I totally vented at a lab mate.

Big Russ is in South Korea and apparently left little instruction as to "what to do with the Fellow" because there's NOTHING for me to do. I've been harrassing this blonde girl Russ suggested that I follow around the lab. I can walk AROUND in the labs, but I can't work. If I wanted to steal something I probably could, but I have to get an FBI background check first. Anyway, the blonde girl has so far let me watch her load up the DNA extraction robot and then fill a 98-well RT-PCR plate. I was supposed to go in yesterday to go over the results with her, but she screwed up the PCR reactions [probably because I was watching her] and there was nothing to analyze. So I called again today.

I must have sounded a bit like a crazy person, because when I asked what was going on and the blonde, Christy, said "Oh, well, I was just going to read papers today and it turns out all my results were negative soooo I could show you those... uh, it's really up to you!" UP TO ME? YAARGH! Is it also up to me to personally call The Bureau and ask them to speed it up over there? Really, I would just love if someone told me WHAT TO DO, because this is THEIR show. They know what needs to be done to get researchers up and working in the lab, they know what their research projects are, and THEY need to explain these things to GUESTS. I responded to Christy's "it's up to you" with a slightly shaky "WELL, I don't really know quite what to do here. SHOULD I be coming in even if there's nothing for me to do? Or see?" Christy told me that it's pretty much up to Russ and the terms we discussed. Terms? Russ hasn't given me any terms. Russ seems to be of the mind that I need to hunker down and wait for the clearance to go through, but how am I supposed to keep from going ABSOLUTELY INSANE in the meantime?

I guess I'm going to keep feverishly Pub-Medding poxvirus journal articles, and then go in and watch Christy some more. Maybe it would be easier to be there and have nothing to do if I had a desk. Or a designated chair.