I love Gmail, but...

At 10:58pm, promptly when I sat down at my computer to take a break from invitation-making, a little Gmail chat box popped up on the screen from my PI, asking to send a file with some data I recently collected. The timing was so exact as to when I touched my laptop, it errily seems as though he was sitting there staring at the screen, waiting for my little dot to go from orange to green.

While waiting for my data to magically transfer to his computer via the internets, he stated:
"what did we do before little green dots and gmail chat??"

Is "not harass graduate students during their few precious hours outside of the lab" a valid answer to that question?


It's fantastic to have a PI who is so excited about data and who always wants to be involved in the lab (rather than the PIs of other labs, who never set foot in the lab and only wanted to hear about data at weekly meetings), but talking science and experiments late at night is not conducive to falling asleep, as once I re-start my brain and think about experiments, it takes a few hours to shut it back off. Looks like, just like the past few nights, I may as well just stay up another 3 or 4 hours and work on the invitations, rather than try to fall asleep and wind up having experiment nightmares.

A Frivolous Post

My first committee meeting is coming up soon.... tomorrow, to be exact. If you think this means I am diligently working on my PowerPoint, papers and experiment write-ups spread across my desk, well then clearly... you don't know me very well. Ha. I have a rough-draft of my presentation put together in PowerPoint already, so I am way ahead of the game by my standards! The best presentations I have ever given (as judged by the reaction of my audience and my PI, who says things like 'Wow! That was the best presentation you have ever given!') have literally all been put together within 5 hours of the presentation itself. Last minute is absolutely my thing. So with the bulk of the presentation already set, and T-20 hours until the meeting, I am all about procrastination.
If you're here looking for some insightful, intelligent, science-related discussion, you are dismissed. But if you love shoe porn, read on, because this post is all about my favorite thing in life: shoes. I love shoes. Love shoes. As in, if I'm having a craptacular day in the lab, I'll head straight to BerdorfGoodman.com's online shoe salon and stare dreamily at the Louboutins. Yes, I'm serious. Someone tell me I'm not the only one?
Ahem. That said, my fiance is now on a first-name basis with the UPS man because of the number of shoes I've had delivered to the condo as of late. Within the past 3 business days, 22 (yes, twenty two) pairs of shoes have come through my door, and a few more are on the way. No, I'm not opening my own shoe salon out of my walk-in closet... I need to find a shoe to wear for my wedding, and I have to have them before I go for my first dress fitting, so the dress can be properly hemmed.

I am looking for the following in a pair of wedding shoes:

1. Ideal heel height between 2.5" and 3.25". I am banned from wearing heels more than 3" in the presence of my fiance, lest I tower over him a la Katie Holmes, but I can get away with that extra quarter inch because he'll get some lift out of his tux shoes and still manage to be the half-inch minimum taller than me. I would love to go for the highest heels possible, but I think with being on my feet for hours and hours and hours, something closer to 2.5" is probably the way to go.
2. Leaning towards closed-toe, but sandals of substance are also considered. I love me some hot hot strappy sandals, but nothing beats a classic, closed toe shoe for a wedding. And under no circumstances are peep-toes allowed. Not only do I find them a little funny looking, but they hurt my toes like none other.
3. White, silver, or blue in color. The wedding colors are black and white, so I was originally only looking at white shoes. Then I decided to branch into silver, since it is an accent color at the wedding, and I thought post-wedding I would get more wear out of silver shoes. But, since my favorite color is blue, my bridesmaids are carrying blue hydrangeas, and I'm supposed to wear something blue apparently, I thought perhaps a blue shoe is in order.

Without further ado, the front-runners in the shoe-lection (the rest of the 22 pairs have already been returned).

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Nine West Juliarae Sandal, 3.25" heel, $79.95 on endless.com

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Touch Up Tia Pump, 2" heel, $56.95 on endless.com

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Mikala Steffan Slingback, 3" heel, $179.95 down to $125.97 on endless.com

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Anne Klein New York Ccianna Two-Piece Evening Pump, 3.25" heel, $354.95 on endless.com

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ABS by Allen Schwartz Atom Two Piece Pump, 3.5" heel, $119.95 on endless.com


Stuart Weitzman Duchess d'orsay pumps, 2.5" heel, $285.00 on sale for $96.89 on bluefly.com


Stuart Weitzman Temptress, 2.5" heel, $199.00 on sale for $67.99 on bluefly.com


Stuart Weitzman Kiss pump, 4" heel, $225.00 on sale for $76.49.

Okay, faithful readers -- the polls are open. Vote for the shoe that should grace my feet (and remain hidden under my dress and not noticed by anyone else) on my big day. Or, if you're ambitious, go out and find me something even better -- suggestions ALWAYS accepted (hey, someone has to keep UPS in business!).

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