Wow, so it's been a while. Sorry for the radio silence! This year has been quite busy for me. I spent all of the spring semester completing my master's thesis, entitled "Fermentative Production of Short-Chain Fatty Acids and Methyl Ketones in Escherichia coli." It was a huge endeavor and the longest paper I've ever written. I can't believe that I ever struggled with 4 page papers in high school. My thesis was 76 pages! I defended in April and passed, and commencement was in May. So I'm officially a Master of Science! Graduate school is probably the hardest thing I have done so far, but the payoff was worth it.
My family visited me for graduation and we went to the Botanical Gardens in Madison. I will try to post the pictures soon. It was a huge place with large outdoor gardens and I really liked it. I could have spent an entire day there. At the end of our vacation we all went to Chicago and saw The Who on their current tour.
Thankfully, after I got back from vacation I was able to get in touch with a recruiter at Aerotek Scientific and they were able to help me find a job. I've been at my new position for about a month now and I enjoy it. I'm a Pharmaceutical Quality Control technician now at a veterinary company in Des Moines. It's very different from working in a biology lab. It's essentially analytical chemistry and there is a whole load of paperwork and very specific rules about everything because it's quality control. I've adjusted pretty well so far and I like the job itself. Commuting does suck though so next year I am planning on trying to move closer.
My garden is still growing. No harvests yet so I don't have anything to show off, but I can probably harvest some basil and lemon balm soon. There are lots of green tomatoes so I'm just waiting on them to finish growing and ripen!
