Life in the Lab
I didn't think this would be particularly notable. It's a lot more notable than my time at home, if that's any indication why I haven't updated much this past year. Then again, it's more like, most of my life over the past year I didn't find particularly notable, except the part that I consider too personal for livejournal. Imagine that. But I thought I'd make more of an effort to record my adventures here for my future self whenever I get bored or curious.
Today, Kathleen had a to-do list written down for all of us and there were quite a few tasks on it. She's told me about her lists before, but this is the first time since working there that I actually saw one, and then one with me included on it. My tasks were fairly basic, and I'm sure if I weren't a newb, it wouldn't have taken me all day (all day being two hours...). But I'm a newb, and there was a lot more amusement today than I expected.
The first task she had me do was refill the ethanol bottles, which was fine. But then I had to make more, requiring a simple dilution. Of course, she says simple, and I say simple, because it's simple. Just add water...after some math to figure out just how much. The math is simple, too, but it seems to be one of those things that I couldn't quite wrap my brain around and therefore I sat down looking like a dummy for 15 minutes trying to calculate the dilution. Which I wanted to do myself anyway, but it seems that she had that in mind for me, too. She asked me if I wanted a hint, to which I said no. Then she went on to drop them anyway. As I told DDN (Deak, Deryn, Nat) today, I think that was the closest she has come to getting on my nerves. And actually, thinking on it, I suppose she actually did since in the moment, I classified that as slightly annoying. Perhaps she saw this as a pride issue. I understand that she didn't want me to sit there frustrated, and I agree that there was a pride issue. I felt I should be able to do that calculation easily. But I also felt that if I didn't sit there and make my brain reason it out and understand on its own, I wouldn't be able to do the calculation without her help next time. I've already watched her do the calculation before another solution. It didn't help. I think though, that I may have a handle on it now.
I believe I did the dishes next, and loaded the dishwasher on my own for the first time (I've only ever watched her unload it). I sort of waited around to see if she wanted to come observe me, and then figured, "it's just a frickn dishwasher," and went to go plunge in on my own. Which was fine and I felt confident enough that I had done it right...until I got to the top rack and couldn't find the basket she had used to hold the stir bars. I didn't remember specifically what it looked like, but I figured I'd recognize it when I saw it. Screwed around with the dishwasher parts until I concluded that everything available was just too awkward or stupid to work. Threw the stirbars in a nearby container that seemed the most logical choice (yet illogical...it wasn't secure) and resignedly went back down the hall to ask Kathleen to check my work for me. Seems stupid to have to check my work on a "frickn dishwasher" but, well, I wasn't about to start it up with the top rack set as stupidly as it was. When Matt moved to come with us, I asked him if he came to observe my epic fail. Turns out, the rack I was looking for was not in its usual spot. Even if I had noticed it, I wouldn't have suspected that it went with the dishwasher because it was holding a bunch of stuff from someone else. As Matt said, it was someone else's fail. I felt better after that.
The last task was to take out the trash, which Matt showed me how to do (it's trash that had been autoclaved; slightly less straightforward than normal). His "tutorial" had me doubled over and laughing within seconds.
The other moment I'd like to mention was when Kathleen was waiting for water to boil. I guess she had been waiting for 2 hours? It finally started after she declared that we were done and Matt had left. But before that, there was a moment where she turned to me, grabbed my lab coat (with her bare hands? Seems like you shouldn't touch the outside of the lab coat without gloves) and shook me, saying she was close to snapping (in the amusing sort of way that is her way of venting in a comedic way....if that makes any sense whatsoever). I was like, "yep, that's normal," because really...Kathleen randomly shaking me while growling about something completely unrelated to me is normal. Matt was entertained...yet mildly disturbed.
Ah yes, the glove thing. At the beginning of our day, Kathleen was briefing me about refilling the ethanol bottles. She stooped down, retrieved a bottle of ethanol from a box on the floor, and then handed it to me. Both of us without gloves. I got around to where the first ethanol bottle was...we use those a lot with our gloves on, so after a moment of confusion, I asked her whether I was supposed to refill the those with gloves or not. Seems trivial, but we really try to keep that separated. Kathleen chuckled and said, "see? I make stupid mistakes. Now you have to wash your hands." So heh, we both washed our hands. Joyous.
Kathleen fed the koi today. She probably will do so tomorrow, too. I kind of want to, but I figure Kathleen likes the excuse to get away from the lab twice a day. I've taken to calling the calico one Notroxie. Kathleen was telling Melanie (her roommate) how that particular fish looked sort of like Melanie's cat and that perhaps she should name her Roxie (the cat's name). Melanie was very not amused. And Kathleen was like, "or not..." I was very amused. So...Notroxie. The orange&white one and the orange&black one don't really have names yet. Hehe, perhaps I can call the orange&white one Peaches since I associate that color combo with him, and the orange&black one Pea since I associate that color combo with her (and her kitten costume). That's sort of amusing since the orange&black one is the biggest of the three while the orange&white one is the smallest.
Ah, one more thing. I was in contact with Doc today about band camp since I'll have to miss a significant portion of it for a class. At the end of the day, I checked my e-mail and got one back from him saying, "You and I think alike." I groaned and said out loud, "that's not exactly what I wanted to hear." Doc isn't a bad guy, just not someone I want to be when I grow up. Kathleen saw the e-mail and was very amused.
Today, Kathleen had a to-do list written down for all of us and there were quite a few tasks on it. She's told me about her lists before, but this is the first time since working there that I actually saw one, and then one with me included on it. My tasks were fairly basic, and I'm sure if I weren't a newb, it wouldn't have taken me all day (all day being two hours...). But I'm a newb, and there was a lot more amusement today than I expected.
The first task she had me do was refill the ethanol bottles, which was fine. But then I had to make more, requiring a simple dilution. Of course, she says simple, and I say simple, because it's simple. Just add water...after some math to figure out just how much. The math is simple, too, but it seems to be one of those things that I couldn't quite wrap my brain around and therefore I sat down looking like a dummy for 15 minutes trying to calculate the dilution. Which I wanted to do myself anyway, but it seems that she had that in mind for me, too. She asked me if I wanted a hint, to which I said no. Then she went on to drop them anyway. As I told DDN (Deak, Deryn, Nat) today, I think that was the closest she has come to getting on my nerves. And actually, thinking on it, I suppose she actually did since in the moment, I classified that as slightly annoying. Perhaps she saw this as a pride issue. I understand that she didn't want me to sit there frustrated, and I agree that there was a pride issue. I felt I should be able to do that calculation easily. But I also felt that if I didn't sit there and make my brain reason it out and understand on its own, I wouldn't be able to do the calculation without her help next time. I've already watched her do the calculation before another solution. It didn't help. I think though, that I may have a handle on it now.
I believe I did the dishes next, and loaded the dishwasher on my own for the first time (I've only ever watched her unload it). I sort of waited around to see if she wanted to come observe me, and then figured, "it's just a frickn dishwasher," and went to go plunge in on my own. Which was fine and I felt confident enough that I had done it right...until I got to the top rack and couldn't find the basket she had used to hold the stir bars. I didn't remember specifically what it looked like, but I figured I'd recognize it when I saw it. Screwed around with the dishwasher parts until I concluded that everything available was just too awkward or stupid to work. Threw the stirbars in a nearby container that seemed the most logical choice (yet illogical...it wasn't secure) and resignedly went back down the hall to ask Kathleen to check my work for me. Seems stupid to have to check my work on a "frickn dishwasher" but, well, I wasn't about to start it up with the top rack set as stupidly as it was. When Matt moved to come with us, I asked him if he came to observe my epic fail. Turns out, the rack I was looking for was not in its usual spot. Even if I had noticed it, I wouldn't have suspected that it went with the dishwasher because it was holding a bunch of stuff from someone else. As Matt said, it was someone else's fail. I felt better after that.
The last task was to take out the trash, which Matt showed me how to do (it's trash that had been autoclaved; slightly less straightforward than normal). His "tutorial" had me doubled over and laughing within seconds.
The other moment I'd like to mention was when Kathleen was waiting for water to boil. I guess she had been waiting for 2 hours? It finally started after she declared that we were done and Matt had left. But before that, there was a moment where she turned to me, grabbed my lab coat (with her bare hands? Seems like you shouldn't touch the outside of the lab coat without gloves) and shook me, saying she was close to snapping (in the amusing sort of way that is her way of venting in a comedic way....if that makes any sense whatsoever). I was like, "yep, that's normal," because really...Kathleen randomly shaking me while growling about something completely unrelated to me is normal. Matt was entertained...yet mildly disturbed.
Ah yes, the glove thing. At the beginning of our day, Kathleen was briefing me about refilling the ethanol bottles. She stooped down, retrieved a bottle of ethanol from a box on the floor, and then handed it to me. Both of us without gloves. I got around to where the first ethanol bottle was...we use those a lot with our gloves on, so after a moment of confusion, I asked her whether I was supposed to refill the those with gloves or not. Seems trivial, but we really try to keep that separated. Kathleen chuckled and said, "see? I make stupid mistakes. Now you have to wash your hands." So heh, we both washed our hands. Joyous.
Kathleen fed the koi today. She probably will do so tomorrow, too. I kind of want to, but I figure Kathleen likes the excuse to get away from the lab twice a day. I've taken to calling the calico one Notroxie. Kathleen was telling Melanie (her roommate) how that particular fish looked sort of like Melanie's cat and that perhaps she should name her Roxie (the cat's name). Melanie was very not amused. And Kathleen was like, "or not..." I was very amused. So...Notroxie. The orange&white one and the orange&black one don't really have names yet. Hehe, perhaps I can call the orange&white one Peaches since I associate that color combo with him, and the orange&black one Pea since I associate that color combo with her (and her kitten costume). That's sort of amusing since the orange&black one is the biggest of the three while the orange&white one is the smallest.
Ah, one more thing. I was in contact with Doc today about band camp since I'll have to miss a significant portion of it for a class. At the end of the day, I checked my e-mail and got one back from him saying, "You and I think alike." I groaned and said out loud, "that's not exactly what I wanted to hear." Doc isn't a bad guy, just not someone I want to be when I grow up. Kathleen saw the e-mail and was very amused.