Settling in

Sometimes it's amazing how easy it is for people to settle into a new life. I suddenly find myself married, in a new town, two months into a Ph. D program studying plasmids that a year ago I didn't even know exist. At the moment I don't feel like I'm in the process of adjusting to a new stage of my life, but by all rights that's exactly where I'm at. In keeping up with Jenni's blogs and reading about all the exciting changes that she and her family are going through I finally decided that maybe the best way to hold onto the excitement that life holds is to immortalize it through writting. If nothing else it will give me a break from all the science and labwork!

So I guess I'll lay some groundwork with the basics:

• I'm happily married as of June 21st, 2008 to a wonderful husband who is currently working as a care-giver and studying to be an EMT. That should come in handy as I seem to break easily, especially when he, his grandmother, and tennis are involved...
• I now live in the cute little college town of Moscow, Idaho in an apartment that is much bigger than the dorm rooms or trailer that Ryan and I are used to. We even have a dishwasher and a library! What more could a girl ask for?
• I'm hoping to eventually gain a Ph. D in biology here at the U of I studying bacterial plasmids. The idea is that bacteria have the DNA that makes them bacteria (chromosomal DNA that codes for all the processes and protiens that allow it to survive, grow, reproduce, etc.) and sometimes they also have plasmids (other DNA that can often give the bacteria special traits, such as antibiotic resistance) that can often be transferred from one bacterium to another. In the case of my research I'm interested in those plasmids that can be passed from one type of bacteria to a different type of bacteria altogether (like from E. coli to Salmonnella). These kinds of plasmids (called broad host range plasmids) play a huge role in the spread of antibiotic resistance that has so many of us worried about the future effectivness of certain medications...but more on this later...
• I've started fencing again! It's been a long time since I've really gotten to fence or be a fencing student, and I've missed it! I'd forgotten how energizing it is, and after a long day in the lab it's just what I need!
  

That's the quick and dirty outline of the world of Julie Hughes, née Nichols, but there will be more updates later!