I cure cancer. It's good.

Warning: this post is full of stereotypes. 

I was asked the other day about my job and when I gave the short answer of "good", he asked why I don't want to talk about it. Which seems like a good question because, I love my job. I love going to work and I want to talk about it. My job makes me feel unique, and productive within society, and makes me happy. 

So why don't I talk about it? ....

After some thought, I came up with three reasons. 

Reason number 1** is: 

I don't to talk about my job because, most men (but not all), usually, well, don't ask. I assume its because I am female since they do ask Nate about his job. Then, when Nate is finished talking (about his job) they will look at me, pause, then move to the next question*. Usually sports and directed at Nate. This absence of conversation usually gives me a lot of time to think while trying to give the look of no thought at all (because, I assume that a man, who does not think a woman can say anything of interest, only wants her to look pretty). 

*OK this only happened once but, still.... 

Reason number 1:  men think girls are pretty.

Reason number 2**: I don't talk about my job because, usually when I tell most woman (but not all), that I work, they give me head tilt (HT****) and then apologize for my husbands inability to make enough money. Which makes me a blubbering idiot as I try to convince them of my happiness.

****HT also occurs when one hears of another's illness or sees a puppy, baby, or baby item.

Me: "No! I love my job. I want to work." 

Woman: *look of disbelief*

Reason number 2: Women think working is lame.

Then there is reason number 3**: If someone does ask, and they do not respond with "I am sorry", I like to keep it simple. Otherwise, I will have to deal with glazed eye expression response (GEER), or watch as they become easily distracted (BED, perhaps a genetic response since this runs rampant within the Branch family), or I get stuck trying to teach them biology with a stick and some dirt while wishing I had more alcohol (@#$%@!)***. 

** these are generalizations and do not reflect ALL the people in my life. 

***Part of me loves this response because if they can get past the biological responses of GEER and BED  that means they really want to learn and find what I say interesting.... right?

Me: "Do you know what a lipid is?"

Person: "No"

Me: "Do you know what a cell is?"

Person: "No"

Me: *sigh*"OK. Your body is composed of tiny objects called cells......... (hrs later)" ***

Which brings me to this. 

Shown at AAAS (An organization who claim they are "the worlds largest general scientific society") and describes 6 different ways to explain your research at a party. Apparently, this is a real issue within the science community. But, since they did not explain my method I added it below.

Reason number 3: Keep it simple to
avoid GEER, BED and @#$%@! responses.

And that is all I have to say about this but, for those who actually want to know what I do, here it is (a bit) simplified:

I manage a small group of scientist who design and manufacture regents for drug discovery for, but not limited to, Cancer, Diabetes, and Autoimmune diseases. These scientific tools are based around lipids (fatty molecules), the enzymes that work on them, and the proteins that bind them.

Or over simplified:

I cure cancer. It is good.