Finally, someone who doesn't hate their job

Let me tell you about a man I work with.

Even though all the things I'm going to say about him are good, I'll still use an alias just for the sake of privacy. We'll call him Marcus. Hey, that works.

So Marcus is a man from a small South central Asian country who is very enthusiastic about the work he does. He came to this lab from a very cutting-edge and prestigious medical laboratory elsewhere in the United States (and sometimes I wonder why... but I think family is the answer). He is very excited about the nature of his specialty, and gets very involved in things related to the advancement of lab techniques and studies.

Unfortunately this can make his job (as well as others' jobs) difficult, as sometimes, lifetime lab professionals can get stuck in their ways if they're not used to constantly looking to the latest professional developments (and for people who are like that, I wonder why they became scientists in the first place).

Anyway, part of the work I will be doing soon in this laboratory will be in Marcus' lab. I am so looking forward to that. He knows this, and often comes by my cubicle with updates on the project. He's great about getting others (or maybe it's just me) interested in what's going on. How nice is it to work with enthusiastic people?

As a celebration of the project finally coming under way, Marcus is hosting a meal at his home in the fashion traditional to his native country. And he has invited everyone involved in the project to attend. Isn't that cool? Every time I pass him in the hallway he says something about it-- "hello hello-- everyone is coming to the meal. it's going to be very traditional. like nothing you've had before! you are coming, right?" and of course I am. He gave out official invitation cards to everyone, and mine was addressed to Andrea Lorenz, PhD. ha ha! What a sweet talker.

Yay Marcus.