Gosh, okay, it's been almost three years since I'd written anything...THREE! That's a long time. So I guess I'll catch you up with a few bullet points:
- So remember that guy I fell in love with? And I was really happy that I was washing dishes while he was in the next room? The one who likes to have his back scratched? Jason Aldean? Yeah, I married him. About 2 months ago, actually. He's pretty awesome. I'll probably blog about our wedding day some other day. But he's cool...you'd like him (if you were into dry humor, sarcasm, and Canadians). My family from France, Singapore, Switzerland all made it to the wedding. Not only was it the happiest day of my life because Adam and I made vows to love and care for each other for the rest of our lives, but because our families and friends came from so far away to be with us. Needless to say, I cried that entire day.
- I left academia...yes, it's true, I left my second postdoc, and joined the dark side. I am now a Scientist in Quality Control (QC) at BioMarin Pharmaceutical, a pharmaceutical company that provides enzyme replacement therapies for rare diseases. My job in a nutshell? I run the Special Studies group within QC. What that means is that my group is responsible for investigating the impact to product quality caused by manufacturing process deviations, troubleshoot assays, and anticipate when our drugs would go bad (aka forced degradation studies). I run a small but mighty team of 4 employees, and this summer, I added on two interns who have their own independent projects. So yeah --my work life is a bit busy these days with 6 employees who report to me, and I responsible for assessing the quality of our drugs when something deviates from the norm.
- I am back at the wheel...the pottery wheel, that is. As soon as I joined the dark side (read: when I transitioned from academic research to the corporate world), I started to make enough money to pay back my loans, travel, AND join a pottery studio again! WOW! I supplement my studio fees by washing the windows at the studio once or twice a month...I couldn't be happier. For our wedding, I made 100+ little pots as party favors for the guests. I thoroughly enjoyed the project, and I think our guests did as well.
- Oh! We got cats! Two, actually! Whiskey and Caesar...brothers from the same litter. We got them actually in January of 2013...they were 4 months old when we adopted them from the SPCA in San Francisco. They are the funniest, sweetest, most affectionate and social, fluffiest roommates either of us ever had. We are still crazy about them.
- I got into two car accidents within 1 month, recently. The first time, somebody hit me from behind. The second time, I hit somebody from behind. Guess what? They both happened at the same intersection, for the same reason. Needless to say, I started taking a different route to work --turns out, my new route shaves almost 5 minutes off of my 37 minutes commute. I'd say that's the silver lining in the increase of my insurance rate that will be happening in October.
- Adam and I went backpacking for the first time about a month ago. It was our first trip as a married couple. I think it changed my life. And I think it strengthened our relationship. What I learned on the trip? My husband needs new hiking shoes, and I cannot climb over fallen logs to save my life. But we did experience the best sunset of our lives over the granite mountains of the Trinity Alps Wilderness.
- We also went to Italy last summer, where we became engaged. I've made up my mind --Italy is where I want to retire --preferably the town of Orvieto, which has got the best melon gelato, and my favorite memory of our trip, when Adam proposed in the moonlight.
I guess the fact that I chose these 7 updates to include in my return indicates that these are the most important happenings in my life right now. I am also guessing that I will have more to say about each...maybe I'll try to blog regularly again.
Until next time, keep looking forward.
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| Our cottage (to the right) overlooking the Umbria countryside in Orvieto, Italy. The town wall there, outside our cottage, is where Adam proposed. |
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| Our tour of the Coliseum in Rome, Italy. |
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| Sunset over Caribou Lakes in the Trinity Alps, our first backpacking trip as husband and wife. |
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| Drs. Adam and Khanh Courtney...at the General's Residence at Fort Mason in San Francisco |
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| I will always love you, Adam Courtney. |
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| Pots. All the little pretty party favor pots. |
Wedding photographs by: C Wagner Photography (Cherlyn Wagner)
Our first song: Ed Sheeran - Perfect
