What do I do all day?

Heidi over at Sacred and Profane asked the question, "What do you do all day?". Apparently someone asked her a while back and she got a little offended, and rightfully so. I think stay at home moms are sorely underestimated. Some people think they lounge about eating bon bons all day, but those people have never tried it! I was only a SAHM for the first 3 months of Natey's life, and damn it, those 3 months were hard!! Taking care of him and trying to clean, cook, do laundry (that somehow tripled with the addition of one small being) and get errands done was exhausting. And that was with only 1 kid who was too small to make his own mess. I can't imagine the chaos that 4 children must create in a household. Let's just say, as much as I miss my boy when I am at work, I was a little bit happy to go back to adult conversation and a different kind of hard work.

Me and my co-worker Joyce at the Grand Opening of our new lab building

So, what do I do?? This is the million dollar question. I hate getting asked this because I feel like a smarty pants trying to explain it. I work for a biotech company called Amgen. We make bio-pharmaceuticals that you hope you never need. Our drugs are for people with cancer induced anemia, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, ITP (immune disorder where your body kills your platelets) and hyperparathyroidism. My title is technically Senior Associate in Process Development, but I like to refer to myself simply as lab queen. My grandma just tells her friends that I'm a scientist. In effect I am, just without the title and pay the title brings!


So down to the nitty gritty of what exactly I do all day...

I work in a lab.

I wear the white coat, protective glasses and steel-toed safety shoes.

I do not wear a pocket protector.

I design experiments and run them.

I use statistics to analyze my data.

I run ELISAs, Gel electrophoresis, DNA assays, and HPLC assays.

I write protocols, technical assessments and reports.

I do method qualifications and handle assay transfers to and from other sites.

I do endless trainings to keep up to date on all tasks I perform.

I receive and aliquot samples from 4 client groups.

I attend way too many useless meetings.

I evaluate new technology.

I travel to another site as the technical advisor for an automated piece of equipment.

I make sure our drug, Enbrel, is safe for our patients.

In a nut shell I wear many hats, and bless you if you are still awake after that list!! The best part of my job, besides making a difference in patients' lives, is the fact that experiments have down time. :o) The assays I run have incubation periods, some of which I use to keep up with all of you. I would never be able to blog if I had to read everything after I got home! My husband would never see me, my son would starve and I would probably not have started in the first place. So there you have it! That's what I do.

So tell me, what do YOU do all day??