5/2/06
Hey, guess what, my ancestors were immigrants too. Only they moved to America completely uninvited and killed most of the indigenous people with both conventional and biological weapons.
4/22/06
Ohhh... I've lost my will to be productive at all. You would think this would not happen when a person was only taking THIRTY-SIX UNITS.
4/11/06 Adam: I love you more than I love my airplanes. If there were a volcano, I would definitely save you first. Me: Yeah, but how long would you have to think about it? Adam: It would be pretty instantaneous. I'd want to save you with as much time as possible left over to go save the airplanes.
4/7/06 Things I heard at CPW this year:
1. "Are you Mollie? The Mollie?"
2. "You single-handedly convinced me to choose MIT over Stanford."
3. "You look way hotter in person."
3/20/06 Next steps: graduating from MIT with two bachelors degrees, attending Harvard Medical School's PhD program, moving to MIT family housing with Adam, living la vida grad student. And more excited about it than I could ever say.
3/12/06 Lisa makes my day via email: "Mollie, how do you manage to be active in the community, super-cheerleader, total cutie pie, and nerdy-uber-scientist all at once?"
3/6/06
Done with interviews! No more traveling! ...wait, does that mean I actually have to decide on a PhD program now?
2/21/06
Jack Sprat, modern day version: Adam eats all the rye chip Chex Mix, I eat all the bagel chips... and betwixt the two of us, we eat the whole bag.
2/5/06
Professor Wolfe is using my sleep statistics this term when he talks about sleep in 9.00. I am embarassingly gleeful about this state of affairs.
1/30/06 You got into Harvard?
What, like it's hard?
1/29/06
[Adam and I discuss problems with manned spaceflight.]
Adam: Well, a big problem is that it's dangerous -- something like 5% of astronauts have died on missions.
Me: Yeah, but that's comparable to the death rate of soldiers in recent wars, and we still do that.
Adam: Maybe we should declare war on the moon.
1/24/06
Um, yeah, so if you're looking for me until the end of March, and it's a weekend, odds are I'm at an interview. Odds are also good that I'm out of the state.
1/19/06 Although I am hesitant to give myself a punchline in my own profile, I think this says a lot about my mental makeup.
[Jason]: best revenge is living well, right?
[Me]: and beating them at something.
1/18/06
Me, worried: I read somewhere that couples that have sex at least twice a week report having happier relationships.
Adam: Yeah. And no jobs.
1/17/06 What cheerleaders talk about at basketball games:
1. [Crowd chants "Air-ball" while a player from the opposing team prepares to shoot a free throw.] Isa: "Ug-ly."
2. [Robin notices that the girls cheering are almost maximally diverse -- African-American, Asian, blonde Caucasian, brunette Caucasian, Hispanic, and Filipina.] Morgan: "Whoa, we look like a movie!"
3. [A player is knocked to the ground, leaving a large sweaty spot on the ground.] Me: "That isn't a foul, that is foul!"
1/8/06
Back in Boston for a virtual repeat of IAP 2k5: Lab work. Reading. Cheerleading. PE class. Watching the boyfriend win shiny ski medals.
12/20/05
Me: Honey, don't chew on that cardboard.
Adam, with a large chunk of cardboard hanging out of his mouth: I'm a llama!
12/16/05 Vacation, coming soon to a Mollie near you:
Dec 23 - Dec 29 -- Ohio
Dec 27 - Jan 2 -- Rose Bowl Parade, California
Jan 2 - Jan 8 -- Adam's condo in Maine
Jan 9 - Feb 5 -- Working at the lab for IAP
12/8/05 Actual conversation between me and Akhil, sophomore year:
[Me]: go 7.05!
[Akhil]: give me a 7!
[Me]: SEVEN!!!!
[Akhil]: Give me an OH
[Me]: HYDROXYL!!!!
[Akhil]: give me a 5'
[Me]: FIVE PRIME EXONUCLEASE!!!!
[Akhil]: yeah... good night
12/5/05
I highly suspect that the only thing that gets me out of bed on cold winter mornings is my illegal space heater.
12/1/05 A problem that should be on my 5.60 test:
Please calculate the reaction constant k for the reaction Mollie ---> burnout. What is the half-life of this reaction? Will the reaction go to completion before the end of this semester?
11/30/05
All my grad school apps are in! Now the waiting game begins...
11/14/05 PSA to Ohio folks: No, I'm not coming home for Thanksgiving this year. I'll be spending Turkey Day with the pilgrims in Plymouth ("the 1620", as the natives call it) -- you would too, if plane tickets to get home cost $500
10/26/05 5.60 professor Hamad-Schifferli: "With these equations, we are going to demystify entropy."
Pfft. You don't need to demystify entropy to me, lady. Any obsessive-compulsive understands entropy.
Adam, writing a HASS paper: "What the fuck. Is this the Massachusetts Institute of Anthropology? Stop wasting my time."
10/20/05
I showed Mark and Dave the video of "Naughty Baby" from the musical my senior year of HS, and they were like "Whoa! We didn't know you could sing." What a difference four years makes...
10/13/05 Scary: I read somewhere that there are 168 hours in the week, and it seriously blew my mind. I was like, "How can there only be 168 hours in the week, when I spend 80+ of them on school and school-related stuff?" And then I realized that's probably why I'm so tired all of the time.
Why am I like the only person who comes up when you search Google Blogs for biology grad school? Am I the only one who cares?!?
10/8/05
What's with all these people who were too cool to talk to me in high school friending me on Facebook? Is it because I'm an MIT cheerleader? ...or is it just because they're Facebook friend whores?
10/1/05
Between the two of us (and if you count my UROP as a class), my base partner and I are taking 147 units this term. We're mental oxen as well as physical ones!
9/28/05 Grad schools to which I am applying, final list:
BU, Caltech, Harvard, Michigan, Stanford, UC-Berkeley, UCLA, UCSF
So stressed. You don't even know.
9/22/05 Things I don't do as a senior that I used to do as a freshman:
1. Eat lunch in the cafeteria (hello, that's what class is for)
2. Stay up until 4 AM. Ever.
3. Have free time.
4. Cry about boys.
5. Procrastinate.
9/12/05 From my UROP professor, who doesn't give praise lightly:
"We value your contributions highly. Keep up the good work. -Morgan"
It's the little things that make my day.
9/7/05
[The cheerleaders discuss annoying teacher's pets who sit in the front row of lectures.]
Jiang Wei: Sometimes I sit in the front row. But it's only when my hair looks totally hot, so people can say, "Damn, look how totally hot that girl's hair is!"
9/1/05 Fall 05: 5.60, 7.31, 9.15, 21A.100, 21A.260, UROPing 15 hours/week, blogging for the Admissions Office, cheerleading, and applying to grad school.
Am I a masochist, or just crazy? Your pick.
8/25/05
[Adam and I discuss a course 16 kid who is missing in Washington state.]
Adam: That sucks. To make it through Unified and then die?
8/21/05
"There are one hundred and ninety-three living species of monkeys and apes. One hundred and ninety-two of them are covered with hair. The exception is a naked ape self-named Homo sapiens. This unusual and highly successful species spends a great deal of time examining his higher motives and an equal amount of time studiously ignoring his fundamental ones." -Desmond Morris, The Naked Ape
8/13/05
We're moved in! Come visit me and Adam in the D-Entry Two-Man of Awesomeness.
7/25/05
The back-to-school commercials need to stop. It is not back-to-school time yet.
7/19/05
I got a better score on the GRE than I did on the SAT. I'm pretty sure, given the design and purpose of each of those two tests, that's not supposed to happen.
7/12/05
Adam: This one time I put soda in my thermos. It exploded.
Me: What! Why?
Adam [oh-so-innocently]: Because I shook it.
7/7/05
People say that "love means never having to say you're sorry." Pardon? In my experience, love means always having to say you're sorry.
7/5/05 This is my family
Row 1: Adam's cousin Kevin, Adam's dad Lee, my brother, my mom
Row 2: My dad, me, Adam, Adam's mom Kathy
7/1/05
Humor from my grad school information search: "Being a good researcher involves more than merely coming up with brilliant ideas and implementing them. Most researchers spend the majority of their time reading papers, discussing ideas with colleagues, writing and revising papers, or staring blankly into space."
6/28/05
Recently I've encountered the stereotype that all MIT students do is work and that we never have any fun. Hello? I thought the work was the fun part.
This weekend: My family and Adam's family spend quality time together eating hot dogs, flying RC airplanes, and watching fireworks. Heaven help us all...
6/22/05
I'm turning into a very good cook... other than that little, um, "incident" with the fireball and the smoke alarm...
6/20/05
I love the shampoo commercials that brag about how the shampoo contains "amino proteins." Umm... yes... and just what else would you propose that the proteins could possibly be made of?
6/13/05
I am happy to report that rooms with air conditioners harbor fewer microorganisms than rooms without
6/9/05
Me: Everybody I know has an ethnic identity. They all have ancestors who came from somewhere cool.
My mom, earnestly: Your grandfather came from Indiana!
6/8/05
Mmkay, whose idea was it to put all the Macgregor summer residents in A-Entry... then replace both of the elevators in a process that is going to take all summer? Not so brilliant.
6/3/05
Somehow I managed to get a sunburn in the, like, 10 minutes I was outside eating lunch on Friday. Trying not to get skin cancer is a hopeless endeavor for me, I think.
5/26/05
You know you're a lucky SOB when the protein you pull out of a yeast two-hybrid just happens to be involved in a process on which your PI is one of the world's experts.
5/22/05
Come visit me and Adam in our "living room" (A322) and "bedroom" (A323). Lots of room is good for a change...
5/12/05
I'm getting authorship on an abstract at the Society for Neuroscience conference! And authorship on a paper in a major journal! And perhaps admission into grad school?
On the menu for this summer: 40(+, of course) hours a week at the lab, studying for the GREs, filling out grad school apps, relaxing -- hey, as far as I'm concerned, 50-hour weeks are a vacation compared to the 80-hour weeks I've been having this term
4/30/05
[Note: I hate being licked. It's gross.]
Me, trying to be sexy: If you could do anything you wanted to me, what would you do?
Adam: Handcuff you to the bed. And then lick you until you went insane.
4/23/05
If dancing around a molecular biology laboratory in a sundress humming "I Enjoy Being a Girl" is wrong, then I don't want to be right
4/16/05
Auto response from [Me]: Doing my laundry and Adam's laundry like a good little wife
[Adam]: best little wife in the whole world
4/13/05
You know your own bodily welfare has ceased to be an important concern when...
Rachel: Hey, how are you doing?
Me, puzzled: Um... [long pause] I don't really know... I haven't thought about it recently.
4/7/05
I'm getting published!!! My postdoc is submitting our paper (for which I am listed as an author) to Cell... I'll let you know when you can search for me on Pubmed
4/2/05
Best part of the cheerleading competition, hands down: doing the Beaver Call in front of all the other college teams... and not caring that it's dorky^n
3/28/05
Come see the MIT cheerleading exhibition at 3 pm on the Saturday of CPW! Thrills! Chills! Lots of aching muscles and tons of nasty-looking bruises!
3/23/05
I registered to take the GREs this summer! Applying to grad school is scary.
3/17/05
From The Tech, 1995
[To impersonate an MIT upperclassman] you need to have the right demeanor. Your expression should reflect maturity, wisdom, and a deeper understanding of the world, while maintaining the dazed apathy characteristic of an overworked beaver. If you need help, drink about 5 cups of coffee and then run to Wellesley and back. That should give you the right flavor.
3/14/05
I'm at least reasonably sure that 90+ inches is TOO MUCH SNOW FOR ONE WINTER.
3/11/05
My "I'm officially an MIT student" moment of the week: I realized I can name more Athena printers than Renaissance painters.
I think I have finally perfected the five-minute lunch.
3/6/05
Spring Break 05: Adam and Mollie hit the Big Apple... and we're staying in the freaking Waldorf-Astoria!!!
3/5/05
In reference to my habit of working in lab too much:
[Swapna]: you do realize you're just a grad student without the stipend
2/28/05
My latest music jag: songs about the way love really is, not just the way it is in the movies
2/25/05
Good news: this crazy semester is making me lose mad weight
Bad news: I suspect all the weight I've lost has been from my brain
2/22/05
Best thing ever: Tired and hungry, I call Adam to beg him to make tomato soup and grilled cheese for dinner, but his phone is busy... because he's calling me to ask if I want tomato soup and grilled cheese for dinner
2/21/05
If you are my facebook friend, Brittnay totally thinks you're hot!
[Brittnay]: ok, what's the deal. i was stalking you on facebook and looking through your MIT friends, and every single person on that list was gorgeous.
2/16/05
Is it weird that I find most of the new music I love from googling the music my friends have in their profiles?
2/14/05 I should eat lunch with Seve more often.
Me: I'm the most terrible girlfriend in the world.
Seve: But you're pretty, so it's okay!
2/11/05 This is why I am a workaholic.
[In lab at 7 PM on a Friday night, I comment that, as an undergraduate, I should have better things to do than be in lab.]
Teru, a postdoc, very incredulously: Better things than research?
2/9/05
My grandma got me a Dooney and Bourke bag for my birthday! Now if only I were fashionable enough to have somewhere to use it...
2/7/05
Slamming one's finger in a car door is a very bad idea.
2/4/05
Already somewhat overwhelmed by my 72-unit semester... I predict that my inevitable demise will occur by the second week of March
1/31/05
My boyfriend just got a job that pays him in airplanes. Good thing they don't pay course 7 majors in DNA...
Ready or not, I guess it's time to go back to classes... 7.02, 7.06, 7.345, 9.URG, 21A.216, and 24.900, here I come!
1/25/05
Best part of the 29 or so inches of snow Boston has received in the past week, hands down: postdoc snowball fight
1/18/05
Today I saw a large brown rat outside building 68. Now, if I were a rat, I would not choose to live right next to the bio building. Do you think a bunch of MIT biologists are going to have any compunctions whatsoever about chopping off some rat's head?
1/16/05
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute's motto (and at the moment apparently mine): Vita Per Scientam
Why am I busier during IAP than I am during term? Isn't this supposed to be a month of relaxation or something?
1/9/05
My big strong athlete boyfriend cried while watching Charlotte's Web. I think this fact is going to help me win arguments for the next thirty or so years:
Adam: [insert argument here]
Me: You cried at Charlotte's Web!!!
1/8/05
The iPod should be marketed as a personal heating device... it certainly makes the long walk back to MacGregor less windy and freezing
1/2/05
Back in Boston for an IAP full of lab work, cheerleading, and watching my boyfriend do flips on skis