I was given the unique opportunity to present and join a discussion panel at OIS in Chicago last week. So despite having planned to skip ASRS this year, and despite having packed clinics before and after the conference, I decided to take the whirlwind trip to the Windy City. After closing out charts and emails on Wednesday, I took a shower in our clinic building and filled on beef noodle soup before boarding my red-eye to ORD. I arrived just after 5am, which gave me time to settle in the hotel lobby to change, charge up, and practice my talk. Following my solo breakfast at Wildberry, I was relieved to find familiar faces at the industry-driven conference, and even got a chance to catch up with my friend Dan at Michelin-starred Entente over mediocre short ribs before flying back. This weekend, we ventured briefly to McKinley Park to welcome the new residents and fellows, but between Melody feeling ill from near-heat stroke and Westley’s mysterious fever, we relaxed at home for the rest of the weekend taking out “bad guys” in AC Odyssey with our new gaming mouse. 

Since returning from our trip, we’ve tried to catch up on TV shows including new seasons of Black Mirror, Stranger Things, and Big Little Lies. We had little time to relax, however, as we had to host our year-end gathering for my retina division just 2 days after getting back. With another Costco run, we fired up the grill for burgers and shrimp skewers, threw in a quiche and salads, and finished with Haagen-Daz bars to celebrate the incoming and outgoing fellows. Even Westley played host and took our fellow Joel’s daughter up to play in his toy kitchen. On July 4th, we sampled dim sum at busy Well Season in Elk Grove, then celebrated at the “Swimsuits & Sparklers” event at the Davis Community Pool. Our $10 tickets gave us access to the pool area to swim with Westley, munch on hot dogs and fruits, and enjoy front-row seats to the spectacular fireworks display that might have been too loud for his 3-year-old eardrums. Despite having to stay past his bedtime, he quickly recovered by the weekend to help me shop Ikea furniture for my new lab office, share ribeye and prime ribs at Cattlemen’s, and meet an old family friend from HK whose son is starting college at Davis. This past weekend, we browsed several local bike shops in search for a bike for me, but ended up with one for Westley off Craigslist. We had to drive to El Dorado Hills to pick it up, and we took the opportunity to check out keyboards and mice at Best Buy and get ripped off at Fat’s Asian Bistro. Back in lab, my new junior specialist and summer student helped me re-organize the lab office and assemble the new furniture. I was relieved to find out that my R21 was successfully funded by the NEI, which brought an end to the string of paper and grant rejections this year. With many new projects and personnel changes in my lab this summer, I’ve got my fingers crossed for the upcoming months.