So yesterday on the way home I wiped out on my bike and my backpack shoved my face into the sidewalk. I scraped my palms real good trying to stop, and I crushed the brakes into the front tire so that it can't turn, meaning I had to carry the bike home on it's rear wheel without using my palms, ha. I'm fine and Jack thinks he can fix the bike, and really I'm just grateful I didn't break anything or have any serious problems. I wasn't sure at first because I cut my forehead and there was no reflective surface around, so all I knew was that my head hurt and there was blood in my eye. Creepy. But it is actually a pretty small cut, so there you go. And luckily (a) it was a nice day out (as opposed to the rain the day before, and the rain today) and (b) I was only 3 blocks from my apartment, so it didn't take me that long to get home and clean up.The lab job is going steady. I make and run gels and make buffers and I enjoy it. When my post-doc is busy and has nothing for me to do I read, and lately I've been reading this American History book I have from a class I never finished a few years ago. It's actually pretty interesting. I like reading about colonization and various impressive characters. Maybe I'll get into it and start reading biographies and things. Or maybe not. But it's a good way to pass time now.I like biking home from lab (except for yesterday) because it's summer and the campus is nearly empty. It's almost like having the place to myself.Then I finish at the lab and go home to hours of utter freedom. I'm still not used to not having homework. I certainly don't miss it. I'm looking forward to the rest of the summer of not-having-homework, and getting to meet Rocket, seeing Jill again, seeing Julie, seeing Renata, and then Julie's wedding! Meanwhile, this is the awesome view from the window at my desk in lab:
I've had at least two nightmares involving me thinking I was done with finals only to find out that I still have to take my P chem final and I haven't been studying for it. It's great to wake up from those and remember that, no, I am done with the final, and moreso, I got an A in the class. I guess my subconscious just refuses to believe it.
I started my new job working in the Cate Lab yesterday. My superior taught me to make a few gels and buffers yesterday, and went through some basic procedures involving the sonicator and larger centrifuges. This morning I've made a few more solutions and now I'm waiting for them to fully dissolve. It already reminds me somewhat of working for the Chem storeroom at City College, and that's kind of nice. And, if nothing else, I'm making about the same amount I made working for Starbucks, but I never, ever have to deal with rude or insane customers. Or any customers for that matter. So I'm pretty happy.Meanwhile, even with work it still feels like vacation because when I go home from work, there's nothing I have to do. I love it. Last night Jack and I made some deli sandwiches (in his new toaster oven, woot) and watched maybe 5 episodes of LOST Season 5 (I'm just now catching up). And it was guiltless, and it was great. This free time should also allow me to workout more often and finish another scrapbook, etc. I'm very pleased.
I also have my apartment to myself, at least for the foreseeable future, because my roommate went back home for the summer. She may end up sub-letting her room, which is fine with me since it would only be through mid-August anyway, but for now I'm still paying only my half of the rent and getting the place to myself *and* knowing I get the same (awesome) roommate next semester. She really is idyllic for me--we are both pretty clean and we generally stay out of each others' way, but we get along well when we do interact. Love it.To top all of that good news off, Sarah is coming to visit. She gets in to Oakland in about an hour and a half. Sweet.So yeah, things are going really well. Glad for the break.
"...I'm not in business to give chances. I'm running a railroad." ~ Dagny
"That's an extremely narrow view, it seems to me. I don't see why we should want to help one man instead of a whole nation." - Jim
"I'm not interested in helping anybody. I want to make money." ~ Dagny
"The hours ahead, like all her nights with him, would be added, she thought, to the savings account of one's life where moments of time are stored in the pride of having been lived."
"I feel that others live up to me, if they want me." ~ Dagny
"My way of trading is to know that the joy you give me is paid for by the joy you get from me..." ~ Dagny
