If I didn't have subgroup later this morning, would I still be here? I've been on autopilot for the past few hours... I don't know how I haven't blown up something yet ( Read more... )

Things have been going good for the past few days. I presented my research to the entire group on Wednesday for the first time and I actually had things to say, so that was somewhat gratifying. I also took the latter part of tonight off to catch the free skate - I never miss that! (right, ladyvokosigan?) Arakawa was both beautiful and a worthy champion. I ( Read more... )

I have never suffered so many mood-swings in a month, let alone a day. Grad school has a way of slamming you down, but thankfully it's with so much force that the laws of physics dictate you have to bounce back to a certain degree. I just had to stand back and laugh at any shortcomings I have and how grad school is an expert at bringing them all ( Read more... )

Things have been okay the past few days. Because of a broken clamp, on Sunday I spilled almost all the material I was going to talk about in subgroup the next day. It was pretty devastating but I had enough to take an NMR, and it actually looked okay. Thankfully my adviser seems to really be understanding about these things, and when I presented ( Read more... )

The honeymoon is over. Today marked the end of my fourth week in lab. For the most part things are okay, all my labmates are great, and I like spending time in lab, but there are so many setbacks and everything takes 4 times as long as I predict they will, keeping me there through class, meals and the night. But what's really getting to me are ( Read more... )

Today someone told me I talk just like John Waters (he played the gay guy on the Simpsons who ran a collectibles shop in the mall). It's not a big deal, but I would've never guessed because obviously I hear my voice differently than everyone else does. Do other people hear this too?

Tonight I went to a friend's birthday party in the city. She is 1/32nd black (she describes it as, "my mom's grandma was a quarter black"). The ironic thing is she's probably one of my whitest friends. It was the first time I sought out an Ebony birthday card and both the Safeway and Longs by my house do not carry them. There wasn't even a card ( Read more... )

I just started running the first organic reaction of my graduate student career ( Read more... )

One of my insecurities has always been my severe lack of hobbies. One of my least favorite questions is, "What do you do for fun?" Well, it's finally paying off. My non-existent outside-interests are going to make staying at lab all my waking hours a cinch. Why should I come home? All I'm going to do is browse the internet for hours and go to ( Read more... )

My aunt lives a fifth of a mile from my parents' house. We could literally have a conversation if we yelled at each other from our respective homes. Still, my mom and aunt refuse to let me walk from one house to the other after dark. Despite the trivial distance, they are afraid wild animals will attack me. I scoff but ultimately give in to ( Read more... )