I get up V V early to workout and then even though it SHOULDN’T take forever to get dressed it does. Mostly because every morning there is a dance party while I shower, but listen…WHO DOESN’T NEED A MORNING DANCE PARTY? Yeah, I’m sorry people who are not morning people, I am an annoying morning person who does not need coffee to be bright eyed and bushy tailed also if I drank coffee in the morning my co-workers would probably murder me because this one time I saw a tweet that said doing some drug (can’t remember what) is like drinking a 1,000 red bulls and while I DO NOT DO DRUGS ( I am, in fact writing this from my work email because I like to live on the edge and also my parents and kids get these emails so anyway I said what I said), this is exactly how I feel when I drink coffee. For reference once I accidentally got a shot of coffee by accident (I *wanted* a caramel macchiato but since I rarely get coffee I ordered the wrong thing and I figured it’d be fine ‘cause it was just a little bit of coffee) and I ran an interoffice memo to the 24th floor from the 10th floor. And back down. My co-worker said if I ever drank coffee in the office again she was gonna lock her office door to keep me away from her.

Anyway. THEN I have to drive from my house to Beverly Hills and it’s 13 miles but in LA minutes ISSA LOT.

OR.

It could be the fact that I sleep like crap and when I should be trying to go back to sleep, I’m not. In fact, this meme is definitely a gratuitous picture of me:  

How was I only 2 when this song came out and I knew this song word for word?

I gotta be honest with y’all and say that I concluded that Barbara probably was playing on her phone* and Barbara got tired. Seems far fetched except that did y’all know that Barbara is the reason that we all be looking at our phone ring instead of picking up when certain people call?

That’s right! Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson is an American physicist, and the eighteenth president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She is the first African-American woman to have earned a doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is also the second African-American woman in the United States to earn a doctorate in physics.

In 1964, she graduated as valedictorian from her high school and proceeded to M.I.T., where she was one of the very few women and black students. Her professors at the time thought that science was not appropriate for a black woman but I’m guessing she was not interested what most assuredly was a white man’s opinion in that age and time and earned her B.S. in 1968. In 1973, she earned her PhD and went ahead to complete several years of postdoctoral research at various laboratories, including Fermi in Illinois, before being hired by AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1976, where she worked for 15 years.

During that time, Shirley worked in the Scattering and Low Energy Physics Research Department from 1978, and moved to the Solid State and Quantum Physics Research Department in 1988. At Bell Labs, Jackson researched the optical and electronic properties of two-dimensional and quasi-two-dimensional systems. I don’t know what any of that means but I do know that just now I was looking at my cell ringing and did not pick up because the caller ID said Scam Likely. Thanks Shirley! You a real one!

Dr. Jackson taught at Rutgers University from 1991–1995. She was subsequently appointed the chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission by Bill Clinton. In 1999, Jackson became 18th President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she served until 2017. In February 2020, Shirley Ann Jackson joined the Nature Conservancy Global Board due to her accolades and her dedication to nature conservation. She will be serving on this board till October 2029. That’s right y’all. This history fact is about a person who is still with us!

She’s accumulated an impressive amount of honors in her lifetime: Martin Marietta Aircraft Company Scholarship and Fellowship, the Prince Hall Masons Scholarship, the National Science Foundation Traineeship, and a Ford Foundation Advanced Study Fellowship. She has been elected to numerous special societies, including the American Philosophical Society. In 2014, she was named a recipient of the National Medal of Science. She’s received a bajillion honorary doctorates, as well as being the recipient of the Hanz Christian Oersted award, which was awarded to her in summer 2021.

*AS AN FYI: Caller ID was invented in 1987 and woman to woman was released in 1974 and ALSO Shirley BROWN sang it but I’m absolutely Shirley Jackson knows exactly how Shirley Brown felt. Also Shirley girl, I hope you rid of that raggedy man. You definitely deserved better.