There's definitely a shift the further west you go. My grad school advisor went on some weird tour of some of Iowa's little towns, and he said it was a whole different world out there.

I try to stay insulated by staying in the college towns. Iowa City was a fabulous little bubble to live in. Even up here in the middle of nowhere (little lutheran college in "practically Minnesota"), it's relatively insulated from the scarier stuff that goes on in the farther reaches of the state.

But but but...we're not all bad. We.... *sigh* nevermind.

This, this, a thousand times this. It burns me that someone's always going to be judging me on my hair color (I gave up my natural blonde out of paranoia), my baby face (can't even fix that), my style of dress (can't wear button-up shirts unless I want to pay more money than I can afford for them) and my love of…

OMG THIS. I'm not even a parent yet, but I find my home life (husband, housework, etc) way more stressful than my work sometimes (physicist here). Work is my breathing space and my creative outlet.

I sympathize, and I won't judge you for one second, even though I couldn't do it myself (too much like my mother, plus my husband wants the job). You figure out what's best for your family, and go with it. Everyone else just needs to GTFO of your business.

Okay, the rocket scientist comment made me laugh hysterically (I'm not a rocket scientist, but I know a few).

"FERN!" is probably the funniest thing I've read all day.

Aw, thanks. :) I'm really quite happy with where I am now - I love what I do, and I love getting people (especially young women) excited about physics - but I still sometimes just look up at the stars and sigh a little.

Me too! And with the way spaceflight seems to be moving into the private sector, you never know!

You know the whole reason I ended up in with a PhD in Physics is because I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid. But NASA doesn't take people as short as me. Thus began the winding road to oooh, Astronomy! oooh, Physics! ooooh, TINY PHYSICS! And here I am studying nanomagnets. And I realize that I wouldn't…

First shock and then tears = my reaction to this. I feel so much for you — and I'll join you in the book-shoving crusade. My reaction to something like that being said to one of my (as yet hypothetical) children might require a restraining order.

Go Callie! Math lovers unite!

Reflection works. It's like having little nanomirrors all over your skin that reflect the light. If its reflected, it's not transmitted, and therefore can't get to you.

Sunburn and skin cancer. Scandinavian pale and summer sun don't go well together.

I got asked once if I was some prof's teenage daughter once. At a faculty party. All dressed up in my grown-up clothes and everything. You just can't win, can you?

Indeed! It's not a terrible hardship, but you can only say "No, I'm the professor" so many times before you get a little tired of it. :)

I'm kinda the same way, exacerbated by the fact that I look a good 10 years younger than I am (and I'm not that old) so I'll get people that are clearly younger than I am calling me "miss".

Me too. Let's all book a stay together and have a fabulous relaxing time.

I'm trying to think of a way to build lego pockets/slots onto that thing. You might be able to get it to work.