Graduation continued

So after I opened gifts, the party started. A bunch of our friends came over. It was great because our family got to meet some of our closest friends. One of them came into the front door, looked at Nicole and said "Hi Rachel!" Daniel laughed and then she saw me and realized what happened. It was pretty funny. It doesn't happen too often anymore that we get mistaken for each other. So it's really fun when it does happen. We sat out in our backyard and watched the sun set. It was a beautiful evening. Warm, but with a cool breeze. We ate cake and had a champagne toast for all the graduates. My family and my friends got along great. I was so grateful to my friends for coming. I'm sure they were just as tired as I was, and had lots of graduation parties to go to, but they came to ours anyways. We have some really awesome friends. But everyone was tired, so the party ended early. By 11pm everyone had left and the whole house was cleaned up. There was so much leftover food it kind of made me anxious. It's hard to explain why leftovers make me anxious. I think because it was all junk food and perishable. And Daniel and I hate throwing out food and we try to eat very healthy. But it's three days later, and most of it is gone already.

The next morning Daniel and I drove Nicole and my mom to the airport (in our new car!). They flew from Denver to Barcelona for their cruise. We spent the rest of the day with Daniel's parents. The rest of my family all left to go home early that morning. Daniel's dad used that time to interview us on video for our wedding slideshow that he's making. It's a little awkward speaking into a camera lens about the first time you met and everything. But I'm sure the end product will be well worth the effort. Daniel's parents left by 2pm and we both collapsed on the couch in the basement. We took a nap, and went to bed fairly early as well. I wanted to clean the house because after so many people came over the floors were sticky and dirty and gross. But I was so tired, I just let it go. And I was pretty nervous for my first day of my new job. I didn't really know what to expect.

There was no need to be nervous because my new job is going fantastically. I hadn't worked full time since last summer, and even then it was more like 30-35 hours a week. I left when the work was done, which usually didn't take the full day. This time, I have to stay a full 40 hours a week because I'm on salary. I also have never worked independently before. For a year and a half I have come to work and asked my supervisor "what do you want me to do?" I have learned in the past few days that it is completely different when you are expected to make your own schedule. On Monday morning I met with my supervisor and she gave me a long list of projects to do. We discussed what had the greatest priority, and set some goals for this week. That helped me get organized, but I was a little overwhelmed. After speaking with her, and then some of my co-workers who asked for my help with some of their projects this week and next week, I couldn't keep track of it all in my head. Sticky notes have been very helpful. I just started writing everything down so I could organize it. I made some plans (which have since completely changed, but I guess you have to be flexible) and started tackling my to-do list.

This involved rooting around in the -80 degree Celsius freezer for a good chunk of the day searching through hundreds of plates looking for 5 specific ones. -80 is REALLY cold (it's -112 degrees farenheit!). So cold that even with really thick gloves, you can only handle things for a few minutes before your fingers start to hurt really bad. And the freezer alarm starts going off if you leave it open too long. And the plates I'm searching through can't thaw out so you can only take them out of the freezer for about 30 seconds at a time. But you need more than 30 seconds because everything is covered in a layer of frost which you have to scrape off to read the label written on the plate. I shouldn't be complaining- this is my job. And to be honest, I love it. I love the independence of having a list of things to do, and tackling them in my own way.

I've also spent a lot of time working with mice the past few days. I've learned some new techniques that involved putting them to sleep and performing surgery. It's pretty frustrating and I still haven't got it down completely, but next week I'll get more practice. We accidentally killed one mouse that we left in the gas for too long. Instead of going to sleep, he just died. I also accidentally slit a mouse's throat from the inside when I was trying to insert a meal piece down its trachea. But it's all part of the learning process.

So overall I've been pretty busy and enjoying my new job. It's hard to believe that this is my new life for the next year. But there are lots of exciting things coming up. In a month our lab will be moving to the University and then everything will change. In 6 months Daniel and I get married! And soon after that, I'll start making plans for graduate school. Exciting things are coming!