Productive day!
I'm actually pretty satisfied with how today went, despite my late start... I performed a heat shock and extracted RNA from a bunch of mosquito larvae... tomorrow I will run another experiment to determine whether my primers work (wish me luck!). Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I can actually quantify a certain product that I'm looking for so I can have real, live data to show in my presentation! Speaking of which, I spoke with Dave today about that... he TOTALLY calmed my nerves regarding the presentation both for lab meeting and the one for colloquium, and basically said that everyone in the lab is there to support me! And everyone in the department will be totally supportive too! I guess I sort of knew that, and it's one thing to hear it from my colleagues but it's another thing to hear from the bossman. I'm really glad I had that chat with him, because I really have been psyching myself up over this presentation almost to the point of totally getting freaked out about it, but he's basically made it seem like I have nothing to worry about! So I feel a LOT better about it now. :)
haha and funny story... Darin must have known I was talking about him, haha, because he actually texted me today... that was a shocker. He invited me to go with him and a bunch of guys on his baseball team to another ball game in town (he plays for a local league, and they were going to a game at Class A Silverhawks in town). I had a GREAT time the last time I went to the game, but I'm just so busy this week... probably for the best, I still don't think it's cool that he "forgot" about me for a week and a half. But seriously, game started at 6:30 and I wasn't out of the lab today until after 7. I STILL have to eat dinner and before that I have to do some serious grocery shopping... I was going to make soup too for dinner but really, I just want fried food, so I'm thinking KFC popcorn chicken and potato wedges will do the trick. :) hahahaha oh fatty fatty... so much for going back to the gym!
Oh I might try to play softball later this week. Nothing major, just a game wiht some other people in the department. I hope sliding isn't involved, because I never mastered that, even when I played for years... as it is this will be a real test on my ankle... here goes nothing!
OK grocery shopping... then work... today will be a record day for me!
~ Sarah
P.S. I just wanted to write a note to say that I was talking to my Mom yesterday and she mentioned that a student from WPI had been killed in Iraq over the weekend. He was 24 and an only child. He was engaged to one of my sorority sisters. I didn't actually know him personally, but from what I gather he was a really well liked guy and always genuinely happy. I still can't fathom why so many people have to die over there so senselessly. I had a conversation with my officemate about it earlier in the week; her father was involved with the military and her brother just got back from a stint in Afghanistan. Apparently, there were really legitimate reasons for us to go over to both countries, but the public was not made aware of these reasons. And you know what? Our government can't win us over now. I feel as though, despite our best intentions, we are NOT going to win this war. If we pull out now, yeah, we didn't do our job, whatever that was... but if we go another 5, 10 years... really, what I'm asking is, how many MORE people have to die, people that are younger than me by 4 or 5 years? People who haven't even LIVED??? And the thing that worries me the most is that no, I didn't know this latest casualty, but every time it hits closer and closer to home. I know people in the military... could be someone I know that goes next. And I don't like to think about that, but that's the reality of the situation.