Rabies, party of 30

I just got back from dinner at P.F. Chang's. I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised. I had vegetarian lettuce wraps with the ma po tofu and while I know this isn't setting the bar very high, the flavor was more nuanced than I expected from a Americanized chain restaurant.

But what impressed me most was the service. We were a group of nearly 30 people and they gave us all separate checks. The waiters were polite, kept up with my cola addiction, and were extremely accommodating of one person with a citrus allergy.

The reason we went out to P.F. Chang's is because we are hosting a national rabies laboratory training at work. It's been a busy week for me but hooray comp time and hello leaving at noon on Friday (even though I'd rather have the overtime pay but I'm essentially, though unofficially, on salary).

A number of people visiting are C.D.C. people, including one of the faculty members who did an interview with me last week in Atlanta. Meeting these people have really helped me feel better about Emory as a choice for graduate school.

My boss is a former C.D.C. employee and she passed on some concerning gossip regarding the chair of the department I will likely be going into. And one of the women at dinner made an "uh-oh" face at the chair's name, but my boss was quick to reassure her that I already knew.

But Emory does rotations the first two years, which means that I will likely have the chance to work with the people at dinner tonight and that makes me happy. These are good people.

In fact, these are good people who I work with currently. I am really happy I got the opportunity to be in the laboratory I'm in now. Moral is pretty low at the state right now mainly because of salary and benefits issues, but the many of the employees are welcoming and supportive.

This might be famous last words but so far, I have only good things to say about rabies folks.