People Who Are Way Cooler Than I Am

Today I am stealing an idea from friend and fellow blogger, Waddie. Lately, she has been posting profiles of her friends and family (in addition to some pretty insightful parenting advice - check out her blog when you get a minute). This made me think that I know a lot of great people that are way more interesting than most of the posts that I come up with. So... here's the first installation of what I am tentatively calling "People Who Are Way Cooler Than I Am". 

Meet Michelle (and you already know Harper, who is feeling better by the way). 

I met Michelle in grad school and had the privilege of working in the same lab with her for a few years. There are so many things that I could say about Michelle. For one, she tells the funniest stories of anyone I know. Her everyday life provides her with comedic material that makes people laugh so hard that they can't help but do the ugly contorted face laugh. For instance, there was that time in grad school when her water bra had a blowout during an exam and leaked all over her and the desk and the exam. Or how about the time she was riding in our boss' car and opened a bottle of Mountain Dew which sprayed everywhere - including all over our boss (and the National Enquirers that she brought to read to our boss on the drive up to Michigan - extremely funny if you knew our boss). Or how about the fact that she has 2 bull dogs, a bassett hound, and a parrot all of whom can do more tricks than a twelve year old boy. 

This is her husband, Floyd, who definitely deserves a post of his own (and Harper again).

Michelle is the most helpful person I know. She always puts herself second when interacting with co-workers, friends, family, strangers, etc. Michelle is also the most thorough person I know. She is that person who reads the manual cover to cover for every piece of equipment in the lab. She is also the one who knows the reason why we do each step of an experiment instead of just knowing the steps. If I had a science question, Michelle was the first person I asked. Even now, I occasionally call or email her to ask a question. The bottom line is that Michelle is wonderful. It would do me well to follow her example of service to others. I miss working with her and I'm excited that I get to see her in a few weeks at a conference.