So they say with age comes wisdom...

...but in some cases, age comes alone. Sigh. I turned 28 this week and I do hope I've learned something over the years! Soon I will have my Ph.D. for what it's worth. Ok, it will be worth A LOT :) I still don't have anything finalized but I'm planning to defend my thesis in October and move to the bay area towards the end of the month. Everything's happening so fast it's a little scary....although it did take 5 YEARS to get to this point.

I'm a little disheartened b/c I don't think I will meet all of my project goals. I just hit a pretty major snag. One of my products is not formed at physiological pH and yeast are not happy under alkaline conditions, not to mention the function of my other enzymes. I have a lot of ideas to work around this but nothing that will be completely worked out in <2 months. But it's pretty much been settled that I will be done without any stipulations of, "IF A, B, and C work..."

There's not much other news. Branden and I went to the Europa a few weeks ago since he was working the VPX booth. My parents and aunt came to have lunch with us so that was really nice. I'm very lucky that my family is so supportive. They don't mind that I have big muscles and a big black boyfriend!

So one other thing I wanted to mention. I should be doing a nationals preview video for the women with Ruth Silverman of Ironman. It's mainly to generate hype for the show but I like to have the best intel possible. If you or someone you know is expected to be a top contender, please email me (kristy_hawkins@hotmail.com); it helps if you've done a previous contest covered by graphicmuscle.com so they can easily pull photos. And Lord help us with figure!

MSNBC and NCB

So the MSNBC documentary "HOOKED: Muscle Women" featuring myself, Colette Nelson, and another female bodybuilder aired last night for the first time. I wasn't able to watch the show myself but have gotten a lot of positive feedback. It will continue to run this week so if you happen to catch it, let me know what you think. Branden said they introduced us as people first before discussing any of the things that could be viewed as negatives or stereotypes. From what I heard, the psychologist actually backed up one of the points I wanted to get across---that we ALL have insecurities when it comes to body image. It has taken me years to get to the point where, when I look in the mirror, I am overwhelming happy with what I see. How many women can say that? So it doesn't bother me when people ask, "why do you want to look like that?" because I'm proud of what I've accomplished...and yes, it does take a lot of work and dedication. Of course, it is addicting and like anything taken to the extreme, can become detrimental when it gets to the point where someone cannot be a functioning member of society. However, the show clearly showed 3 women who are not only functional, but exceptional people. And just because we don't go out drinking on the weekends, doesn't mean we don't have an active social life!

Some other exciting news--my paper was finally published online today in Nature Chemical Biology http://www.nature.com/nchembio/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nchembio.105.html. Check out the feature on Nature News as well http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080810/full/news.2008.1031.html. The cover art for the September issue will also be highlighting my work so I'm very pleased with how everything turned out. We had champagne in the lab today to celebrate and I should be defending my thesis in October as planned. I actually had a little scare last week when I realized I was a few credits shy of the requirements. At one point I thought I was going to have to take 21 units next term but I had some biochem credits transferred from Texas A&M that were more than enough to finish my biology minor. Whew! Those of you who know me probably noticed I stopped taking classes like 4 years ago without really knowing the requirements (Caltech kinda hides that info from us). But I managed to scrounge up some hours so (hopefully) I'm in the clear!

Vegas vacation

So last weekend was the USA bodybuilding championship in Vegas. A HUGE congrats to Holly Geersen for taking 2nd in the heavyweights. Holly and I have been good friends for about 5 years now and I was just beyond excited for her--she looked fantastic. I'm so jealous of her legs!! I was also screaming my head off for Kris Murrell, Chris Sabo, Karen Choat, and Claire O'Connell who all had excellent top 5 showings. Oh, and I'm a new fan of LW winner Rita Rae. It makes me very excited about some of the upcoming female pros in this sport. Isabelle in particular will be some tough competition for all of us!!

On the men's side, my boyfriend Branden Ray finished 2nd in the LHW class. He was conditioned and dry but just lacked some of the detail that the more seasoned competitors displayed. Standing next to the best guys in the country really lets you know what you need to work on. But we give each other so much support and motivation that we will both be fierce next year lol!

I ended up staying in Vegas a few extra days while he was doing shoots. We had some time at night to walk along the strip, ride the roller coaster at NY, NY and go to a comedy club--that's one of our favorite things to do. I didn't want to leave :( But eventually I had to come back and finish my experiments. I can't believe I missed the earthquake while I was driving back! When I got home, stuff had fallen out of the kitchen cabinets and my TV and trophies fell off the shelf but no real damage occurred near here.

OK, I'm trying to finish up tonight. I've been working sooo late...but I can also sleep late most of the time so it works out. Some kinda cool news--my paper will be featured as the theme for the cover art of Nature Chem Bio in September along with a special news and views highlighting the work. So I guess everything worked out after all :)