Musings (meant to post last night but lj wasn't working!)
14.5 hours in the lab on one day gives you a lot of time to think while you're doing repetitive things (pipetting, chopping up lungs with scissors)...(hopefully which didn't make me totally screw up what I was doing).
10. Yes, I came into the lab at 8:30 am, and left at 11:00 pm. I took a 25 minute break at around 4:30 to get a sandwich wrap, ate half of it, and then went back to the grind. It was a long day. Part of the problem is that I just work unbelievably slowly. I'm having these terrifying visions of my future, where my kids never get to see me because I'm always in the lab. Please don't let that be my life!
On the other hand, when I was at the very end (around 8 or 9 pm), running my samples through this huge awesome machine (that's incredibly confusing to learn how to use and set up), and it was my first time running it completely by myself! And I think I did it mostly right! Except for the lung cells, because for some reason cells from the lungs are autoflourescent and are weird shapes, which kind of screws everything up...so I think I may have had the wrong settings for those samples, which would kind of suck. Anyway, I realized that for most of it, I totally knew what I was doing, and it was so gratifying. Plus, the data you get from these experiments is so much fun to analyze. I can seriously spend hours playing with it and not even realize the time has gone by.
9. Anyway. Last night I stumbled across a high school friend's wedding website. Okay, I knew she was engaged, yes, and that alone was shocking...but I guess it never really sunk in until I looked at the whole webpage! It was also weird to see her list of bridesmaids--who are pretty much all the girls that I still talk since graduation. Part of me felt weird at being left out when my other friends were included, but I mean, being completely honest, I was never really good friends with this girl. We were friends through a mutual friend, and we never really hit it off, I guess. But then I was thinkng about who my bridesmaids would be, hypothetically (oh god, right?), and realized that I would ask mainly my college friends. Then I wondered what this said about my friendships in high school, and those in college. (apparently, I'm really taking this literature of friendship class to heart) My friends here are certainly closer to me than my friends in high school were, for the most part. But why is that? Is this a quality of college itself, or is it something that has come with a greater knowledge of myself as I've gotten older? Is it something inherent to this particular school? I feel very strange coming to terms with this for some reason...perhaps out of wishing for an idyllic high school experience (haha), especially since I have this wonderful image of Stone Ridge in my head when I look back on it. This discussion isn't going anywhere, so I'll move on.
8. Among my other musings today. How quickly do recent things turn into shades of memory! I was listening to my iPod while running samples this evening, and came across a song that I listened to *non-stop* this summer--walking to work, from work, all over New Haven, on the train...just, all the time. And hearing it again completely conjured up the whole feeling of this summer for me, right now. It was really weird...how a song can just make you leap backwards in time, like you've never left it. And it struck me then how recent that was, but how long ago it seemed because of the song's effect on me. I suddenly remembered it all--the way the hallway in our apartment building smelled, my shoulder bag banging against my leg, the way the air felt on the morning of a hot day...also the feeling of freedom, to some extent, and recalling relationship weirdness. All from a single song. How crazy.
The phenomenon has happened to me before, but so long ago that it seems novel now. The last time was when I was in the 9th grade and we went to England for spring break...I copied my Sgt. Pepper CD onto a tape, and listened to that tape the whole trip...and I still remember that trip when I hear some of the songs from that album. Anyway. maybe this seems interesting to me only because it's almost 3 am.
7. I feel like I was thinking about a lot of other things today, but I can't remember them. I guess partially freaking out about all the work to be done over break--piles of reading, paper writing, and grad school application doing. carillon practicing. if my sister will deign to let me use the car, lol.
Speaking of carillon...
6. Yesterday, I went up to ring at 5pm--first ring back after Heel, and I was psyched to play again. I had my minidisc recorder all set to record...but the door to outside the cabin had been sealed!! Unbelievable. They had always said this was part of the plan, but we had always been promised *something*--speakers in the cabin (barf) or the windows would be un-sealed. But no...the whole thing was sealed. Yeah. It was impossible to hear anything...I have no idea what I sounded like. It's so frustrating, because I feel like we're totally helpless in this situation. Logic, reason, musical sense, carillon sense have all been appealed to--the administration won't have any of it! And it's just the saddest thing. Even if we get some sound restoration, that door will most likely remain closed fo us for a long time (if not forever)--and no one would get to see the bells, which is one of the most profound things I have experienced at Yale. It angers me so much that the administration can take this away because of fear of an accident that has a very, very small chance of happening. I'm so afraid of this ruining the way the carillon is experienced in the future--potentially, it will eventually be played by people who have never seen the bells...it's like playing blind. Okay, maybe it doesn't make that big of a difference...but I just can't imagine it. Argh.
On a more positive note (haha)...
5. Mini-tour to DC!!! Yaaay for guld folk staying at my house! It will be fun, and potentially crazy :)
4. Hm. I'm moved back into my room--yay! I've forgotten how much I like my room :) And now the ceiling is not falling apart!
3. I'm sleepy...so I'm going to cut this off before I get to 1. :)
Happy Yale-Harvard day!
10. Yes, I came into the lab at 8:30 am, and left at 11:00 pm. I took a 25 minute break at around 4:30 to get a sandwich wrap, ate half of it, and then went back to the grind. It was a long day. Part of the problem is that I just work unbelievably slowly. I'm having these terrifying visions of my future, where my kids never get to see me because I'm always in the lab. Please don't let that be my life!
On the other hand, when I was at the very end (around 8 or 9 pm), running my samples through this huge awesome machine (that's incredibly confusing to learn how to use and set up), and it was my first time running it completely by myself! And I think I did it mostly right! Except for the lung cells, because for some reason cells from the lungs are autoflourescent and are weird shapes, which kind of screws everything up...so I think I may have had the wrong settings for those samples, which would kind of suck. Anyway, I realized that for most of it, I totally knew what I was doing, and it was so gratifying. Plus, the data you get from these experiments is so much fun to analyze. I can seriously spend hours playing with it and not even realize the time has gone by.
9. Anyway. Last night I stumbled across a high school friend's wedding website. Okay, I knew she was engaged, yes, and that alone was shocking...but I guess it never really sunk in until I looked at the whole webpage! It was also weird to see her list of bridesmaids--who are pretty much all the girls that I still talk since graduation. Part of me felt weird at being left out when my other friends were included, but I mean, being completely honest, I was never really good friends with this girl. We were friends through a mutual friend, and we never really hit it off, I guess. But then I was thinkng about who my bridesmaids would be, hypothetically (oh god, right?), and realized that I would ask mainly my college friends. Then I wondered what this said about my friendships in high school, and those in college. (apparently, I'm really taking this literature of friendship class to heart) My friends here are certainly closer to me than my friends in high school were, for the most part. But why is that? Is this a quality of college itself, or is it something that has come with a greater knowledge of myself as I've gotten older? Is it something inherent to this particular school? I feel very strange coming to terms with this for some reason...perhaps out of wishing for an idyllic high school experience (haha), especially since I have this wonderful image of Stone Ridge in my head when I look back on it. This discussion isn't going anywhere, so I'll move on.
8. Among my other musings today. How quickly do recent things turn into shades of memory! I was listening to my iPod while running samples this evening, and came across a song that I listened to *non-stop* this summer--walking to work, from work, all over New Haven, on the train...just, all the time. And hearing it again completely conjured up the whole feeling of this summer for me, right now. It was really weird...how a song can just make you leap backwards in time, like you've never left it. And it struck me then how recent that was, but how long ago it seemed because of the song's effect on me. I suddenly remembered it all--the way the hallway in our apartment building smelled, my shoulder bag banging against my leg, the way the air felt on the morning of a hot day...also the feeling of freedom, to some extent, and recalling relationship weirdness. All from a single song. How crazy.
The phenomenon has happened to me before, but so long ago that it seems novel now. The last time was when I was in the 9th grade and we went to England for spring break...I copied my Sgt. Pepper CD onto a tape, and listened to that tape the whole trip...and I still remember that trip when I hear some of the songs from that album. Anyway. maybe this seems interesting to me only because it's almost 3 am.
7. I feel like I was thinking about a lot of other things today, but I can't remember them. I guess partially freaking out about all the work to be done over break--piles of reading, paper writing, and grad school application doing. carillon practicing. if my sister will deign to let me use the car, lol.
Speaking of carillon...
6. Yesterday, I went up to ring at 5pm--first ring back after Heel, and I was psyched to play again. I had my minidisc recorder all set to record...but the door to outside the cabin had been sealed!! Unbelievable. They had always said this was part of the plan, but we had always been promised *something*--speakers in the cabin (barf) or the windows would be un-sealed. But no...the whole thing was sealed. Yeah. It was impossible to hear anything...I have no idea what I sounded like. It's so frustrating, because I feel like we're totally helpless in this situation. Logic, reason, musical sense, carillon sense have all been appealed to--the administration won't have any of it! And it's just the saddest thing. Even if we get some sound restoration, that door will most likely remain closed fo us for a long time (if not forever)--and no one would get to see the bells, which is one of the most profound things I have experienced at Yale. It angers me so much that the administration can take this away because of fear of an accident that has a very, very small chance of happening. I'm so afraid of this ruining the way the carillon is experienced in the future--potentially, it will eventually be played by people who have never seen the bells...it's like playing blind. Okay, maybe it doesn't make that big of a difference...but I just can't imagine it. Argh.
On a more positive note (haha)...
5. Mini-tour to DC!!! Yaaay for guld folk staying at my house! It will be fun, and potentially crazy :)
4. Hm. I'm moved back into my room--yay! I've forgotten how much I like my room :) And now the ceiling is not falling apart!
3. I'm sleepy...so I'm going to cut this off before I get to 1. :)
Happy Yale-Harvard day!