Most expensive outfit ever

The semester is wrapping up at Postdoc U. The rotation students are finished, my undergrad had her last day and the normal services (like the coffee place) are starting to decrease their hours and will soon be shut down for summer. Except for the lack of coffee, Postdoc U seems like it will be a nice place for the summer. I'm forming a writing date group and am looking forward to finishing up current data and starting new projects. It is all going so fast!

I am back at the homestead (yay!) for my graduation ceremony this weekend. I am going to the hooding ceremony but not the actual commencement. It seems like a nice ceremony which is always followed by lots of champagne...

My mom is flying in today and we are having a little party afterwards. Things have been so busy with the new lab that I haven't seen any of my school friends since February...

I picked up my regalia this afternoon. They are just rentals but I hope to buy my own fancy set someday when I get a job and have my own students. Those things cost more than my rent! The day they are delivered, I am going to put on my wedding dress and my robes and just hang out around my house in the most expensive outfit I will ever wear. 

Held hostage

When I moved to Postdoc city, it was important for me to have a place where my pets would be welcome when Grackle had to travel for work. He is travelling this week so both cats and the dog are with me in my small apartment. Things seemed to be fine until the landpeople showed up this morning and now I am held hostage in my apartment. This is the first time that they have been here since the pets have been here and of course, they rang the doorbell and are very loud in the basement so the dog is going nuts. He is barking for the first time all week, whining, and running around. I was planning on going to lab and for a run but now as soon as I walk out the door the dog gets even louder and fairly annoying! When I was down in the basement with them, the landlady said that my dog must be clawing at the door. First, he is well trained and doesn't claw at doors. Second, he is 100 lbs and could break down the door if he wanted to. 

So, here I sit, trying to keep my dog quiet and waiting for the landpeople to leave so that they don't freak out about noise or worse, come upstairs to see the zoo! Good thing I don't have to go to lab today...

My non-world

With my PI on maternity leave, the definition of my postdoc position as not-student and not-faculty has become obvious. Most of this come from intralab interactions. The students come to me to discuss experiments, get papers, ask questions, etc. instead of constantly emailing Rt-H.I even sign their time sheets! While it is great that I am getting a bit of mentoring experience, the fact that I am not faculty means that the students don't have to listen to me and have on a few occasions ignored my suggestions completely.  Rt-H and I usually have the same suggestions so the students end up doing what I said anyways, but it is frustrating to be pestered by them all the time when they don't trust what I have to say. 

I'm also relied upon by Rt-H for experimental design assistance. Reading over a protocol, I found an error that would result in a fatal flaw in the design. After pointing this out to her and the students, there was a big email flurry to solve the issue. Since I am not the students doing the experiments, or the advisor I was not in on the solution. It took me two days to track down a student and get the story on the outcome.

These things are just small annoyances really, but they make it clear that my position in the lab is very well, un-clear. Defining my place in the lab by all these things that I am not has got me me wondering exactly what I am in the lab...On a related note. Geez, grad students take up a lot of time!

What?? Is it really May already??

To get back in the swing of things*- bullets!

• I finished all my data collection on time. It is so good to be done with that portion of the project. Up next, my deadline to analyze all that data is the end of May.
• I had to give a journal club presentation about a topic that I really don't like. I was volunteered for it against my will. It went alright, I think. This journal club is so weird. There is never any discussion. It is really just a space for students to practice presenting by presenting other people's papers. My topic required discussion and was far removed from the theme of the journal club. I think this made it more enjoyable for the students but it all made me very unsure of myself. I didn't know if the profs would dislike the sudden change in format. It was the last meeting of the semester so at least we ended with some fun discussion.
• There is another presentation coming up this week. My big, 5 months late introduction to the department by way of research seminar! I am really, really excited to share what I did for my diss with this department. It is very different from what I do here and no one really does anything similar. Hopefully that will make it a fun talk. I am planning on giving my dissertation defense talk with a few slides added to tie in how I got to the lab I am currently in. Can't wait for Wednesday! Oh, and my PI is coming in for the first time since she had her baby! 
• The Grackle is currently in the deep south doing work. A 100 lbs dog, two cats and I are all smooshed into my tiny apartment for the week. My downstairs neighbor doesn't hate me yet, but let's see how she feels by Friday!
• The circle of friends from work that I have fallen into continue to amaze me. They all do so much more stuff than I ever did as a student. Pretty much every day that I am in town, someone is doing something. Be it potluck dinner parties (once a week), rock climbing (once or twice a week), crafting (usually weekends), meeting up for certain TV shows or this mornings' farmers market there is always something to do. I am enjoying the company and doing new, fun things but I have no idea when these people get work done! 
• So many postdoc-ing things going on in my head. Please, stay tuned!

* I really need to figure out how to blog regularly or give this up. I hate the cycle of not posting, then feeling guilty for not posting then postponing posting even more. Ugh. It sucks. I'm going to try to post everyday this week. Hopefully that will snap me back into things here.

Escaping the lab

This weekend was so nice, I actually spent only 10 hours at the lab! I went outside, there was sun and it was glorious!

So glorious!*

The intense data collection period for my project is almost over. My deadline is Friday. There will be some long hours this week but hopefully things will return to normal soon (and return to blogging!). This weekend really reminded me how important it is to balance work with a non-work life. It was great to foster new friendships here and have some fun but I missed the Grackle. He came to visit me last weekend , but between my data collection and the Grackle writing his proposal, we mostly worked. 

I can't wait till my weekends involve both the Grackle AND escaping the lab. 

*One of my adventures. Anyone recognize the band? It will disappear soon....

Lab baby

My PI had her baby this week!!! In a ridiculous display of professor geekdom, she texted us 2 hours after giving birth. We got 3 emails that night and all were about lab stuff and journal club. Not even a single baby picture yet! 

A couple other professors have asked me how things are going now that I am 'running the lab.' It is funny because I'm really not. All the grad students are pretty independent and the lab tech ends up with more responsibility than I have for the daily ins and outs of the lab. Plus, Rt-H is ridiculously plugged in. So far, the students have bounced a few more questions off me than normal since it is easier to ask and get an immediate answer than email Rt-H but nothing too out of the ordinary. We will have to see how 3 weeks of absence differs from 3 days....

Back off, bitches!

The Grackle was propositioned today....for our dog! Despite being in school with this woman for 5 years and TA-ing together she never knew about our pooch. Our dear doggie is a beautiful, ex-show dog German Shepard. Apparently, a normal 'oh you have a dog?' conversation quickly turned to 'does he have papers?' Pretty soon she was asking if we would breed him to her dog! 

Grackle politely declined the offer but I am still laughing how quickly office conversation can turn strange! Not that any ladies could resist this face.....

Waste of a day!

Today started out slowly. The facilities guy had to do some work in my research room so I waited till he was done to start work. Right as I start doing my first 2 hour data collection, the lab tech tells me about a power outage to our floor. We freak out and get all the essential equipment for my data collection switched to the back-up power system. After 20 minutes, everything on the back-up power system shuts off but the normal power remains working. I give up on the data and unplug everything. 

2 of our 3 big, fancy machines which must run constantly have quit since they are also hooked up to the back-up power. Freak out number 2. We get the facilities guy to check it out and find out that we blew the fuse on our back-up circuit by adding my equipment to it. Now, the 2 big machines are running again, but we are still waiting for the regular power to go out. Big machine 3 is still hooked up to regular power. I run to a hardware store so we can string a contractor-grade extension cord across the hall to tap into a different back-up power circuit. Eventually, the regular power goes out. But big machine 3 still isn't working! Freak out 3 that the outage itself could have fried the machine. 5 hours wasted since finding out the power was going to go out. Lab tech realizes that each big machine has multiple cords. All must be on back-up power. One is labeled with tape saying "must be on back-up power" but is not even plugged in to anything. The grad student trying to figure out that part of the system didn't bother to read the tape. Grrrr. 

When I left, everything important was working. Hopefully it will stay that way. 

Today was the first day that Rt-H stayed home due to her impending baby. Things without her around better get easier!

Back again!

We made it back, again! Actually, we were back a week ago but I've been locked away in the lab since then. This trip was easier that the first because it was shorter but held its own challenges. We drove into tornadoes (but didn't have to camp in the rain!) and pulled a couple of 18 hour days but ultimately got our work done. Given that this was the second trip for the students, they were not in as good of spirits as they were for the first trip. This time, they knew what they were in for! There was a feeling of quiet determination compared to the first trips' feeling of a boisterous, big adventure. 

The worst part of the trip for me was getting injured. I took a couple of hard falls landing on the part of your hand where the index finger meets the palm both times . It was purple within a minute and painful to the touch. I tried to finish out the work we were doing, but had to take a breather so as not to scream, swear or cry in front of the students. It was all I could do hold it together. My old labmates, advisor and current advisor have all seen me upset to the point of tears. Heck, I was crying when I passed my proposal defense. It is like crying is my only stress response. But for some reason, I really didn't want to lose it in front of students when I was suppossed to be 'in charge'. I just kept replaying Tom Hanks in my head telling me that there is no crying in science. It worked. In the end, there was a whole lot of cussing when out of earshot, but no crying. Is this what it means to be responsible? After more than a week, my hand is still bruised and puffy but I feel pretty good about being able to handle such an obstacle. 

Anybody else had to learn to censor themselves in front of students?

I'm back...but just for a second

Everyone survived the research trip! Being 'in charge' was really not too hard. Rt-H was accessible via text/phone when I had major issues (like getting locked out of our van due to key fab failure in the rural deep South). Despite bad weather and bad equipment we got more work done than planned and returned a day early. I got slightly annoyed around day 5 at the 22 year old first year. She had warned me that she complains a lot....and boy was she not kidding! That and her 'what I know is right and anything new or different is wrong' attitude just got to me. Smooth sailing other than that.

Research-wise it was a super successful trip and I have been locked in the lab since our return. This science is so, SO hot you guys!! I am just at the very start of the project, but can already see that it is going to be fabulous data to work with! 

We leave again tomorrow morning at 6:30 for another trip. This time I've got the 22 yr old, a guy (another first year) who asked if his girlfriend could come along because she doesn't want to be alone for 4 days (she is not coming due to her work schedule, space limitations and the ridiculousness of complaining about getting lonely when you have to spend 4 days with yourself. Doing so to a postdoc who hasn't seen her husband in a month doesn't help!) and a second year who was so anxiety-ridden on our trip in February that she broke down crying at dinner because of the prospect of driving in snow flurries. Thank goodness it is only 4 days this time! 

Hopefully on the other side of it, I will get to return to some semblance of a real life. 

Off to pack...