sorry I haven't posted in so long. the new job has been pretty busy, and a lot has been going on.
JP, bummer that you're not coming out in August. October will have to do. Ween is supposed to start touring in October, so I will keep my finger to the pulse and maybe your visit will coincide with a show. how cool would that be!!!!
C, regarding your bday celebration (possible): I am going to be in Syracuse, NY with work the 19th to the 20th doing control assessments (more on that later), and was considering flying into a NY airport Saturday afternoon to be with you on your bday on Sunday. it would actually be cheaper (my boss, dr. price, will love that!) and a shorter trip for me than flying to philly from Syracuse and taking a train to see you. that would be fun. if that's okay with you I will book it and let you know my schedule. I will check you amazon.com wishlist - I hope you've updated it. I did update mine.
Dad, I heard you guys had a good weekend in Hanover. Just couldn't do another trip so soon after my canada trip and moving. the house is coming along though, just got a new stove and the bathroom is almost done. we put up curtains too, and there's something about window fixtures that make a house feel more like a home. pictures should come soon! I need to get off my butt and take some.
my job in a nutshell:
I am a research coordinator on a genetics study of obesity at Penn. we are studying how gene regions affect body weight (there is definitely not just one gene involved). our main focus is big family study that has been going on for something like 10 years, with hundreds of families all over the country. the families have to have a child who is overweight (40 BMI +), a parent who is regular weight (28 BMI and -) and a parent with any weight. brothers and sisters can be added to the study if one is 27 BMI or lower, and one 30 BMI and above (33 BMI for african american families). I will be going to florida to assess several families in the upcoming months, along with some other trips, once I get to trained to do the athropotmetric measurements and the body fat indices, etc. I wasn't supposed to be doing any traveling at all, but the traveling research coordinator is leaving and will only be doing some traveling part time (she is moving to syracuse) so I will be picking up the slack. unfortunately it looks like we have mostly southern states coming up for recruitment, so now cool travel destinations any time soon.
how do we get our families? we get mailing lists from magazines and just send letters to everyone on the list, outlining the study and offering for them to contact us. we send out 1000s of letters a week.
we also have "controls," the counterbalance to the varying weights families. thin women (BMI of 25 or below). we are doing an assessment in syracuse in august (as mentioned above), and one in Lancaster, August 9th and 1oth, so I'll be in your neck o' the woods, dad. we might have to meet up for dinner.
teh assessment are the same for families and controls: we do the height and weight measurements, they fill out a survey, and we draw blood. our lab does the genetic blueprinting and we get measurements of lipids, cholestrol, etc from another lab.
that's the basic run down. I am going to have a different job than I thought I would, which is okay.
all from me, am at work and need to get back to talking to really overweight people, or really skinny people.
love,
H
- posted by H @ 7/21/2005 04:14:00 PM