Passion

It's been a good week. I haven't had much to do in lab, so I've been relaxing and getting settled in. I cleared off my bench space, scrubbed a year's worth of dirt off some shelves, washed out some drawers, and voila! My workspace now looks clean and shiny and new. The lab is only a few years old, and it's amazing how many years a little bit of Seventh Generation can take off. I chose some lab tape colors and labeled my pipetmen and a freezer box, so I've officially "moved in." Yesterday I started cloning some stuff for Erica. I'm taking off next week, so there's not a lot I can do before I go, but I've run some PCRs and a few gels and maybe I can get a couple genes into some vectors before vacation. At any rate, it feels good to be doing stuff and not just sitting around.

I've been working on my cousin's wedding gift, and have realized that I need to knit about eight square inches a day between now and July 6th. This is... absurd. Someone told me today that you technically have a year after the wedding before your gift is "late," so I might have to give her a small swatch and send the whole thing a month or so later. It really shouldn't take too much longer, but I think squeezing the entire thing in before July 6th is maybe a little unfeasible, given that I'll be driving across the country for three weeks beforehand. How much knitting can I really get done while I'm vacationing?
At any rate, I was afraid of the yarn for a little while, but I washed a few swatches and they look AWESOME. I think it's gonna be a good gift. Also, I bought three times as much yarn as I needed, so, um... gifts for other people might follow, depending on how much of which colors I'm left with at the end of this project.

Anyway.

Today I kissed someone I should probably definitely not have kissed. But it was totally one of those, "I know I shouldn't be doing this, but I sooo don't care" moments. Actually, he kissed me, so I dunno what I'm complaining about. I'm not culpable.

Also, my labmate took me to a new coffeeshop today (new to me) to buy me coffee for helping her move boxes, and while we were there she picked up a few pieces of chocolate they had in a bin by the register. "Have you had these?" she asked me, "They're really good." And then she handed me a piece of Scharffen Berger 70%, and I almost fell over. Scharffen Berger is made in Berkeley, and I toured the factory last spring when I interviewed at UCB. It's my favorite kind of chocolate IN THE WHOLE WORLD, and I bought a ton of it at Trader Joe's in Santa Cruz while I still lived there. I haven't been able to find it ANYWHERE on the east coast, so Mom sent me some for Easter. I was floored--this coffeeshop in downtown New Haven carries four different kinds. Including the nibby bars. *california-chocolate-gasm*

Today was SUCH a good day.

EDIT: Also, it is pouring rain. *HAPPY*
EDIT EDIT: Not just pouring rain... it's a full-on thunderstorm, with lightning and huge claps of thunder right overhead. I love summer so much I think I might burst.

This will be a short entry, but I wanted to make a quick update before running off to lab. Today is going to be long and busy. Technically, this particular five minutes was scheduled to be spent reading a paper for tonight's discussion, but I'm so far behind on my schedule anyway that I figured I'll just move around things like food in order to get all my work done.

Saturday was good--I attended a swing dancing workshop and sort of learned to dance. It was a lot of fun, but of course I can't remember any of the steps. I'm way too uncoordinated. I think that now I could probably find the beat without assistance, and for the most part I can land on the right foot at the end of each 8-count, but the first seven counts generally have me flumoxed.

Sunday I had brunch with some other grad students. I'm now a graduate affiliate for Pierson college, so the brunch thing was sort of like an orientation for the two of us who are new to the program this year. They gave us a tour of the facilities, and handed out our meal cards. I get three free meals a week at Pierson. So now all I have to do is find three times a week that I can physically make it to the college. Do I have time for this??? Probably not. Sounds like typical me.

Monday and yesterday were fairly mundane. I finally finished watching the second season of Lost, and might actually be able to get some work done now. Hahahaha...

Today I'm going to an informational meeting for a magazine written by and for science graduate students. I would love to be an editor for it--I miss yearbook, oddly enough--but since I barely have time to breathe as it is, I'm not sure if that's really such a smart idea. We'll see. I'll go to the informational meeting and then make some sort of decision as to what my schedule can handle and what it can't.

Chocolate party tonight. I tried to make a chocolate cheesecake, which basically involved melting chocolate into the crust, but I'm not sure if it worked. I guess I'll find out tonight, and if it turns out to taste awful, I won't tell anyone that I made it. I'm still not sure how I'm getting the cheesecake physically to the party... I really don't want to have a cheesecake with me during genetics discussion. That's just way too tempting.

All right, now I'm going to be late for lab.