On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess

Dr. Isis has fully recovered from Saturday's death match with food poisoning and went on to have the best Sunday ever, both scientifically and domestically.  I mean, seriously, I am still all aglow.

I was able to make the many, many hour trip to Really Huge City to visit my favorite spa with my childhood best friend.  While I was making the long trek back and forth to Really Huge City far from MRU I was able to connect to my Gmail and watch the conversation being had on my recent Ask Dr. Isis post .  May of you asked really insightful questions -- when is the best time to have a baby? What role does Mr. Isis play in the raising of the Isis clan? Why would a woman put herself through such an ordeal to spawn another being?  And some of you shared really personal stories.  I am pleased that my blog has become a site for this type of discourse to happen because I think it is important.  These are often conversations that we do not have face-to-face as women in science and the men in the harem who adore them because they are totally hot (especially Dr. Isis). I hope that these will be topics that we will investigate in the future together.

Upon arriving in Really Huge City my friend and I abandoned our children for the evening and headed to the spa to enjoy brownies, cheese, olives, lemonade, and other assorted loveliness. Dr. Isis is now freshly facialed, waxed, and pedicured.  I feel like an entirely different human being.  Probably the most enlightening part of the entire trip, however, was a conversation I had with the lady who waxes the domestic and laboratory goddess.  We discussed my recent move to Science Blogs (there is absolutely no pseudonymity between Dr. Isis and the woman who maintains the goddess in full goddess form.  Any woman as intimate with the inner trappings of the domestic and laboratory goddess as this woman deserves full disclosure).  She was quite interested in my recent Ask Dr. Isis post and read it in between the yanks, pulls, and tears (and tears).  What ensued was an interesting and intense (perhaps because of my upregulated circulating catecholamines) conversation about the universality of "balancing" work and homelife.  My favorite aesthetician works two jobs (and believe me, maintaining the goddess is a job in itself), is going to nursing school, and is raising four children at home.  Still, she feels pressure to be maximally successful in all of the spheres in which she interacts.  Dr. Isis left this encounter feeling sore and with the sense that the pressures she faces are similar to those I face as an academic and are not unique to academia, but to womanhood and motherhood.

Video 1: Dr. Isis finds it impossible to keep secrets from the woman who smears hot wax on her.

On the way home Dr. Isis was again able to access her Gmail and received some delightful news. First, Dr. Isis is featured pretty prominently in this month's Isis Praxis Carnival.  I am absolutely thrilled because this is one of my favorite carnivals.  I'd encourage you to check it out.

Also, as a second piece of thrilling news for the Domestic and Laboratory Goddess, Dr. Isis is going to be hosting the December posting of Scientiae.  This is another one of Dr. Isis's favorite carnivals and it is usually absolutely full of women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) hotness. Some of the women (and men) in the blogosphere Dr. Isis admires most participate in Scientiae and I feel like a total rockstar to get to host this month.  Without further ado, here is this month's theme:

My Science is Hotter than Dr. Isis's Naughty Monkeys Because...

This month I want to hear about all the amazing science you're throwing down or reading about.  Or, perhaps you have a lesson to share with more junior scientists to help increase the hotness of their science.  Do you have a secret to share with those of us trying to make everything happen and still be fabulous?  This month's Scientiae is prime time for male and female science bloggers to boast about their hotness to the rest of the science blogosphere. Submit your posts by midnight December 1st to scientiaecarnival@gmail.com.

Figure 1: As a reference point to help you gauge your own hotness, Dr. Isis's Naughty Monkeys.  Sugar Daddy Pump by Naughty Monkey in Chocolate.  $74.99 at Amazon.