Day Forty Six

My morning shuttle bus driver is the best. Even though he once again raced away when I was 10 feet away from boarding this morning. He had a lengthy conversation with those of us on the shuttle last Friday about our football team ("Now kids, your boys are in a baaaad spot. What they need right now is prayer. And lots of it.") And today as I was leaving the shuttle for class he yelled out, "Have a great Monday, work for those A's!" Yeah, he's awesome. I'll probably take him a Christmas gift when the time comes.

I actually didn't even get to my building until 12:30 due to spending most of the morning reviewing for my lab that afternoon and answering student emails that I got over the weekend regarding said lab that afternoon. Already waiting until the day before lab to ask questions...I'm going to have to work on this with them. I sat down at a table to eat lunch, then one of the students in my lab sat across from me (he didn't realize who I was) and started his pre-lab. An hour before lab started. Hilarious. He got pretty wide-eyed when he saw me again as his head TA later that afternoon.

Before lab I had class, where once again my professor sassed his way through material. It was wonderful. The computer didn't work at the beginning of class, so an IT guy came in and fixed it. He then opened up my prof's file folder and said, "what file would you like opened?" To which my professor answered, "Don't touch my stuff." It's a good thing all of us laughed, cause the poor IT guy looked a little nervous for a second. Dr. Holcombe, you're amazing.

Lab went pretty smoothly, which I was relieved by. It was oddly quiet though during the entire 3 hours. I went to an undergrad where the radio was played during almost every lab session (but only the prof could choose the station, and it was inevitably classic rock). And, I already had to deal with my first major spill, as one student spilled NaOH all over the floor. Stock room, help! It all got cleaned up, but I was just in awe that it took less than one full lab session to have this happen. Really? We couldn't have waited until the 3rd lab or so to start spilling chemicals? Everyone finished on time (barely), and everyone seemed to do a good job. Though I'll be able to tell for sure when I get all their reports next Monday. Things will get interesting then.

Traffic was gnarly on the drive home, but even gnarly Austin traffic is nowhere near what I've experienced on I-5. Washington, you prepared me well by hammering me with horrible traffic for so many years. Every other highway seems like a dream now.

I don't have class tomorrow (my prof is in China), which means I don't have to drive anywhere. I can just laze around the house and read Physical Organic and grade papers and catch up on TV shows. YEAH!