Dream Job - Can it Be?!

Hello my loves! Hope y'all are enjoying your labor day weekend! So instead of going to the football game (which the stadium isn't on campus!!!), I decided to catch y'all up on "Life as a PlantPath Girl." Since classes started, I found a few clubs/orgs to join which hopefully help make me feel at home. Raleigh still feels impermanent even though I'm settled in. It's hard feeling like everywhere you live isn't permanent! In 334 days I'll be kicked out of my current place and do the whole move-in dance again. Hopefully it will be only one more move whilst I'm in grad school!! Then - one big big big move to wherever my future dream job takes me!! Silver lining, maybe?

It's a compliment

So, before I get onto the heavy stuff (dream job?!), I have  to tell y'all about the clubs and orgs I joined. Most importantly, I joined a suicide prevention organization. In a week and a half, I have a Question, Persuade, Refer training where I will be a certified suicide prevention gatekeeper. This basically means that I'll be able to recognize a crisis and the warning signs that someone might be contemplating suicide, give them hope and direction where to go for help. So happy that NCSU offers training on such a serious issue. I also found Service Raleigh which is a group of volunteers that do projects around Raleigh. I'm hoping to get involved with urban gardens and get the little kiddos excited about how to grow their own food! Third, I joined the Competitive Rock Climbing Club!! I will be training two or three times a week to work on my climbing endurance, agility, and techniques. Then of course I will be putting them to the test in competitions! Hopefully I place on the medal board but if not, that's totally fine! As long as I'm having fun, I don't care if I win or lose :) Finally, I will be joining the PPGSA - Plant Pathology Graduate Student Association. A few times throughout the year, they do workshops with kids at museums and get them excited about agriculture, plant pathogens, bugs and the like. That is right up my alley - I'm all about getting kids excited!!

Bethel Heights Vineyard

Dream Job. Found it. Now comes the hard part. Step One: get in contact with the appropriate person at the dream job. Step Two: convince them I am the perfect candidate for the position. Step Three: keep in contact with them during the next 3 semesters of graduate school. Step Four: do the whole grad school thing. Step Five: officially apply to the position next year. Step Six: present my thesis and all that stuff that is required of me to graduate. Step Seven: get the position at my dream job. Step Eight: walk across the stage and grab my empty diploma case. Step Nine: move to the appropriate location for this dream job. Step Ten: get the official Master's Degree. Step Eleven: start working at my dream job. Step Twelve: ENJOY MY LIFE AND DREAM JOB
***I'm sure it will go exactly like this because the world is so predictable***

Yamhill Valley Vineyards

Wait, what is this dream job? Well, it involves plants and diseases. Perfect - that's exactly what I'm studying and researching! I guess we can give this job the title of: Plant Pathologist. This job also involves viticulture. The location: McMinnville, Oregon: Yamhill Valley Vineyards. Isn't that just funny - I've always wanted to go to Oregon! Have no fear, if Yamhill Valley Vineyards doesn't work out, there are over 300 vineyards in the Willamette Valley :)

David Hill Vineyard

Elk Cove Vineyard

Knudsen Vineyard

Secret Garden Inn (Willamette Valley Vineyards)

Bella Vida Vineyard

WALT Vineyards

Do I Look Like I'm 17 or Something?

Hello my loves! Y'all are having hotter weather than I am! It was 60 when I woke up this morning and it will barely push into the 80s as a high today. I'm pretty sure Madison is getting up to 97...what is going on with this weather?! Have no fear, I still get sunburned through 60 spf! By the way, I have the best news ever. Want to hear? I know you do!

Anna will be back in 125 more days!!!!

There is an ocean between our cities but not our hearts.

Love love love love this one!!

So yes, that is very exciting news. If there was a way to switch up the tectonic plate movement, I would do it. Instead of making the Atlantic bigger, I want England and North Carolina to be a mere kayak trip away. Since I have nothing better to do with my life I decided to calculate the distance from Raleigh to Shaftesbury. I am 6128.27 km (3807.93 miles) away from Anna. Madison to Shaftesbury is 6290.65 km (3908.83 miles). So after moving 956 miles, I only gained a mere 100.90 miles. BUT I am one time zone closer! Ha, trying to group skype with Anna and Kiley is quite interesting since we are in 3 time zones :) I can't wait until we are all in Madison together!

Excuse the red eye - we all have our eyes open and are smiling. That's a hard photo to come by!

And this is why I miss them soooooooooo much!! 

Halloween 2011. I was a high-class drug dealer, Ky is meth, and Anna is the school girl I sold meth to. We pretty much just wanted to wear cute dresses and be our normal selves.

So classes. If they keep up the rate they are going at - I might as well be an undergrad at Madison all over again. So I'm pretty sure there are about 5 universities that have Phytopathology as an undergrad major: UW Madison, Ohio State, and maybe one is Cali...most are Hort, Botany, Plant Sciences, Plant Biology or something that's not Phytopathology. Anyways, my point is that my graduate classes are pretty much repeats of my undergrad classes. I guess I'm pretty damn lucky to have gone to UW-Madison!! 

Too Bad Huh?

Besides extracting DNA from mycelia, going to classes, reading, running, lifting, people asking if I'm a freshman, and getting in shape for rock climbing I'm not really doing anything. Actually, that's a lie. I daydream a lot. I like to pretend I'm on The Terrace in Madison with my all my friends. If I could take the whole city of Madison and put it in place of Raleigh, that would be fantastic! I'm missing a college and pedestrian/biker friendly city!! Lakeshore Path I miss you!!!

As much of an adrenaline junkie I am, facing death every time I run is getting old. So is the honking of horns and "shout-outs" at me - there is nothing attractive about sweat-soaked clothes, blistered/callused feet, stinky shoes, hair wet with sweat that is falling out of a hair tie, red faced, sucking wind girl. Unless you want to go on a run with me (my choice of pace, distance, and route), give me a good 45 minutes to stretch, drink an equivalent of a lake, shower, eat - I can assure you I look much better afterwards. Great advice huh? Oh I'm full of great advice. Just ask and I'm guaranteed to come up with some idiotic remark. There's some quote about being "young and stupid." I can assure you I'm not as young and stupid as I used to be - BUT I am still pretty young and pretty darn stupid. Oh speaking of stupidity:

We caught Drew smiling!!

This kind of explains our friendship :)

At the graduate student orientation at NCSU, Dr. Bryce Lane from Horticultural Science gave an inspirational talk on "What Does It Take to be a Successful Graduate Student." Words of advice from a doctor: DO SOMETHING STUPID EVERY DAY.  I usually accomplish that by 9 in the morning. For example: Calling someone in Idaho because I don't know how to use my phone; getting on the wrong bus; locking myself out of the lab with my keys inside the lab; forgetting my GPS and getting lost; or forgetting to turn the oven on and wonder why my food is taking so long to cook. DO SOMETHING STUPID EVERY DAY. It's what makes life fun and interesting. Bye!!!

It doesn't even matter that half of us have our eyes closed!

"Summer" Has Ended

In a mere 2 days, I start my academic career as a graduate student! I'm so excited I can't even describe it! As y'all know, I've been working (playing with fungal structures) in the Carbone and Payne labs for almost 2 months now. My first project is still on hold - harvest is in 3 weeks. Not to fear my dear, I have a second project. It has to with molecular genomics, crossing strains of Aspergillus to find a sterile sclerotia that we can use as the next generation biological control...that starts tomorrow. I'm the furthest thing from a molecular fungal geneticist but hey, I'm getting paid to go to school so there is no room for complaining on my part. "Summer" may have ended academically, but I don't think that Sun got the memo :)

“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.”  -Marilyn Monroe

Anyways, there was a get together on Saturday to welcome the incoming grad students to the department. Got to say - it's a pretty awesome group! I also found a person who runs just as much as I do (and way more) so that's always a good sign for me!! On the other hand, I have two orientations before classes start on Wednesday. First and foremost, tomorrow morning is the departmental orientation. Tuesday is the whole graduate school orientation. I'm not really sure what the difference is but I guess I'll let y'all know in time.

I am not a plant geek. Not even close. Sorry for the misleading "Life as a PlantPath Girl"

Then Wednesday...the big day! Ha, kidding. It's just classes - the best benefit of having a degree in Plant Pathology from Madison is that I have a really strong background in my field and can skip all the "This is a plant pathogen that makes plants sick!" stuff and launch into the in-depth information. As much as an easy semester would be nice, I want a challenge and to learn something cool. After all, NCSU has to compete with Madison and I took some of the most amazing and eye-opening classes at Madison. I know I've joined The Pack and all but I have Badger blood and I'm 100% certain that no matter how hard they try to make me a Wolfpack fan...I'll always be a Badger at heart! Anyways, my classes are looking pretty standard for first semester:

PP 501 - Biology of Plant Pathogens

PP 502 - Plant Diseases: Methods and Diagnoses

PP 506 - Epidemiology and Plant Disease Control (seems the most promising to be my favorite since I'm working on biocontrols)

PHI 816 - Research Ethics

Hopefully next semester I can take the Permaculture course and Tropical Plant Pathology :)

"Love is not an emotion. It is your very existence." 
— His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

"Silence is sometimes the best answer" 
—His Holiness the Dalai Lama XIV

 BEST NEWS EVER: ANNA IS COMING BACK TO THE USA!!!!! I KNOW IT'S OVER FOUR MONTHS AWAY BUT I'M SO EXCITED!!! ALL I CAN SAY IS THANK GOODNESS FOR SKYPE :)  

Hills, Sprints, Ladders, Loops, Out 'n' Backs, Trail

Hello my beautifuls! First and most importantly, my little brother turned 18 today! So I guess I should say, "Happy birthday Kiddo!" Mom and Dad, how does it feel that your two babies are officially adults? I bet y'all feel like you're in your early 30s and not a day older! So I think I'm finally adjusted to the climate in Raleigh - just another day of 90s and humidity! No worries, I'm not going to turn into a wimp and wear full winter gear when it hits 60F. 

I know I may have posted this video before...but watch it again. When people ask why I'm studying an Environmental Science - this is my answer. To me, this is one of the most powerful videos I have ever seen. This is my passion and you can say all sorts of things like "that job doesn't pay as well as mine" "why do you even bother? that means nothing to me!" "Earth was made for us to use whatever we want however we want" "that's stupid" or "my job means more than your job" but you will never get me to stop doing what I'm doing. In other words, my job means more to me than mansions, fancy cars, and diamond rings. I rather live in a shack, bike everywhere, and do what I love than have any of the above while having a job I hate. So here, take a few minutes and see the world through the eyes of Megan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGeXdv-uPaw&list=FLUgCRXsNJb0nq3YWEvuYpPg&index=12

Here is another video about why I choose to go into agriculture. Everything starts with the Earth and then goes through a farmer. Take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd7IsWPyd6A 
and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48H7zOQrX3U.
Here's a plant pathology one. 

Alright, so all y'all who ask what Plant Pathology is why the heck I want to pursue a career in this - just look at this. I will help feed the world. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzTE3StOHlQ

So besides paying bills and rolling mycelia into balls, I've been running and running and running and running and reading and running and running. Have some pictures to help get your butt off that chair and put yourself into motion. As the physicists say: "A body in motion tends to stay in motion" (I'm pretty sure that's a slogan for some arthritis medication as well!). Any takers?

So this isn't a running one but great nonetheless.

Meditation while running: compassion

PlantPath Girl or Border Collie?

NEVER STOP RUNNING. -NIKE