Julie and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

When it comes to pet peeves in the lab, I have very few. Just let me do my research in peace, and I will be perfectly content (provided at least one or two of my experiments work every month or so). Today, of course, as if I wasn’t already in a miserably foul mood because of the AWFUL Steelers game last night, I am encountering ALL of my pet peeves this afternoon.

1) Don’t steal things off my bench, and then claim that you weren’t aware that it was mine. It’s fine if you need to borrow my timer because you can’t locate yours, but don’t pull the “I didn’t know it was yours” card when it is labeled, in giant Sharpie letters, with “JULIE.” I am the only Julie in this lab… actually, the only Julie in the research oncology department, so I’m pretty sure that’s good enough proof that it is, indeed, mine.
2) Don’t steal my food. I have one of the crappiest desks in the lab, since it’s actually located in the middle of the lab and not in the hallway like most. As such, I’m forbidden from eating at my desk, keeping a glass of water on my desk, or even keeping a wrapped granola bar in my desk drawer. Therefore, I have to keep my food out in the hallway – where someone else keeps eating it. If you’re hungry, pack your own damn lunch and stop eating mine.
3) Pretty please use TEMED, formaldehyde, acetic acid, and other assorted chemicals in the fume hood. This would be why we have a fume hood. In the previous lab we didn’t, so I didn’t complain since people didn’t want to walk to a different floor just to pull out 200ul of TEMED, but now that we have our own fume hood in our own lab, USE IT. Otherwise, when you drop things and they spill all over, I (and the others in the lab) will get very nauseous from the smells, and I will vomit.
4) AUTOCLAVE YOUR TRASH IN AN AUTOCLAVE BIN. Really people, is this such a difficult concept for anyone outside my own lab to grasp? You have an autoclave trash bag full of pointy pipettes and liquid waste from your tissue culture experiments. If you stick it in a bin (and there are multiple autoclave bins SITTING NEXT TO THE AUTOCLAVE), then when I have to pull it out to put in my own glassware, trash from my lab, etc, the liquids will fall out of the holes caused by the pointy pipettes and pool in the bin. Otherwise, when I pull out the three bags you happened to just toss straight into the autoclave, all your nasty bacteria cultures and cell culture media will spill out all over me, and I will be very, very unhappy. If I knew who you were, or which lab you worked in, I would so give your name to Environmental Health and Safety so you could sit through that boring safety class again and maybe acxtually learn how to autoclave.

Honestly, are these demands that ridiculous? Am I being totally self-centered here in that I would like to make it through one day without having my timer stolen, half of my lunch consumed by someone else, getting physically sick from spilled chemicals, and having an autoclave bag dribble liquid lab waste all down my pants? Is this really too much for which to ask?

So long, summer...

One full week back in the thesis lab…. and only five or so more years to go. :-\ Last week I finished up the two animal studies at the NIH by sacrificing all the remaining animals and harvesting organs, learned how to replace the one final part of the HPLC system that was clogged (I now feel like I could build one from scratch after breaking and thus replacing each and every part), said my goodbyes... and returned back 'home' to my lab. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the majority of my personal lab equipment (pipettes, conical tube racks, forceps, scissors, timer, all the solutions I use, etc) were not looted and stolen in my absence as I thought they would be since they often seem to walk off even when I am in the lab 80 hours/week. The only things missing were my membrane marking pens (easy to replace) and, strangely enough, my lab coat. I’m left with the option of a lab coat two sizes too big or one that fits from the waist up but is quite a squeeze around the hips, since it is cut straight down for a curve-free man. Right after I joined the lab, the PI decided to stop getting everyone their own name embroidered lab coats and just stick with generic coats with the name of the lab, so I have no way of knowing who walked off with mine. I suppose, for the meantime, slightly too small is better than much too large. Unfortunately, since my return I have also rediscovered my easily annoyed attitude and generally grumpy moods, from which I managed to escape this summer. I hope (although am doubtful) that this is just a coincidence, or else it is going to be an exceptionally difficult fiveish remaining years.

Some exciting research has happened in the lab during my time at NIH, and I’m excited to see how I can fit back in. It’s time for me to start thinking about putting together a thesis project and establishing a thesis committee (scary!!) but I have a general idea of what I want to do, and it will allow me to tie in some of my interest in drug discovery and pharmacology. The lab is mostly a biochemistry-based lab so this will be stepping outside of the normal research techniques, but my PI also seems to be excited at expanding into some pharmacology and is more than willing to help me pursue my own interests. A new PI just joined the university this year that runs a medicinal chemistry lab, so I think I will be working with him frequently which will be a great opportunity. Of course, I can’t really start pursuing my own project until after I pass the comp exams (in June) so in the meantime I will be working on little pieces of the projects of others in my lab so that I can be a middle author on several papers… including an animal study I should be running next month (good thing I was so well trained at the NIH!).

Thanks to those who commented on my new template. I think I am going to leave the general layout as it is but continue to play around with the content in the sidebar, like the recently added “Currently Reading” section (which technically should probably just include the latest issues of Oncogene and Cancer Research). Among my goals for the semester, such as not working more than 3 11+ hour days per week, is to actually do some non-science related reading (along with blogging a bit more frequently!).