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Expanding Your Horizons

Whoever said one thing leads to another must have been a genius. A month ago a trio of board members from the Society of Cosmetic Chemists, including myself, gave a presentation to a group of chemistry students at UVU. A professor in the audience approached me afterward about giving a similar lecture to a bunch of teenage girls at some sort of Saturday shindig. Although she was mainly interested in me presenting to these adolescents, she did mention that the guys could tag along if they’d like. Since I didn’t really understand the particulars of this girly symposium I didn’t want to go get myself all committed to it quite yet so I just told her to send an email to us about it and we’d see what we could do.

What a nerdy pair!

It turns out that she was talking about Expanding Your Horizons, an annual conference sponsored by UVU. This conference is typically attended by approximately 600 girls in the 6th through 12th grades from all over Utah and the surrounding states. Its purpose is to show these young ladies the many awesome career options available to them in the fields of science and math and give them the confidence to envision themselves as scientists. These girls basically spend a Saturday morning going to three hour-long lectures of their choice; about 50 topics are available and all are presented by professional women.

Lecturing was actually fun with such a captivated audience.
Some of the girls wanted to know more about food science. I was happy to oblige them.

Once I sorted out the details of my requested conscription I was happy to volunteer. Education was a big deal in my family. My dad encouraged all of his kids to go to college and get a useful science degree; the girls were treated no differently than the boys in this. So I grew up with the conviction that I could do anything and I was happy to pass that self-belief on by mentoring these teens but I really didn’t want to be in charge of 3 hours of talking and demos all by myself. Only one fellow board member volunteered to endure reverse gender bias and lecture with me: Aaron the chapter chair. He and I modified our presentation to be more suitable for this age group and as interactive as possible. There was lotion making, fragrance sniffing, and, for our grand finale, we let the kids fragrance their own lotion samples to take home.

Practically all of the girls wanted to be Aaron's lotion assistant. When he'd ask for a volunteer nearly all the hands in the room would shoot up.

The result? The girls loved it! Each of our classes was completely full and we didn’t have any disruptive students, although we were warned to expect some. They all seemed enthralled by the subject matter and, with 30+ fragrance options, our lotion customization thrilled them almost as much as Justin Bieber. The enthusiasm of these young ladies was contagious and gratifying. They looked to their future careers with an eagerness that few of us even faintly echo as we drag ourselves out of bed for work each morning.

The girls were crazy about making a super smelly lotion all their own.

Presenting at Expanding Your Horizons was a great experience and our influence on these students was obvious. I heard many of them commenting to their friends afterward that they wanted to be a food scientist or a fragrance chemist. I inspired some soon-to-be scientific rock stars, validated the coolness of my career choice, and created some good karma-not bad for a Saturday morning.

Rachel March 10, 2011 No Comments

Southern Hospitality

I only have one set of grandparents still living and their home is deep in the heart of rural Mississippi. They used to travel across the country every year to visit their grandkids here in Utah; it was a much anticipated reunion. Unfortunately, my sweet grandpa suffered a stroke last summer so driving thousands of miles isn’t in the cards for him right now. Since they couldn’t come to us, and we hadn’t been down to Mississippi for four or five years, we decided it was definitely time we paid them a visit.

It was so nice outside that we decided to relocate our card game to the backyard. After moths of relentless Utah winter I couldn’t get enough of that sweet southern sunshine.

We didn’t “do” much while we were in the South. We spent most of our vacation chatting, going on walks, playing cards, watching movies, and eating. But doing “nothing” with my grandparents was a pleasure, especially with a warm sun shining overhead. The weather was extremely pleasant the whole time we were down there, even by Mississippi standards. I couldn’t resist wearing shorts even though my legs are currently a shade so pale they almost look lavender.

Part of my grandparents’ 5 acres is covered by a dense forest. It takes some persistent efforts on their part to keep that wilderness at bay.

Those of you who haven’t visited the Deep South may not fully appreciate just how different the culture is there. Complete strangers wave at you as you drive by them or stop for a chat as they drive by you, trailer houses are almost as common as non-portable homes, time seems nonexistent because no one pays attention to it, English sounds very foreign and sometimes it’s undecipherable, practically everything is fried, even the tiniest of towns seem to contain innumerable churches, and everyone’s enormous yards look like they are in constant danger of being reclaimed by the dense woods bordering them.

My grandparent’s took us to their favorite restaurant: The Pickle Barrel. There we ate a variety of fried fare including my favorites: catfish and hushpuppies.

It’s a unique place with a flavor and heritage all its own. Speaking of flavor…the South is all that when it comes to catfish, hushpuppies, cornbread, or carrot cake topped with fresh pecans from the yard. Those southerners know how to cook and I know how to eat so we get along alright.

It was an overdue visit and I’m so glad we finally made it down. Mississippi may not the center of sophistication but it’s home to some pretty fantastic grandparents and some pretty fantastic catfish.

Rachel March 3, 2011 No Comments

Haters Beware

Valentine’s Day: is any holiday as simultaneously loved and hated? I think not. Valentine’s Day makes some giddy with anticipation and others overcome with dread. Its advocates love the gushing cheesiness and cliché romance it embodies. Its loathers despise all of thee above or they despise that their partner expects all of thee above from them on this day even if they are content with far less the rest of the time.

Jason brought these beautiful flowers to my work on Valentine's Day. All my coworkers were jealous that they didn't have a Jason to spoil them.

This year, instead of going on my usual tirade about how I hate Valentine’s Day haters, I am going to simply write about, in a very drawn-out manner, what made my valentine’s as spectacular as it always is. This will be as good of an explanation for why I am no hater as any. Because, although my holiday may have been stuffed with more cheese than a block of Velveeta, it was fun, it was romantic, it was full of expected surprises. It was everything Valentine’s Day should be.

I wrapped Jason's presents in the cutest wrapping paper. I'm not entirely sure he properly appreciated their cuteness.

It was Jason’s turn to plan out Valentine’s Day celebration this year. He isn’t the party organizing machine I am but he does alright for himself. He came up with a three-pronged plan for our festivities. The first part of the plan involved going out to dinner with our friends the Rowleys and the Ashleys to a new place in Salt Lake City called The Copper Onion. This restaurant’s niche is locally sourced food that is turned into made from scratch deliciousness. I very much enjoyed the beef stroganoff I ordered. How can you go wrong with fresh made noodles? And surprisingly, The Copper Onion was very economical. Dinner and deserts for both me and Jason only set us back $50.

Pago was scrumptious but I still can't figure out what the name refers to.

Part deux of Jason’s Valentine’s Day strategy had a very similar plot to part one. Another new restaurant specializing in local offerings was involved but this time the dinning was at a place called Pago and no friends were invited. V-Day dinner numbero dos was also yummy, pricier, but still yummy and spending some one-on-one time with my muy fantastico hubby was grand.

The adorable dress I wore to the dance came from my shopping spree in New York City. Good thing I decided to spend way to much money out there.

The last of our Valentine’s Day partying actually happened on the actual holiday. We went with our friends Dan and Raquel, and some of their acquaintances, to a dinner dance at Thanksgiving Point. I am a sucka for the dance floor so I was stoked about getting a chance to boogie. The food at the dance was decent but not noteworthy. However, the live band was terrific and the setting was lovely. I would recommend this event to anyone wanting to do something romantic on Valentine’s Day without having to fight the restaurant crowds; it always sells out though so make sure you plan ahead.

I gave Jason a new snowboard for Valentine's Day. He was totally shocked and so excited about it that he couldn't fall asleep that night.

Jason and I had another great love day but that’s not surprising; the two of us have a blast doing pretty much anything together. And those of you under the impression that I did all of the V-Day receiving and none of the giving are mistaken. I made sure Jason was bombarded by random flashy deliveries at work, a cookie bouquet and chocolate covered strawberries, because everyone needs some Valentine’s Day spousal embarrassment. His love was also effectively bought with lots of presents, including a new snowboard. So all you haters can ram that cheese right down your throats!

Rachel February 26, 2011 No Comments
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