Wow, I certainly have been ignoring my pages lately. Diana and I intend to go crazy with the scanner this weekend, however...The early portion of the week was rather discouraging - finished in two days what I had intended for only one - but today was good. Learned how to use the dry box (big expensive box with many valves that maintains a dry nitrogen atmosphere for air and water sensitive reactions) - I'll be trying it myself tomorrow! As long as I open all the valves in the proper order and get the hang of the huge gloves that are attached for working in there I should be alright.
I've been enjoying the Summer Festival here in Ann Arbor - particularly Top of the Park where they show free movies on the top of a parking structure every night of the festival. I stay late at work and then head off to the movies a block away! Monday was "Footloose", today we're catching "Somewhere in Time". Lots of people, good movies and sno cones - what more could you ask for on a hot summer evening?
Finally learned how to use the NMR on my own last night - and ran my very first sample by myself! If you've ever seen the impressive looking machine (huge superconducting magnet and all) you'll perhaps understand my excitement. Plus, now I no longer have to wait for a grad student to be free to run NMR - a good thing since I have a whole lot of them to run. Now if only I could get my distillations to work...
Things are looking much better today - although I gave a rather confusing and nervous presentation this morning at group meeting, I'm feeling a bit more positive. And this evening I take off for maryland to attend my cousin's wedding, and see my older sister for the first time since december =).I also figured out how to ftp from my computer at home, so now I can use the beautiful scanner in my house to play with my webpages. I already have some stashed in the Pix folder - check it out. Disclaimer: not all of them work, the result of several botched attempts I have yet to delete.
I think I can safely say I just had the worst afternoon I've ever had in lab. The clamp on my distillation apparatus failed just as the distillation was starting, dumping the apparatus into the oil bath along with a lot of water from the ice bath next to it, causing a huge overflow of oil across half the hood. Then it fell again as I was trying to clean up the oil, breaking the short-path distillation head, the flask with my product, and the thermometer. Luckily no mercury spilled. I think it's time to go home and hope things go better tomorrow.
It's pouring rain outside right now - a good day to be inside, which is convenient since that's exactly where I have to be all day. Currently in the middle of my fourth day at work in Coleen Pugh's laboratory at University of Michigan, working on liquid crystals. Mostly so far I've been introduced to a lot of things, done four hours of glassware inventory, and run a reaction. I have to be reminded of all the organic chemistry I filed in the deep recesses of my brain after my Orgo final. It's there ... somewhere.I still miss swat rather heavily, particularly when I'm not in the midst of doing anything. Still watching lots of movies and relaxing in the spaciousness of a house to ourselves. And getting lots of sleep.
Here I sit safely back in good old Ann Arbor. I can't believe that I've really left Swarthmore for the summer. After the business of school it seems rather empty here. That and one of my cats died the day before I could return and see him. I think maybe I'm more calm about leaving this year - it hurts but I think deep down I know I'll see my friends again, something I didn't really feel confident about last year. It's still sad to be alone, though. Hopefully it'll be better once I start working.
Two exams down, but a whole load of work left to go. I'm currently breaking from writing up my take-home english final, after which I desperately need to work on my embryo paper. I have a lot of research left to do, and then I need to make some graphics and web it all, although I suspect that'll be rather fun. And there's one more exam left to take. It'll all be over soon...On the non-work side, I'm beginning to really feel the sadness of having to leave Swarthmore at the end of this coming week. I know the summer will be great and I am in need of a break from all the work (see above) but I hate leaving all my friends behind. It feels like my heart is being torn away every time I go - I remember all too well from last year and I'm not looking forward to experiencing it all over again.
Today was the last day of classes - I can hardly believe that I'm almost done for the year! It's a bittersweet feeling, however, for while I'm happy to be going home to see friends there, it breaks my heart to leave all my friends here - especially the graduating seniors. I'm trying to live in denial, but as the end creeps up...In honor of the last day of classes I've managed to get absolutely no work done all day. I spent a good couple of hours in a vicious battle with the scanner and a bunch of pesky macs, but finally managed to scan some photos, and then spent a while making some funky backgrounds and symbols with Adobe Photoshop. That thing is dangerously addictive...just ask Evan...
I'm currently deep in the process of researching my Embryology final paper on discordant monozygotic twins. I'm focusing on the potential relationship between X-inactivation and female monozygotic twinning - very interesting stuff.Had the most incredible hail storm during dinner - lasted only 15 minutes, but what a show!