#%$*!@$*&!!!!!!!!!!!

I should have known that things were going to go horribly awry this morning when I couldn't even get into the damn building. At 5am, all entrances to the building were blocked off, because they were waxing the floors. There are three different ways to get into this building (four if you count the loading dock, but it wasn't open at 5am), and some genius decided that it was acceptable to wax all the entrances AT THE SAME DAMN TIME. And so, when I attempted to make my way into the building to get to the lab, I was greeted with "Sweetheart, there's wax on that floor, you can't be walking over." I shot a nasty look (don't call me sweetheart), and trudged around to another entrance, where the scene replayed itself.... and then a third time. What the hell?! I voiced my displeasure with the situation, and was told that people are not supposed to be entering the building at 5am. HELLO, I have an ID card that gives me 24 hour access to my laboratory... AS IN, I AM ALLOWED IN THE BUILDING AT 5AM.

So after a very disgruntled hour of sitting in an outside hallway waiting to cross the threshold into my own building, I finally got a late start to my research to what was already going to be a very long day, indeed. I'm chugging along, and went to confirm that I was able to use the CD spectropolimiter. Mind you, I sent an email last Wednesday stating that I wanted to use it on Tuesday and Wednesday, and was that acceptable. I CC'd my PI, and the head of the biochemistry department on this email, and sent it to the post-doc who I go through to use the CD machine. No response, as per usual, but, in the past, if there is a conflict, he'll generally call to say so. I've learned to take no response to mean no conflict. To make sure, I walked over on Friday, but he wasn't around, so I left a post-it note on his desk asking him to please contact me regarding using the machine.

Monday, I went ahead with my protein purification. To get all 3 proteins purified, run on a gel, Coomassie stained, and the dialysis started, is roughly an 18 hour process. They all have to be done back-to-back-to-back, because these proteins cannot be frozen, and last only 2-3 days before degrading. I stopped by again on Monday to confirm the CD, but he had stepped out, but I noticed the post-it note was moved, so obviously he had received it.

I went over this morning to get the key for the room that the spectropolimiter is in, and am told "Oh... you can't do CD today... [chemistry PI] is doing a demonstration on it this afternoon]."

FUCK ME.

You couldn't have told me this Wednesday? Or Thursday? Or Friday? Or even yesterday? It took the entire 10 minute walk from the biochemistry building back to my building of deep breathing to not scream like a banshee and break down in tears. Because now I have minimum 12 hours of CD to do, and I can't start until after 5pm. And I got here at 5am. For absolutely no reason now.

I hope my PI realizes how unbelievably lucky he is to have me, because every other person I've told this story to has said that no way would they be staying from 5pm until at least 5am... they would just call it a day and go home. I'm not entirely sure if it's dedication from my end... or being brainwashed from my PI's end. Probably the latter.