I don't know how it got to be 5:30 already. I'd better get cracking on work, but I really don't want to. It's been one of those weekends (same as the last) and I just want to sleep but I can't. I'm going to cut class tomorrow and just make up lots of time for work at the library downtown because that's the only one that has decent hours. Not like I need to go microbio class anyway. As long as I show up to the exam on Wednesday, everything's gonna be fine.

Comment! (4) | Recommend! (1)

Or, maybe not-so-fake.

On Thursday, I got out of work and made a quick trip home to do some "just in case" packing--an extra shirt, extra underwear, extra socks, toothbrush, etc.--just in case I ended up being far too inebriated to make the 45 mile trip back home. After that was done, I had to go to microbiology lab to do some Gram staining. In all honesty, I was only physically present there; my thoughts had started on their own journey to San Francisco. The body had to soon follow in pursuit.

Lab got out at about 7:20, so I made it to the city at 8:30. I picked Linh up from the Civic Center BART station and we made our way to the Marina for dinner. We met up with Rory and Kristi and Michael (who stopped by on his way from Seattle to SoCal) and went to dinner at an Italian restaurant. That's when and where the drinking started.

After dinner, we went back to Kristi's apartment. On the walk over, there was talk of going out--I knew then that the night would be a shitshow for sure, and I was glad I brought my "just in case" stuff because the next day, I'd have to be at work and wouldn't have time to go home. We left Kristi back at her place (but not before indulging in some Jäger) to study for her o-chem midterm (boo o-chem!).

We jumped in a cab and made our way to the first of four stops in North Beach. At Vesuvio, we finished off two pitchers of beer. Had a pint a piece at the San Francisco Brewing Company. Various drinks at Mojito and O'Reilly's. There were copious amounts of consumption and conversation, introspection and laughter. I enjoyed talking about anything at all for hours on end. Too bad last call was at 2:00 because I feel we could have carried on forever.

We parted ways soon afterwards. Linh and I took a cab back to Kristi's. Linh didn't look that drunk, but when we got out of the cab, she fell on her ass. Then she threw up at the door and at various times throughout the night. I was up until 4:30 tending to that while Kristi studied for o-chem. I hope we didn't cause too much trouble.

I woke up at 8:30 and got ready to take Linh back to the BART station and go to work. Linh said that she had to give a presentation that day and she hadn't prepared because of what we did last night. Ooops. Plus, she had to carry her vomity clothes on the train with her. I can't imagine what that might be like. She had it worse than I did, I guess, even if I did have to handle dangerous chemicals and extremely breakable glass containers all day long. At least I didn't break anything or explode something or otherwise cause damage to property or people.

Last night, I passed out on the floor of the family room in front of the television. I woke up again at about 3 in the morning to go to my bed. Regrettable mistake: the floor was so much more comfortable (i.e. cooler) than my room was. Damn electronic equipment, dispersing heat. Doesn't help that my room has southern exposure during the day. I think today, I'll be turning on the AC. Yes. Definitely.

Comment! (1) | Recommend!

Being a recent graduate in the biomedical sciences, I felt impotent for a while after graduation because I had lost my institutional affiliation with Pomona College/Honnold Mudd Library of the Claremont Colleges and could therefore no longer access many articles through PubMed. Since I did not go straight to graduate school and I did not get a job right away, I could not replace my affiliation in order to access these scientific articles, which sucked because I was/am taking classes that are made much easier by having 24/7 access to the articles in the database.

Today, during the cell activation seminar, we discussed our final presentations--due in less than a month--regarding a major cell signaling pathway of our choice. Immediately after class let out, it donned on me that I was going to have to go to Stanford to track these articles down in hard copy and photocopy them all because of my lack of institutional affiliation. I freaked out for a little while and tried to think of ways to circumvent this--begging friends with the ability to get me articles to retrieve them electronically and send me the pdf files, asking the professor to do it for me, forking out the big bucks for temporary access to a journal or journal article--needless to say, none of those options look appealing. In a last ditch effort, I decided to connect to the Pomona VPN, half hoping they don't shut down access for alumni, so that I could have an IP address that could tell the journals I was accessing articles through Honnold Mudd Library, and could thus retrieve articles for free.

Well, what do you know--it worked. I can connect through the VPN and get all the articles I want without having to give up cash or my dignity to do so. Of course, this means that there is no reason why I can't do a good job on that presentation...which puts a little more pressure on me. Oh, well. I'm happy I can download copious amounts of scientific papers for free once more.

Comment! (5) | Recommend!

I have made the conscious choice to NOT attend lecture this evening. Oooh, bad Ranor. Very, very bad.

Well, fuck it. I read the book. I know what the chapter says. I don't need to show up for that. I'll just ask Maria (my lab partner who's like 40 but she's totally awesome) for notes tomorrow in lab to see what I should emphasize in studying for the exam next week. As for now, I will be doing all the things I was too distracted to do over the weekend, and hopefully get ahead with work because I want to party guilt-free come Friday/Saturday. (Can you say "WASTED?")

Man, I'm hungry. Tracking down food around here's like that part towards the end of The Lion King where the Pride Lands are all dry and desolate because Scar and his hyena cronies have eaten all the food and shit. I just want a tasty morsel to give me energy to carry on. Is that so much to ask for?

Apparently so.

Comment! (0) | Recommend!

I have tons of homework to do today and that knot around my shoulderblade is not helping. Also, the fact that I spent a good part of yesterday morning and this morning trying to track down a Wii did wonders on the not-doing-work front. (I didn't end up getting one, so my family just said "Fuck it--order it online." And even though it's a full $100 more to get it online than in person, we decided it was better to just fork it over than spent the next few weeks tracking it down and waking up early just to be disappointed again.)

Thankfully, during tomorrow's grad seminar we won't be discussing any papers, but rather talking about final presentations, the final exam, and other class business. While I dread the prospect of making a presentation (not so much actually presenting than doing all the research and putting it together) and the fact that we have our final coming up in...what--three weeks?--I am grateful that I have a whole extra week to read the papers. Especially considering that this weekend was not really all that relaxing and heading back to the lab on Tuesday will be hell because we have to play catch-up experiment-wise.

On the plus side, my PI told me that, while it is a policy that interns cannot work in the lab alone, since I do have a bachelor's degree, he's working on getting that waived. I think he has high expectations for me because of the glowing recommendation my thesis advisor gave him, which is fine but I don't want to let him down by fucking up on account of me being tired and therefore careless.

I'd better get back to work. On a to-do list that I made myself with 20 items on it, guess how many are done.

Yes, that's right.

One.

At least not everything on that list is due tomorrow. A tiny consolation, but I'll take what I'm given and run with it.

I leave you with a clip from Maury. It will either cheer you up or absolutely depress you, depending on what kind of person you are. Personally, I laughed my ass off. But then again, I'm an asshole.

Comment! (0) | Recommend!

Got to work 15 minutes late but no one cared because I was the first one there. Finished rotovaping R-7-11-06 (which means nothing to you) but at least it got done. About time. I wasn't aware it would take that long to draw off water from a solution containing ammonia and iron sulfide and nitrates and other crazy shit. From there, my co-worker and I were set to distill the reaction and continue with the damn project but we didn't have any liquid nitrogen to condense the vapor back into a liquid. Went around the entire building (walked around through all 5 floors--basement included--no joke) looking for liquid nitrogen but no luck. Oh, and then we got stuck in a freight elevator and had to call out for help. That was fun. Well, at least I know that I can open the doors manually, but it was still a mildly harrowing experience. So since we couldn't proceed with distillation, we were going to set up another nitrate reaction, but unfortunately we ran out of reagents. Oh-ho-ho. Research: you slay me.

Tomorrow, I'm heading in at 8:30 for four full hours of safety training. Oh, joy. The liquid nitrogen and the reagents for the reaction won't be in until next week, so we'll see how I can kill time for the three hours between 1:00 and 4:00 when I actually have to work.

So tired.

Can't even say I'm looking forward to the weekend. More work awaits. Next week though--through all the school and the work, I'll be looking forward to a very special visitor's arrival. I guess that will keep me going for a while.

Comment! (3) | Recommend!

In light of all the responsibility I have decided to take on, my postings will be a whole lot less frequent. I spent the bulk of my day today in the library and I believe that set the tone for the next three months. If I'm not in class, I'll be working in lab, and if I'm not in lab, I'll be studying somewhere.

I'm so excited, I'm so excited, I'm so... SCARED! (A la Jessie Spano pre-caffeine pill freak-out.)

Comment! (3) | Recommend!

But I am mad as hell at Comcast. I haven't had access for the last few days, so someone came out yesterday, poked around for an hour, and managed to diagnose the problem (faulty modem) but not before destroying our cable TV access for about 6 hours in the process. (As in, it took 6 hours for the damn thing to work again.) What's more, they only got the new modem today because apparently, "no one" had it on them in the area. Bullshit. You're just lazy.

Now I have access but my router needs to be reconfigured because... I don't even fucking know. So there's exactly one computer in this house that has internet access (this one, obviously) which will piss me off to no end when my family will ask me to check their fucking e-mails over and over again.

Combined with the troubles I've been having accessing online safety training classes at work, I have a giant headache and a huge desire to kill the next person who talks loudly in my vicinity.

Plus, I'm hungry. That makes me deadly.

"Friendly" word of advice: stay the fuck out of my way until this passes. (It's a good thing none of you are actually in the position to physically be in my way.)

Comment! (5) | Recommend!