The last few weeks/months have been an absolute roller-coaster. Incredible highs, incredible lows, and sooo much to look forward to — it’s both overwhelming and immensely exciting!
Sooo much to look forward to:
- Katy is pregnant!!! We’re expecting a baby boy this July!! We couldn’t be more excited to become a family. Accepting any and all parenting tips 🙂 and gifts: registry link
Incredible highs:
- We are homeowners!!! The perfect 2Bd 1Ba condo appeared into our Zillow filter. Our offer was immediately accepted and 21-days later we received the keys! I’ve lived in Pacific Beach since 2019 and am happy to move to the University Town Center neighborhood for several reasons: Extremely close to Illumina, several parks, public library, a wildly ridiculously gorgeous mall, and the trolley station that will bring us to Padres games and Saturday morning Farmer’s markets.
- Ski’d a weekend in Big Bear with a solid crew. You know you’re having a good time when you stay up past 1am talking, goofing, and playing board games.
No, Katy didn’t ski. But, the recovery from last year’s leg injury is going very well! - Celebrated my birthday with a train-trip to Santa Barbara. Walked Stearns Wharf pier, ate delicious food, perused the farmer’s market, and crushed Katy in Monopoly Deal and Gin Rummy card games…I think she let me win because it was my B-day.
- We survived the Stagecoach Music Festival with a ton of buddies for the 3rd year! Nobody passed out this year 🙂
Got to see some of our favorite artists perform: Zach Bryan, Luke Combs, Mumford & Sons, Goo Goo Dolls, Nelly, Creed, Jelly Roll, Dylan Gossett, Backstreet Boys, Tucker Wetmore, Lana Del Rey, and Shaboozey (yes, that list is in order from best to worst). - Shared some precious dude-time with my brothers and good pals in Kalispell Montana! Hiked in Glacier National Park, boated on Whitefish lake, grilled and ate like kings, experienced a Kalispell downtown Friday night, and much more! Solid memories.
Incredible lows:
- My manager of 5-years and colleague were let go on April 17th. I’ve learned so much from these two and you’ll see me boast their technical expertise on LinkedIn. I have and will continue to miss spending 40+ hours a week with them.
It’s a very difficult time in the biotechnology industry… A multi-faceted problem stemming from Government Science program cuts, trade wars, national blacklists, investor expectations, high cost-of-capital…etc.
Trying to put aside my immense survivorship guilt, I’m so happy I have a job and get to work on a technology I am outrageously passionate about: DNA-Methylation Arrays. I’m also grateful to lean on an excellent adjacent team for assistance during this time of transition.
Thanks for reading, here are some pics of the incredible highs!
Steven Gruber's 