Interview with ScientistMother

A little while ago, I was “interviewed” by ScientistMother. She got to ask me any 5 questions, so here goes!

1. Do you ever get annoyed at husbands inability to cook / learn to cook?
On a regular, typical day when we are both working – no. I cook, he cleans the kitchen afterward; we both contribute, so that’s what matters. But the question is if I ever get annoyed, and the answer to that would be yes. The occasional time when Husband is off – be it during his two weeks of vacation he had in January when he was completely off, or the occasional clinic month when he works very few hours, or the beginning of next week when he has a break in ER shifts and will not be working Monday – Wednesday – but I continue to go into the lab, I find it frustrating that he refuses to help out at all in the kitchen. When he is pulling long hours, I offer to clean the kitchen and help him out, so it always makes me sad that even when I do ask for help with dinner, he won’t pull through. Now, in all fairness, he will do basic things – like, if I call ahead of time and ask him to take something out of the freezer to defrost it, or put a pot of water on the stove to boil it, he will do that, but he absolutely, positive, will not cook an actual meal. If I’m really going to be home late and beg and plead, he gives me two options – oatmeal, or peanut butter and jelly. And he flat out refuses to try to learn to cook. I am legitimately concerned when we eventually have children that if I am not home every night at dinner time, they will either starve to death, or wind up 200 pounds before their 10th birthday because they will be eating pizza and fast food 3 meals/day.

2. Do you regret starting your PhD?
I think the answer to this question changes on a daily basis. As I eluded to earlier, there was some pretty ugly things that went down previously, and for about a three week period, I really, truly, absolutely regretted getting involved, but even then, I cannot say that I regret the Ph.D. in particular, because I could have a completely different experience in a different lab at a different university. I do, in all honesty, think that there are other things that would make me happier… but I don’t know if I would feel as passionate about them as I do about science. Day in and day out, what I do frustrates me, annoys me, and I often don’t like it…. but talking about the big picture of what I am doing truly EXCITES me. I can’t think of any other field that would spark that kind of emotion.

3. What would you be doing if you didn't go into science?
I would probably be in law school… ever since I was a wee three years of age, everyone I know declared that I was going to go to law school (I was an opinionated, argumentative, logical tot). Throughout junior high and high school, all my non-science teachers pushed me towards law school, but (unfortunately perhaps?) the science teachers latched on and pushed harder, and the guilt set in – they made me feel like it was my obligation to society to go into research. Honestly, though don’t tell my PI as I am kind of afraid to bring it up and admit it, I’m still considering going to law school when I am done with graduate school and going into biotech patent law – Husband would be SO happy (it’s what he’s said I should do from the day I met him, AND it would make us just like the Huckstables, with him as a doctor and me as a lawyer, so it would be like his dream come true).

4. What would a perfect dinner be?
This is a surprisingly tough question – as much as I cook, I honestly don’t really like food all that much. I tend to get bored with it very quickly; a few bites of something, and I’m generally over it. Plus, the migraine medication I am on now makes my tongue feel like it is coated with chalk, so everything tastes relatively repulsive. Because I tire of food quickly, my favorite style of food is tapas – I love the idea of lots of little plates – so my two favorite restaurants in D.C. are Jaleo (Spanish tapas) and Zaytinya (Greek/Mediterranean tapas), both restaurants of José Andrés. So I suppose a perfect dinner for me would be anything prepared by José Andrés!
As far as something I make myself, my absolutely most favorite dinner I could possibly make for myself would include crab-stuffed mushrooms, cheddar cheese risotto, steamed asparagus, and roasted pearl onions. Unfortunately for me, my husband isn’t crazy about the crab-stuffed mushrooms, LOATHES asparagus (his least favorite vegetable and my favorite; he has banned them from our household), and will not eat onions on their own, they have to be mixed in with something. So, my perfect dinner likely will not happen in reality – or perhaps, once Husband moves away, I’ll splurge and make myself a huge feast one night!

5. If you could invite any person (living or dead) for dinner, who would you invite?
Martha Stewart. But first, I’d need to find a way to magically drain her brain of all her crafty ideas to steal for myself, because THAT is really what I want to do for a living – build an entire empire based off of crafting, cooking, gardening, and entertaining. I would drop science in a hot second to do what she does (minus that whole insider trading snafu). Perhaps I’d call my brand “The Social Scientist.”

That’s it, folks. Thanks to ScientistMother for the interview, and if anyone would like me to ask you a few questions of my own, just leave a comment, and I’ll be sure to think up some fun questions for you!