I just realized that I totally neglected to tell you all about an incident that happened to me in Chicago last week, that, had it occurred in the company of anyone but close friends, would have been the most embarrassing moment of my life.

So I fly in to Chicago very early last Monday morning, after having only slept a few hours. My good friend who I would be staying with picks me up and we have a blast hanging out all day. Fast forward to midnight, and my friends start watching the movie Pulp Fiction in their dining room. Understandably, I'm worn out, so I lay down on their couch, thinking I'll fall asleep to the sound of the movie. I'm in the living room, which is attached to the dining room but separated by the bar/sink/counter portion of the kitchen. That may sound vague, but basically I was around the corner from the computer on which they were watching the movie.

In the middle of the night I wake up, fairly disoriented, but 100% sure that I am hearing hushed male voices outside of the window of the dining room. The voices are saying something to the effect of "Let's break in there and kill him" and "You ready to break the glass?" My heart starts racing, and in my groggy state I grab my phone off of the coffee table and run to the opposite side of the room, where there are stairs leading upstairs. As I run up the stairs, I'm dialing 911.

I enter one of the rooms upstairs, where the sister of one of my friends happens to be sleeping. As I talk to the police on the phone, trying to blurt out that there is a break-in in progress, I look out the window to see if I can see anybody outside of the downstairs window. I can't, but I figure they've already broken in, because I can hear the voices below us. I go to the door of the room I'm in and brace myself against it. Of course, my friend's sister is awake by now, and she is absolutely freaking out. Hyperventilating and everything. I know that we're in Wheaton, I tell the cops, but I'm not sure what the name of the street is. I ask my friend's sister - who lives there - what their address is, but in her hysterical state she can't remember. After a few seconds I somehow remember the address and give it to the emergency responder. At that moment, the battery of my phone dies. Well, that's great, I'm not even sure if they heard the address.

So this girl and I are in the room for about 30 more seconds, and I begin to think that it's a little weird that the burglars haven't come upstairs yet, because I know I can hear them downstairs. We listen more closely, and my friend's sister asks me, "Are they still watching Pulp Fiction down there?" I have no words to express how I feel over the next five seconds, but it was something like, OH, MY, GOSH. WOW. I can't believe my stupidity.

I run downstairs and see my friends chilling there watching the movie, and due to my groginess and lingering panic, my speech is incomprehensible. After a few seconds, I compose myself, and tell them I need a phone to call the cops back to tell them not to send officers. Of course, my friends are thinking I'm crazy, and one of them refuses to give me his phone because he doesn't want this going on his record. Kindly, my other friends gives me his phone. So I call the cops, and as I'm on the phone with them, about 4 police cars arrive outside of the house.

From then on it was embarrassing, about how you'd expect. After checking our IDs and getting my story, the cops just laughed when my friends told them they were watching Pulp Fiction. They thought I was a complete idiot, and I felt that way. At least they didn't give me a ticket.

So that was my story. Hopefully, it will never happen again, but hey, things could have been worse.

Other than that, nothing much of note to report on. Last week was a boring week in the lab. Not to much was going on, so I ended up reading for about 4 or 5 hours each of the days. Today was slow as well, but it looks like I'll get to learn how to do some molecular techniques later in the week, so that should be fun.

I'm sitting in the airport in Columbus, Ohio, about to board the plane to head back to Jackson. It's been quite a week, just what I needed.

On Monday morning I left Mississippi and headed up to Chicago for four days and spent time with a few friends that I grew up with in Turkey. We didn't really do anything exciting, but we enjoyed relaxing, running, playing Counter Strike, and riding on my friend's motorcycle. Good times. I have so many great memories with these guys, and it was nice to be able to speak Turkish again. These two guys are probably the most "Turkish" out of all of us American MKs that grew up over there. Hanging out with them is entertaining.

Friday morning we woke up early and drove six hours over here to Columbus for the wedding of a friend of ours who was also with us in Turkey. It was crazy and awesome to see him get married. I haven't stayed in touch with him nearly as much as I should have, but seeing each other took us back to the old days immediately. The rehearsal dinner was incredible. It was the old gang of 7 or 8 of us guys from Turkey sitting at one table, speaking Turkish, eating authentic Turkish food. After the meal we got all sweaty doing a traditional Turkish dance (Halay, tabii ki). It's funny, when I was in Turkey I didn't care much for a lot of the local things (music, dancing, etc.), but after having been in the States for these five years, I love them all. After the dinner we went out and got a few drinks for the bachelor party, and topped the night (or morning) off with a nice 4-mile run at 3:30 AM. Great times.

The wedding was sweet, with plenty of tears. Beautiful ceremony.

Now I'm heading back to Jackson. I don't feel ready to get back into the lab, but I know that if the vacation had been any longer, it would have even been more difficult. Three more weeks for me in the lab, then I start medical school! Craziness.

Had my first successful survival surgery today. It took me an hour and a half, but that included all of the suturing. I held the poor little rat and gave it some TLC for a while as it woke up. The research tech who works in the lab - who's been desensitized after doing the surgeries for two years - was looking at me like I was crazy. I'm fairly confident that the rat will still be alive and well tomorrow morning.