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Jul. 2nd, 2005 10:37 pmWow. So much has been going on lately....
I started TA'ing for COSMOS this week. Tuesday was the first day. Sunday I'd come down with a nasty cold, so Tuesday morning I was medicated, caffeinated, headachy, and carrying half a box of Kleenex with me so I could blow my nose every three seconds. Great way to meet the kids. Also, the first day was a field trip, and I've never driven a van before... (does anyone see where this story is going?) So we piled the kids into three vans, and started off down the hill towards Long Marine Lab. About halfway down the gas pedal stopped working, so I put my foot on the brake and started to pull over. Mary, the other TA, was in the passenger's seat, so we whispered back and forth for a second about what to do--and then the brake pedal stopped working, and so did the steering. Narrowly missing a telephone pole (it's hard to pull over without steering), I managed to get to the side of the road and stop the stupid van. It was off. I turned it back on and after a moment we decided to keep going to the marine lab... The six kids in the back were all sort of stunned, and when I almost hit the telephone pole they freaked out. *sigh* Wonderful first day. Anyway, Mary took the van back to transportation services and it turns out that this particular kind of van is completely operated by computer, and sometimes the computer has "hiccups" and randomly turns off. Completely unpreventable, but not something I provoked.
Thursday was better. I drove a different van, joked with the kids, and only needed a quarter of a box of Kleenex. I think they're still afraid I'm going to kill them, though. And they've figured out I'm not cool.
Friday I didn't do much. It was an indoor day and they didn't really require the help of the TA's... so I just sort of walked around the lab and tried to look useful. I've never felt more conspicuous.
I've also been working on my thesis all week. I finally understand what went wrong the first time I did the Phen Green assay, at least on the no cells plate. Turns out the Phen Green has to be cleaved by an esterase before it will fluoresce, which is normally taken care of by normal cellular esterase activity, but obviously on the no cells plate there wouldn't be any esterase. So that's why that plate didn't fluoresce. I still don't know why the cells plate gave a backwards curve, though. It doesn't make any sense the way the data turned out. So I'm running the assay again next week. I just need to start some cells this week and do a dry run to see if I can solve the bubble problem we had last time, where the whole plate was covered in bubbles from the pippetting by the time I assayed it.
Um... I guess most of that made little to no sense to most of you. Never mind. The important part is that I'm working on my thesis when I'm not teaching high school kids who think I'm psycho and uncool.
I was supposed to have an appointment with a specialist on Thursday about the endometriosis, so I left campus early, rode my bike to the metro center, and took a bus to the hospital. It took me almost an hour to get there. I walked in, told the receptionist who I was and that I was there to see Dr. Muir, and she looked at me with these big round eyes and said, "Dr Muir? She's... in surgery... all day today... No one called you to cancel?" No. No one called to cancel.
I've been rescheduled to see a different doctor two weeks from now, and I'm still really upset about it. When I walked out of the office Thursday afternoon, I actually burst into tears. I mean, it's only two weeks, and it's only a different doctor... but... it's a different doctor. And I thought something was finally going to get done. I'm sick of being in pain all the time. The only thing so far that does any amount of good is being on the pill. So I started my period yesterday and have been in excruciating pain since yesterday evening. My last period was in April in order to keep me on the pill, and God knows when my next one will be. I've been on the pill continuously and that seems to be the only thing that keeps the pain from completely crippling me. That's not to say it stops it, though. I've been in pain pretty continuously for about six months now. And I've been having pain for about seven years. So two weeks may not seem like a lot, but I was hoping to have surgery within the next month, and an extra two weeks and a different doctor might mean it will be a lot longer before I get the surgery. I'm upset and frustrated and stressed out and... ugh! Angry too.
Lastly, could everyone just comment with the first ten or so names that come to mind? First names, first and middle names, favorite names, friends' names, boy names, girl names, whatever. I'm making a collection of names. The more the better. And the less common the better. That's not to say make up something weird--I just mean don't give me Jessica or Michael or Katie six times.
Thanks.
Oh yeah, and I'm lonely. None of my friends are in Santa Cruz. So call me.
I started TA'ing for COSMOS this week. Tuesday was the first day. Sunday I'd come down with a nasty cold, so Tuesday morning I was medicated, caffeinated, headachy, and carrying half a box of Kleenex with me so I could blow my nose every three seconds. Great way to meet the kids. Also, the first day was a field trip, and I've never driven a van before... (does anyone see where this story is going?) So we piled the kids into three vans, and started off down the hill towards Long Marine Lab. About halfway down the gas pedal stopped working, so I put my foot on the brake and started to pull over. Mary, the other TA, was in the passenger's seat, so we whispered back and forth for a second about what to do--and then the brake pedal stopped working, and so did the steering. Narrowly missing a telephone pole (it's hard to pull over without steering), I managed to get to the side of the road and stop the stupid van. It was off. I turned it back on and after a moment we decided to keep going to the marine lab... The six kids in the back were all sort of stunned, and when I almost hit the telephone pole they freaked out. *sigh* Wonderful first day. Anyway, Mary took the van back to transportation services and it turns out that this particular kind of van is completely operated by computer, and sometimes the computer has "hiccups" and randomly turns off. Completely unpreventable, but not something I provoked.
Thursday was better. I drove a different van, joked with the kids, and only needed a quarter of a box of Kleenex. I think they're still afraid I'm going to kill them, though. And they've figured out I'm not cool.
Friday I didn't do much. It was an indoor day and they didn't really require the help of the TA's... so I just sort of walked around the lab and tried to look useful. I've never felt more conspicuous.
I've also been working on my thesis all week. I finally understand what went wrong the first time I did the Phen Green assay, at least on the no cells plate. Turns out the Phen Green has to be cleaved by an esterase before it will fluoresce, which is normally taken care of by normal cellular esterase activity, but obviously on the no cells plate there wouldn't be any esterase. So that's why that plate didn't fluoresce. I still don't know why the cells plate gave a backwards curve, though. It doesn't make any sense the way the data turned out. So I'm running the assay again next week. I just need to start some cells this week and do a dry run to see if I can solve the bubble problem we had last time, where the whole plate was covered in bubbles from the pippetting by the time I assayed it.
Um... I guess most of that made little to no sense to most of you. Never mind. The important part is that I'm working on my thesis when I'm not teaching high school kids who think I'm psycho and uncool.
I was supposed to have an appointment with a specialist on Thursday about the endometriosis, so I left campus early, rode my bike to the metro center, and took a bus to the hospital. It took me almost an hour to get there. I walked in, told the receptionist who I was and that I was there to see Dr. Muir, and she looked at me with these big round eyes and said, "Dr Muir? She's... in surgery... all day today... No one called you to cancel?" No. No one called to cancel.
I've been rescheduled to see a different doctor two weeks from now, and I'm still really upset about it. When I walked out of the office Thursday afternoon, I actually burst into tears. I mean, it's only two weeks, and it's only a different doctor... but... it's a different doctor. And I thought something was finally going to get done. I'm sick of being in pain all the time. The only thing so far that does any amount of good is being on the pill. So I started my period yesterday and have been in excruciating pain since yesterday evening. My last period was in April in order to keep me on the pill, and God knows when my next one will be. I've been on the pill continuously and that seems to be the only thing that keeps the pain from completely crippling me. That's not to say it stops it, though. I've been in pain pretty continuously for about six months now. And I've been having pain for about seven years. So two weeks may not seem like a lot, but I was hoping to have surgery within the next month, and an extra two weeks and a different doctor might mean it will be a lot longer before I get the surgery. I'm upset and frustrated and stressed out and... ugh! Angry too.
Lastly, could everyone just comment with the first ten or so names that come to mind? First names, first and middle names, favorite names, friends' names, boy names, girl names, whatever. I'm making a collection of names. The more the better. And the less common the better. That's not to say make up something weird--I just mean don't give me Jessica or Michael or Katie six times.
Thanks.
Oh yeah, and I'm lonely. None of my friends are in Santa Cruz. So call me.
