My New Lab

Today I actually went to the CDC! Thursday is the day on which lab meetings are held, and it's a good thing Big Russ [pictured above] called me at 11am to remind me. I woke up at 10:38, ever-so-slightly hung over. Well, what ELSE am I supposed to do while my brain gets soft and I lose the ability to spell words I once knew and loved?? Make friends? Read journal articles? Write my grad school essay?

Anyway, things are looking up. Big Russ agreed to write me a recommendation, and he got so excited over my project that he said "it's going to be so fucking cool!" Look at his picture again. I nearly tipped over when I heard the F-word spring so easily from those beard-swathed lips! Also, I will be presenting the summer research I did with Pat Hilleren to the Poxvirus Program on the 27th-- and Pat will NOT be able to attend! AhaHAHAHA! Technically, I could be like "The spliceosome is like a big wad of functional ground beef" and she wouldn't know. Think about Mozart's relationship with his father in the movie "Amadeus" and you'll understand my relationship with Pat. Sort of.

Tomorrow I will go back to the lab to shadow a perky blonde graduate student while she does some Real-Time PCR, and get some protocols to study. Hopefully now my brain will start to firm up a bit.