Breathing again

The boss was out all last week, and as soon as Monday hit, stress set in quite heavily. At least the past week was relaxing, as was my weekend. The work week was coated with a lackadaisical, yet productive attitude. I was left with 10+ e-mails on the Sunday the 22nd for things to fix or get done during the time my boss was away in California meeting with our research financier/donor. Meanwhile, I was in charge. I managed to get a lot of things up and running in the lab that had been eluding me for months, which was a great relief when my boss came back. Though no real science on my part took place, it felt good to get a lot of little, yet not-so-little things out of the way, such as designating particular areas of the lab for certain procedures in order to prevent contamination of samples, setting up newly ordered equipment, and writing up routine protocols to file away should anyone need it. The week would not have been complete without an ice-cream run to the Dairy Bar or two, and thus we went as a lab.

By Friday, I had completed almost every task left to me, at least to some extent, and with our lack of weekly happy hour (curse you, Spring Break!), I went home exhausted and chilled with Corey and her mommy, who was up to visit. The next morning, on a whim, I decided to drive home to NJ and spend some time with my family and friends. Though unexpected on their part, they were all happy to spend some time with me, and I had a blast. Despite the drive, and freaking out about my sister's upcoming sweet sixteen, it was quite a relaxing weekend. I got to see my friend Jess whom I hadn't seen in years ... it was way overdue, and in an instant, as if no time had passed at all, we just caught up and sadly departed. I was so glad to see her, and hope to see/hear from her more often now (I hope she reads this, too) :p

I got back to Ithaca on Sunday night around 7pm with little to no traffic on the roads, despite the return of the students to the university. There were an alarming number of cops on the road, but none stopped for me. Perhaps they were afraid of racial profiling. That's what I tell myself, anyway. I returned to find Corey making some delicious chili, which she lovingly shared with me. We then played some Spyro, frustrated that we couldn't beat the final level, but we did last night, so triumphantly we moved onto our next game. Note - "Fury Power" in Spyro is mad OP.

The Monday work day was hectic due to an upcoming Open Lab that we had today, where many important people in Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), in addition to the entire Entomology Department, were invited to come visit our newly renovated lab and see what type of science goes on. Each lab member was responsible for some kind of demonstration of fancy equipment in our lab in addition to talking about individual research. I was in charge of the microinjector and successfully inserted a pulled microcapillary into my tiny aphid, injecting a blue dye that was seen through its semi-transluscent cuticle. The dye ended up flowing around the inside of the aphid, which looked like Rorshak's mask from Watchmen. It was awesome. We were stressed out about it up until the time it began, but it ended up being much less stressful than anticipated, which was a welcome relief. All in all, it was successful because we had many interested people talk to us about using our equipment and sharing knowledge about insect systems and such. Plus, they didn't eat all of our food, so we have plenty of goodies to carry us through the rest of the week.

And now, I'm probably heading home early since I arrived at 8am this morning, and taking a nap. I'm excited for the rest of the day for various reasons. One, I just got a free sandwich from Jimmy John's delivery people who were making rounds in our building. Free food makes my day. Two, I learned that Entomology volleyball is starting up again, with two games tonight. I'm psyched. And three, Corey and I are signing for our summer sublet today, which I can't wait to move into. Hopefully, the rest of the week holds up well enough. And maybe I'll get some science done for once! It's been far too long since I've written in my lab notebook.

Also, promise I'll post my Wordles up at some point :)

Edit: We won enough matches to play in the competitive volleyball league, as opposed to the recreational league. Go Jugatae Tiger Beetles!