Day Thirty Nine

Today was a weird day. One of those days that isn't bad, but definitely isn't good either. It started out with me parking my car and walking towards the shuttle (which was only about 30 feet away), only to watch the shuttle speed away right in front of me. Awesome. It's never fun to stand in 90 degree weather waiting for the next shuttle to come. Especially since I had to wear pants today due to today being my first day TAing my lab section. Curses!

Then, I went to meet with my potential research advisor. He seemed very enthusiastic about accepting me into his group, but said he was hesitant to sign anything or make anything official because he wasn't sure what his funding situation would look like this year. Completely understandable since government funding for graduate research has taken a huge hit these past few years, but it still took some of the wind out of my sails. It's still a definite possibility that I'll be accepted into his group, but things aren't looking as sure as I thought they were. Cross your fingers for me, and for him that he gets the funding he needs!

The actual high point of the day was class. The professor is hilarious. He was trying to teach us how to use Excel, but then he'd mess something up and just start cursing the computer screen. I did learn a few things though, so his lesson was successful no matter how utterly frustrated he got. Dr. Holcombe, you make Excel fun, even when you hate it.

And finally, I got to meet the lab I'm TAing! They're all really nice, though some of them have some less than generic names that will be an experience trying to remember and pronounce. We got through the safety speech and glassware training without a hitch. Then we all went to the hallway to get lab goggles. This is where things started to get weird. Some guy, who I've never seen in my life, pulled me aside and started yelling at me in front of all of the students I'll be teaching this semester. I believe his words were, "I expect you to wear long pants and lab goggles at all times. You need to set a good example, Allison," all of which was said in a very demeaning fashion. I was just confused, considering I was literally standing in front of him wearing lab goggles and long pants as he berated me over wearing lab goggles and long pants. Um, what? Who on earth are you? I'll be investigating this incident more, as I am not okay with being belittled in front of students that are supposed to respect and take me seriously for the rest of the fall semester.

So, that was how my day at school ended. Definitely not on a good note. The rest of the week can only go up from here. It rained most of the evening, which helped me relax after my bizarre lab encounter. Then I watched some Psych with the roomies, and we all know that a little bit of Psych makes everything good again. Then I talked with my brother on the phone. So overall, the day went from okay, to bad, to good again thanks to rain, Psych, and Jeff.