(no subject)
It's been a while. I really need to update more but nothing interesting has happened to me lately.
School is out finally and it's been weird telling people that I'm a senior when they ask. For some reason that seems very old to me, even though I know that it really isn't at all.
I spent 3 days up at my Aunt's house last week in Indianapolis and I had an amazing time. Of course I always love staying with my aunt because she and I just have this great relationship, but I did my NHS volunteer hours there as well. I worked with this place called the Dayspring Center which is a shelter for homeless families. It was just such a wonderful environment and even though I only worked there for 3 days I was really close to all of the people I worked with. I wish we had somewhere like that in Louisville. I mean sure, we have the Healing Place and Wayside and stuff, but nowhere where families can go. I think that's really important, somehow. Keeping families together and all. Anyway I just had the most wonderful time there. I was a little bummed that Mom didn't let me drive up on my own, but we're still working on fighting that battle.
I started working this week, which was fun. And by fun, I mean kind of boring. As this was the first week, I had to sit through all of these training sessions, most of which were common sense. Do not torture the animals. Don't kill more animals than is absolutely necessary. Don't stick yourself with needles. Do you want the Hepatitis B vaccine? You should get it, because if you don't you'll get hepatitis when you stick yourself with needles. Don't bring food into the lab. Fill out these forms and bring them back tomorrow. Those were the most important things I learned/heard. Everything else was even more common-sensical than that. But towards the end of the week I got to do more. They already sort of trust me because I've been working there for all this past year, and so they let me do things. I liked being trusted to do Veronica's cell stains for her...I really hope I didn't screw them up! I love doing this kind of work, and it's nice that they recognize that I've been doing this for a while and know what I'm doing.
Except today Sadhak and I were purifying cells to see what the expected yield will be so that we can set up our next experiments accordingly. And so we wanted a big population size so we used 4 mice. It is still hard for me to see him kill the mice. Sorry...euthanize. That's another thing I learned: we don't say kill we say euthanize. Anyway. It was hard. And the first mouse was squirming alot and he had trouble with the cervical dislocation (which is how we euthanize mice at the lab) and he was pulling so hard on the tail that part of it actually came off and there was just this inch-long protrusion of bone sticking out where the rest of the tail should have been. I almost puked I really did I just felt so awful for that poor little mouse she was only 2 months old you know. But without animal research we wouldn't be able to make so much progress in curing diseases and helping people. I know that it's important, I just wish I didn't have to watch it.
Another summer goal is to learn how to play guitar. I've had a guitar in my room for like a year and I'm such a poser cause I don't even know how to play it. Anyway this place called acoustic planet that's over off of bardstown sent me a flier advertising guitar lessons and they're relatively cheap, so I think I'm going to do it. It's weird though...I've never heard of this place in my life and they sent me a flier that was hand-addressed and it was to "Becca" not "Rebecca". So now I'm really curious how they got my name and address. But whatev...it was a good find so I'm not going to complain.
On the downside, Emily is home. That's not really a downside at all...I'm really happy she's back. I missed her alot. The downside part is that she's taking Bessie now. Which means that when I do get a car, it's usually my Mom's van. Which I don't dislike, per se, it's just hard to drive when you're terrified that your massive vehicle is going to plow somebody down. I don't like driving such a big car. And I don't like that it's so smooth...that's unnatural. You should feel the bumps in the road...they let you know you're getting somewhere.
Ok enough of an entry now. The upshot is that I am managing to keep busy over the summer, which I really wanted to do. It keeps me in good shape, you know. And I have a job doing something that I really enjoy and it pays pretty well. And I go to Japan in about 2 1/2 weeks, which is always in the back of my mind. So I am happy and doing well, but not totally busy. So if you want to hang out, please call. I never do because I'm a lazy bum and a bad friend. So please, call me! Chances are that I want to hang out with you.
School is out finally and it's been weird telling people that I'm a senior when they ask. For some reason that seems very old to me, even though I know that it really isn't at all.
I spent 3 days up at my Aunt's house last week in Indianapolis and I had an amazing time. Of course I always love staying with my aunt because she and I just have this great relationship, but I did my NHS volunteer hours there as well. I worked with this place called the Dayspring Center which is a shelter for homeless families. It was just such a wonderful environment and even though I only worked there for 3 days I was really close to all of the people I worked with. I wish we had somewhere like that in Louisville. I mean sure, we have the Healing Place and Wayside and stuff, but nowhere where families can go. I think that's really important, somehow. Keeping families together and all. Anyway I just had the most wonderful time there. I was a little bummed that Mom didn't let me drive up on my own, but we're still working on fighting that battle.
I started working this week, which was fun. And by fun, I mean kind of boring. As this was the first week, I had to sit through all of these training sessions, most of which were common sense. Do not torture the animals. Don't kill more animals than is absolutely necessary. Don't stick yourself with needles. Do you want the Hepatitis B vaccine? You should get it, because if you don't you'll get hepatitis when you stick yourself with needles. Don't bring food into the lab. Fill out these forms and bring them back tomorrow. Those were the most important things I learned/heard. Everything else was even more common-sensical than that. But towards the end of the week I got to do more. They already sort of trust me because I've been working there for all this past year, and so they let me do things. I liked being trusted to do Veronica's cell stains for her...I really hope I didn't screw them up! I love doing this kind of work, and it's nice that they recognize that I've been doing this for a while and know what I'm doing.
Except today Sadhak and I were purifying cells to see what the expected yield will be so that we can set up our next experiments accordingly. And so we wanted a big population size so we used 4 mice. It is still hard for me to see him kill the mice. Sorry...euthanize. That's another thing I learned: we don't say kill we say euthanize. Anyway. It was hard. And the first mouse was squirming alot and he had trouble with the cervical dislocation (which is how we euthanize mice at the lab) and he was pulling so hard on the tail that part of it actually came off and there was just this inch-long protrusion of bone sticking out where the rest of the tail should have been. I almost puked I really did I just felt so awful for that poor little mouse she was only 2 months old you know. But without animal research we wouldn't be able to make so much progress in curing diseases and helping people. I know that it's important, I just wish I didn't have to watch it.
Another summer goal is to learn how to play guitar. I've had a guitar in my room for like a year and I'm such a poser cause I don't even know how to play it. Anyway this place called acoustic planet that's over off of bardstown sent me a flier advertising guitar lessons and they're relatively cheap, so I think I'm going to do it. It's weird though...I've never heard of this place in my life and they sent me a flier that was hand-addressed and it was to "Becca" not "Rebecca". So now I'm really curious how they got my name and address. But whatev...it was a good find so I'm not going to complain.
On the downside, Emily is home. That's not really a downside at all...I'm really happy she's back. I missed her alot. The downside part is that she's taking Bessie now. Which means that when I do get a car, it's usually my Mom's van. Which I don't dislike, per se, it's just hard to drive when you're terrified that your massive vehicle is going to plow somebody down. I don't like driving such a big car. And I don't like that it's so smooth...that's unnatural. You should feel the bumps in the road...they let you know you're getting somewhere.
Ok enough of an entry now. The upshot is that I am managing to keep busy over the summer, which I really wanted to do. It keeps me in good shape, you know. And I have a job doing something that I really enjoy and it pays pretty well. And I go to Japan in about 2 1/2 weeks, which is always in the back of my mind. So I am happy and doing well, but not totally busy. So if you want to hang out, please call. I never do because I'm a lazy bum and a bad friend. So please, call me! Chances are that I want to hang out with you.