It's not a game... it's a lifestyle

After a few weeks of repos, hockey heated up for me this weekend. My ice hockey team (MsFits) participated in the annual Boomerang tourney and my winter ball hockey team (the Grrrz) had the championship game on the line. Schedules clashing is common for me, but I have a rule that certain teams get priority. So I missed one tournament game in lieu for the championship game on Sunday (sorry MsFits, but you understand...).


The annual Boomer tourney is one of the best tournaments I've participated in ever. This is my 3rd time playing in this tourney and eventhough my team has yet to win a single match in 3 years, it's still tons of fun. Every year the tourney has a different theme. My first year it was "Pirates of the Boomer" with swashbuckle theme everywhere. The refs were all decked out as Capt Jack Sparrow. We joked that some of the refs wore two eye patches at the same time with some "questionable" calls. Last year was "Budda-Bing-Budda-Boomer" with 1920s gangster theme. Refs this time around were of the Al Capone variety. This year was "SuperBoomer" with superheroines everywhere. There was definitely a bunch of "Ka-POWs", "SMACKs" and "ZAPs!!" on the ice with the hockey action. Asides from the good hockey, it's also for a good cause as proceeds from this tourney go towards city Art Therapy centres which uses art as part of the recovery process for cancer patients. In the 8 years of this tournament, they've raised over $14,000. Pretty sweet for a group of 18 women to organize such a thing!

So three games of ice hockey, followed with one winter ball hockey match to decide the city league champion. The Grrrz faced this team countless of times successfully but we were shocked when they owned us in the playoffs. This time around we made sure not to take anything for granted and my team put the pressure on for the entire game, player on player, no one giving up any pass, just go and get'em. It was a hard hitting game, but in the end we took home the (invisible) cup! Congrats Grrrz!


So end of hockey? Nope. Next week is the start of Summer Ball Hockey (definitely circle of life feeling). This time, I'm back in the MsFits net as they have a team for this league. But so does the Grrrz. So I'm switching teams and face the same group of women that I just won the Winter league cup with. That's one thing I've come to like about being involved with women's hockey: you meet a large group of women whom you become fast friends no matter which side of the line you're on. Sure there's always the odd chickie who gets her feathers ruffled, but overall it's about sport camaraderie more so than individual teams. I think this sport for women is important regardless of what some IOC president may feel about the program. My life has been deeply enriched these past 4 years playing with this hockey family.

During the tournament, we were treated to music between faceoffs... making the game feel more professional plus it gets everyone in a lively mood. One song that always gets me pumped is the Wiseguys' "Start the commotion". Ciao folks!

No joke!

So then, a lil' MIA but I'm back for updates.

News! News! News! After much thought and afterthought and afterafterthought, I decided to accept a post-doc position in the current lab I've been working in for the past 8 months. Yep, starting today I'm no longer a "tech" but have the privilege title of post doctoral fellow. Sounds snappy? Well the name is probably the only prestige thing. Funny thing about working in the sciences, you have to remind everyone who isn't in the science field that we do this for interest, not money. After 14 years of post 2ndary education, you'd think I'd land a high paid job. Nope, a PDF is not even an actual job. It's a trainee position. That's right. I'm a trainee, just like you see in the supermarket cashiers, the lil' labels under the name tag. Supposedly those labels are for your info to excuse any mistakes they so happen to make a mistake OR that they flip through the rolodex trying to find what's the number key for kumquats. So why a PDF? What's the point? It's for the long term career plans. If you want to do something with a PhD, you should have a few PDF years on the resume. It's just the way things work.

Aside from switching job titles, today marked the official move of the newest post-docs (moi and another PDF) into newly designated space for the vaccine project we're working on. It's not brand new lab space, but rather a former lab that recently retired. For the past month I've been actively cleaning out this old lab to make way for our project. It's been interesting with the things we've found during this cleanup. There's a few vials of unidentifiable things. Being an old microbiology lab, you never know truly if it's safe to chuck... or autoclave it.

We're sharing the lab space with a teaching lab course which has some interesting equipment. This photo is one example, it's kinda creepy. If you're wondering what they are, it's light source boxes for microscopes. Still, I dunno... creepy.

It's Easter weekend, I'm heading back to my old stomping grounds. Enjoy the weekend folks!