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Planes and Plagues

Husbands are good for a few things* and getting their wives sick is one of them. A few weeks ago Jason brought home a lovely virus and kindly shared it with me. But not only did that boy give me his germs, he gave them to me just as we were about to leave for Mississippi to visit my grandparents. His perfect timing amazes me. He very rarely gets ill but when he does it’s inevitably right before we are scheduled to go on a trip. How does he do it?

My body is tough and usually does a truly fantastic job of fighting off bugs but because I was wrestling with this infection as I was hopping airplanes and keeping unusual schedules it got a good hold on me. Luckily, while I was at my grandparents’ it was still gathering momentum so I felt relatively decent during our stay. My voice became little more than a squeak as I struggled to speak loudly for the hard of hearing and at night I had a constant itch in my throat that made sleeping a hopeless task but that was the extent of my symptoms until the day we were leaving the South. That’s when our short plane ride made my little menace unmanageable.

Since I was starting to feel congested the day of our return trip, I took some decongestant before we boarded our jet as a precautionary measure. My preventative efforts didn’t prevent much. Our direct flight was only three hours long but it felt never-ending as I was simultaneously plugged up and running everywhere. My sinuses stubbornly refused to respond to the change in air pressure and their unrelieved blockage gave me the strange and uncomfortable sensation that someone was sitting on top of my head. I was not alone in my suffering; practically everyone on the plane seemed to be in no better shape. There were orphaned tissues lying in the isle and many passengers seemed to be undertaking an unspoken coughing competition. There are few things worse than sitting next to someone on a flight that coughs in your face the whole time so I refused to join the ranks of the rude hackers. With some concentrated efforts I stifled all of my coughs and sneezes throughout the ride, which didn’t exactly add to my feelings of wellbeing.

The second I laid down I would start coughing uncontrollably so Jason constructed this mound of pillows to keep me upright while I slept. It wasn't super comfy but it did help me rest much better. These ridiculous pillows are the reason I decided to post about my illness; they still make me laugh.

My dignity and politeness lasted through the flight but by the time I got home the snot gates had opened wide. At that point I was beyond completely miserable and I literally had a steady stream of watery mucus shooting out of my nose. I wish I could say that becoming a booger geyser was the low point of my sickness and that things just improved from there but alas, that was not the case. It took two more weeks, and many nights of sporadic sleeping mingled with coughing spells, for me to fully recover.

The moral of this story? Planes and respiratory infections do not go together well and apparently husbands and restful trips don’t either.

By the way, Jason got better just as I was starting to get sick so he was in excellent shape for our trip. Good for him.

*I fully acknowledge that husbands are also good for opening jars, reaching high shelves, killing spiders, fixing computers, tying snowboarding boots, and carrying heavy groceries.

Rachel March 15, 2011 2 Comments

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
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