Always Know Your PI's Schedule

I suck at life. No, really – I do. I’m not trying to get sympathy or anything here, it’s just a fact – I cannot manage to get the hang of this whole life thing. I am, once again, sick with some deviant of the “third floor plague” which I had back in September – fever, stuffy nose, aches and pains, inability to breathe, drowning in mucus, and a general overall feeling of malaise. And this morning, I arrived in the lab at 5:30am. I know I usually come in early, but 5:30 is a bit ridiculous, no? I haven’t decided yet if this is because I am the most dedicated graduate student in the entire medical center or because I am just truly insane.

The reason for my pre-crack-of-dawn arrival was to run a third protein gel. I had three to run yesterday, but two of the gel boxes were already in use, and it is only possible to run two gels per box, so I was only able to run two of my three gels. I’ve been working on one protein immunoprecipitation project and one protein purification, both of which will be important supplemental data to an R-01 grant for my PI which must be submitted by December 1^st, so we’re on a tight timeline. My PI stops by the lab at least three times per day to see how I am progressing and has been getting pretty excited about my results, so yesterday he made it clear that he wanted me to run all the gels ASAP. Since I could only run two overnight, I figured I’d get into the lab at 5:30, pour another gel, run the gel from 6 – 10, fix the gel for half an hour, add stain and then upon returning from class at noon, have two fully stained gels to show him and have the third gel transferring to a membrane for Western blotting. Basically, I figured that the only way to get everything done in a timely fashion was to come in at 5:30, and I am more than willing to do this when necessary. Seems like everything was planned out well, right?

The morning got off to a rough start when I discovered that the two gels I had running mysteriously stopped working during the night. The third gel box and its associated power supply are a little shady (we very rarely have more than 4 gels running at a time, so the last box is hardly ever used) and it just up and quit during the night. I resuscitated the power supply, but I’m not sure what kind of affect it will have on the gel itself and the proteins. Then, I spent ten minutes wandering around trying to find my automatic pipetter and squirt bottle of ethanol, both of which disappeared off my bench at some point after I left for the evening (I have, by far, the most organized, cleanest, neatest bench in the lab, so whenever someone needs extra bench space or to borrow a quick supply, they head straight to my area – I don’t mind, as long as people REUTRN THINGS so that I am not wandering around the lab at 5:40am with a storm cloud brewing over my head). I finally locate everything, pour my gel, and while it is hardening, stop by the chalk talk board to read the updates – and realize that BOTH THE LAB PI’S ARE OUT OF TOWN FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK. Apparently everyone BUT me received that memo, as it is now almost 9:00 and the majority of the lab has yet to show up – the head honchos are gone, which means it’s a prime opportunity for sleeping in.

See? I really do suck at life. I get here at 5:30am to run a gel for him – and he’s not even here to see the finished results. Things like this happen to me all the time. And of course one day next week something will come up and I won’t be able to finish something and there will be that look of disappointment or suggestion that maybe I should just work a little harder. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I am going to go take a handful of Tylenol Cold and Sinus caplets (it’s 9am and I’ve already exceeded my entire maximum dose for the day), blow my nose 294 more times, and climb up on my desk and take a nap until the rest of the lab members decide to make an appearance.