Day Eight Hundred Ninety Nine

This week was exhaustingly busy with both work related and non work related things. Fixing broken equipment, (new to me) book club, yoga, chemistry review sessions, and a Sherlock marathon...and more and more and more.

One of my favorite parts came when I was sitting in lab working on a presentation to give at my alma mater next month. I floated the question "what do you wish you knew about grad school before you applied/started?" My labmate immediately replied with "how it completely crushes your soul and gives you a constant feeling of inadequacy." My boss was sitting at the desk next to hers when she said this. And all he did was grin and continue to work.

Welcome to graduate school, folks.

Day Eight Hundred Ninety Five

Today was an unexpected sick day due to an unexpected stomach virus. It was also 74 degrees out today.

I find both of these things to be equally disappointing.

Day Eight Hundred Ninety One

Spring semester officially started yesterday, which means all of us grad students have had to exchange the peaceful silence of winter break for the stampede of undergrads wandering around Welch Hall with zero sense as to where they're going. It's delightful.

This spring I'm back to TAing an undergrad class - an analytical chemistry class with...wait for it...115 students! This is by far the largest class I've ever TAed, and thankfully there's three of us TAs to share the burden. Having a lab of 16 students was exhausting, so 115 should be quite the adventure. I've never been more thankful that I have a locked office I can hide in.

On a final note, I learned that I apparently have a distinct knock today. My boss recently moved in to a new office, but the office door doesn't have a window, which means we never know if he's on campus or not. Because like the grad students, the professors also hide from undergrads in their locked offices. Well, I'm no undergrad anymore, so closed doors don't deter me. I'll just knock on it. And I knock with purpose, because half the time a wimpy knock gets no results since nobody can hear it. Well, today I knocked on my boss's door, and when he opened it (HA! I knew he was hiding in there), he just looked at me and said, "you know, I knew it was you, because it sounded like a battering ram was at my door." Thanks, Jason.

Day Eight Hundred Eighty Seven

Yesterday at work, we finished the chemical waste tagging, and came out with a grand total of 344 different bottles of chemical waste. Thanks a lot, former lab members. I filled out every single one of those tags, and now my right hand is sore. I blame every single one of you.

I was in a bit of a trance following that particular lab adventure, so most of the rest of Friday I just kind of stared into oblivion. With a brief moment of focus thrown in to go to Target and buy cute storage bins for my kitchen (hello, newly freed up counter space) as well as a small plastic bucket for cleaning. Turns out, finding a small plastic bucket is impossible and Target only carries gigantic car wash type buckets that won't fit in my bathroom. So I improvised and got a small plastic trash can for $1.50. Because sometimes you just have to be flexible after spending 30 minutes wandering around looking for a stupid small bucket.

Today I tutored some high school kids in chemistry, bought groceries, and went to listen to some more live music at a local bar called Moontower Saloon. I went to see the Cody Bryan Band play, a local band that is absolutely fantastic and that you should all check out. Between Cody Bryan Band today and Macklemore this past Wednesday, it was a week of live music for me...and I loved every second of it!

Speaking of Macklemore, here are a few of the promised photos!

Thrift Shop

White Walls

Downtown

This was actually before the concert. Olja and I found a random photo booth
complete with props in the concert hall, and we had to participate.

Day Eight Hundred Eighty Five

This week in lab, we've been documenting and tagging waste chemicals. For going on 3 days straight now. To give you an idea of what this entails, we have thus far tagged 225 bottles, with over 100 bottles that are still yet to be tagged. In other words, the former members of this lab were horrible hoarders who didn't bother to clean or dispose of anything no longer being used. Fabulous.

To help me cope with the never ending chemical waste....I went to see Macklemore and Ryan Lewis in concert last night! It was amazing, and once I get the photos my friend Olja took, I'll post some here. He was just the boost of energy I needed to power through the rest of this week. Then I get the weekend....and then the undergrads return in force for spring semester next Tuesday. Empty campus, you were nice while you lasted. I'll miss you until you return in the summer.

Day Eight Hundred Eighty

I was reminded today that running on a treadmill (which I did on Wednesday) is infinitely easier than running on pavement (which I did today). Seriously? I'm this exhausted and my (albeit short) run only burned 130 calories? How lame.

Today I read research articles all day, which are a rather potent tranquilizer by themselves. I did this today because yesterday, our microscope seized up. So guess who gets to help dismantle a microscope soon? This girl. Everyone cross your fingers that I don't lose any of the very vital screws that hold the obscenely expensive thing together.

Day Eight Hundred Seventy Six

Today I continued my quest for new running shoes (which I started while I was in Richmond, to no avail) with a trip to RunLab Austin. I saw online that they specialize in examining your running style/gait and work with you to improve upon it, but that they also sell shoes...so I was intrigued. When the run tech sat across from me, the first thing out of his mouth was, "do you mind if I draw on your feet?" Um...I guess not? Then this happened.

It's the first time I've ever had my feet so thoroughly examined. And also the first time I've had to come home and struggle to get sharpie off my feet (not easy, fyi). But much was learned and I left with a new pair of running shoes. Let's hope these ones end up being the perfect fit! Bring it on, 10K in September. Bring it on.

Day Eight Hundred Seventy Five

I've been cleaning and purging things like a crazy person these last couple days. New year, clean(er) apartment! I already feel good about it, and I'll probably continue to work throughout the week on cleaning and getting rid of things I really don't need. I also got my photo situation all figured out with the updated operating system on my laptop! Huzzah! So without further ado...Richmond photos!

This is the plane I flew on from DC to Richmond. It is by far the smallest plane I've ever been on. Um, hello exposed propellors, can't say I've flown on a plane with you before. I think the guy sitting next to me described the ride the best - "It's very loud, and very shaky." It was definitely an experience.

Whenever I'm home visiting my parents, my dad and I always go on evening walks. On one night in particular, we met this cute barn owl who let us get within about 8 feet of him. It was so cool, and he was so pretty with such big feet.

And another evening walk along the James River.

My mom and I spent a morning learning how to make croissants and it was waaaaay more complex than either of us expected. It was a 3 hour class, and we barely got three each to take home. You guys, I knew there was a lot of butter in croissants, but oh my god...there's so much butter. I have no words. Regardless, they were delicious...probably because of all the butter.

Then I discovered that Richmond has a zoo, so we had to go. We fed parakeets (what this photo doesn't show is the eight that originally landed on my arm trying to get to the food, or the one that decided to land on my head for a couple minutes) and I spent some quality time with this gorgeous snow leopard. I love him.

Here are the obligatory sibling/family photos. As you can see from the family photos, my dad and I were perfectly behaved while my mom and brother caused all kinds of havoc in the background. They clearly cannot be trusted to be in the back of photos.

We finally got a normal one.

And last but not least, the historic Capitol building. The first photo is of the current House of Representatives room. The second photo is an original sculpture of George Washington that he posed for, with the face being sculpted from a mask made on his actual face. And then there's me and Thomas Jefferson, because who doesn't love Thomas Jefferson?

Day Eight Hundred Seventy Four

This most recent blog hiatus was sponsored by Christmas break, during which I went to Virginia for 11 days and steadfastly ignored all responsibilities ranging from grad school to blog posts. It was a wonderful and much needed break from everything, and when I came back to Austin the weather was finally cold.

I have Virginia photos to share, but those won't go up until tomorrow. I braved a full operating system update for my laptop today, and it resulted in a brand new photo program that possessed none of my old photos...so I've been reloading all of those album by album. It's been super fun. I'll elaborate more on my Virginia adventures when I have the photos to go with them.

Yesterday I spent New Year's Day traveling (it involved getting up at 5:00am, which was rough), and then going to see the new Star Wars in IMAX 3D immediately after I landed. Thankfully I'd already seen it once before, so during the moments I lost focus due to being completely exhausted, atleast I knew what I missed.

As for 2016 resolutions.....here we go:

1. Cook more of my own meals (mainly dinners...I have a fancy new crock pot and I intend to become a master at it)

2. Run a 10K in September (this is kind of a requirement, since I promised my brother I'd run one with him)

3. Go to yoga at least twice a month

4. Publish a first author paper (the resolution of every grad student everywhere)

5. Learn to play guitar