Work and Vacations

I haven't blogged in a while because things are just normal. Nothing big has happened. Work is still awesome, and I love it every day. Things have slowed down a lot this past week. We finished our control experiment, so we can't move further until the ozone machine is fixed. In the meantime I have been running lots of multiplexes for Laura. It gets really old doing the same thing over and over, but I'm glad I have something to do at all. Many of the students spend hours everyday just sitting around, reading journal articles, and killing time on the internet. It's difficult for their supervisors because they are really busy and just don't have time to teach them everything. David has ended up just kind of tagging along with whatever I do. Sometimes I really appreciate it, and other times I find it really annoying. It depends on my mood.

Today I am running my first ELISA all on my own. I have very specific directions, and I've done pieces of it multiple times. But I've never done one from beginning to end by myself. Judy is out of town until Thursday, so I don't have her to answer my questions and guide me through. Luckily Lesly is nearby and she does lots of ELISAs and she is very helpful. The most critical and easily messed up part is the standards and samples. That step came at about 10am this morning. I had to calculate how much standard I needed to make up the concentration I wanted. But I didn't know the starting concentration of the stock solution. This should be written on the tube that I took the standard out of. There was something written on it, but unfortunately it was completely illegible. I looked up the product number on the chemical manufacturers' website, and I couldn't find it. So I went on a hunt to find who wrote on the tube, and ask him what it said. I found him and asked, and he couldn't read his own writing. So he went into his lab notebook and found where he wrote it in there. How annoying! In a lab, writing legibly is very important for this exact reason. So I wasted about 30 minutes doing that. Then I felt a lot of pressure to hurry because the last incubation period was ending. I had exactly enough supernatant for two plates. If there were any errors in my calculations or pipetting, then I would be short. It took me about 30 minutes to make up my sample dilutions. It was a very stressful 30 minutes. If I accidentally pipetted the wrong amount, or into the wrong well, then the whole thing would be wasted and I would have to start over from the beginning- which means sacrificing more mice and the whole thing. That would be terrible. But I got through it, and overall it went pretty well. I was a little short on some wells, but I noted it in my lab notebook and I'll figure it out later. The rest of it is pretty easy, but boring. I have to wait 2 hours between each step so I may be here pretty late today.

I've been talking to Judy about possibly working here full time after I graduate, until Daniel finishes and I start grad school. She seemed to think that's a great idea. Then I found out how much it pays. The starting rate is $23,000 a year. Yikes. I think that with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry I should be able to make more than that right out of school. With experience here, which I will have, I could start as high as $28,000. Better, but still not much. I have to think about that. Is it worth the guarantee, knowing who I'm working with and being familiar with the job? Or looking for a new job that may pay more, but I don't know anyone or how things work there?

Yesterday Daniel fixed my new bike! If you don't remember, I bought one at an auction on campus in May. It needed a little bit of work. Daniel got it from campus and took it to sports authority for a tune-up. There was pretty much nothing wrong with it, besides flat tires and a little dirt and grease. Last night we put new handlebar grips on it, and a new kick stand and it was good as new! We rode to the park and back on a beautiful night. I'm so happy I have a bike now! I guess it was a pretty good find, too. It was made in the 1990s and new it cost about $350! I spent 10% of that. Plus the tune-up and the new grips and kickstand, it probably cost me about $90.

I'm trying to figure out when I'm going to go visit my sister in Chicago now. I already got the okay to take off a Friday and a Monday to visit my brother. I decided that with airfare and hotel it would be too expensive. In Chicago, I can stay at my sister's apartment, and eat her food, so it will basically only cost me airfare. I'm so excited! I haven't seen Nicole in so long and I miss hanging out with her. There is nothing like your twin sister. We still know what each other is thinking and can finish each other's sentences after living apart for 3 years now. I'm also looking at going back to Phoenix at the end of August. Nicole will be there, so it will be a great chance for all the girls to go dress shopping and cake tasting! That also comes down to if I can get the time off. My presentation is on August 12, and I'll be in Estes Park with my parents the weekend after that. But I think once I present my project, I will be able to take some time off before school starts up again. I hope so anyways.

Daniel is still looking for a job. He is getting lots of stuff done at home though, and cooking me dinner every night. I like that :-) However, I don't like the money situation. We're doing fine, but it would be nice to have another income. He's trying so hard, and he won't give up until school starts again. We'll see. It's hard to plan a trip to Chicago when we don't know if he's going to have a job or not. We were looking at Egypt guide books last night. I'm going to buy one and start reading up on it. I think we've decided on Egypt for our honeymoon. It sounds so exotic, and when is a better time to go on an exotic vacation than your honeymoon? I'm so excited and it's a whole 18 months away!!