed.  We went to the zoo, and I watched the first episode of this amazing Turkish drama on Netflix that my grandmother is into (it's called Kurt Seyit ve Şura, you're welcome).  I also met up with two high school friend's for dinner, and in one case tennis.  It was like what a child imagines grown-up life is like.

Then, after about 48 hours of compressed bonding in Pittsburgh, I drove up to Erie with Jack, my mom, and my sister.  We biked along the beach, and hung out on the beach, and saw the new Mr. Rogers documentary, "Won't You Be My Neighbor".  I'd give it a B: it was surprisingly mild as a documentary, but it served its purpose in contrasting the values we all claim to hold against the rare man who actually strove to live them.

Then, as quickly as it started, my second vacation of the vacation ended, and the third began.  My sister and mother dropped Jack and I off at a motel 40 minutes north-east of Erie in a town creatively named in the style of a tired gamemaster as North East.  I attended the wedding of two dear friends, and afterwards went on a camping trip in Allegheny Forest.

They came to Los Angeles to participate in my wedding two years ago, and we went camping in Joshua Tree.  If this is a common wedding tradition, I wasn't aware of it, but I like it.

The wedding was lovely, and the camping trip was tranquil, and then I headed home.

Back at work, I've been trying hard to bio-print living cells.  I'll go into further detail in an upcoming post, but the short version is that I've been developing our lab's protocols for 3D printing cell-laden gels.  This is an emerging technology that is either the next big hotness or the latest over-hyped Silicon Valley fad.  It's totally wild, though, and it's a great feeling to go into work believing that the work you're doing is unique and valuable.

Here is a time-lapse of the setup and party Marge, Zeke, and their families (now family) threw the night before the wedding:


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