Seven Perseids

Chapter 12 has been giving me some trouble (i.e. I haven’t looked at it since January because I knew it was hopeless, and then I went through a pinch of crazy-ish stuff and started really missing doing research on zebrafish, if you can believe that).

I think I had an inkling of inspiration tonight though. Crossing my fingers.

I’m sure he’d feel threatened.

Finals. Complete confluence of academic suck.

I mean, no, not complete. These are just finals. Not quals. I expect quals to suck a lot more. - To that: I would probably be thrilled to do my PhD research in the lab I’ve just rotated in. So quals probably won’t be as bad as all that.

PhD. Haha. Dr. Jenna. The deeper I get into this, the more obscure my rambling becomes. I have definitely spent waaaayyy too much time staring into a microscope today.

So I broke up with my boyfriend about a week ago. Um. A little more than that, actually. Needless to say I’ve been extremely distracted. Getting to the point where I was able to pull the trigger was tough. Pulling it was tougher. But I think - I hope - it was for the best.

I’m still waiting, waiting…

Right. I’m not going to continue that thought. Haha. 

First week in my second rotation lab. I like the work a lot - by which I mean, I like the project, I like the research - so for that reason I put up with the work. I really have no complaints. Theatrics, yes. Complaints, not so much. 

So, theatrics: I purified DNA from 44 different bacterial clones yesterday. Today I did a 44-reaction PCR, and now I am running a 44-lane gel. Each clone carried one gene. 

My thumb is really sore from all that pipetting. Happily, the next round of experiments will involve around 200 clones. 

My thumb is going to be really motherfucking badass. You are not going to want to mess with this thumb. 

Hopping on a plane back to school at 5:20AM tomorrow. In all likelihood this is going to mean I won’t get to finish Chapter 12 for at least another three or four weeks - it’s just that I’m either in full-on science!research!math! mode or I’m in full-on writing!creative! mode (there’s really not a whole lot in between), and I suck pretty badly at making the switch between the two. :/ (Also, I spend almost my whole day in class or the research lab and have to study/do homework at night, which cuts into my writing time.) Not ideal, but still the stuff that careers (and paychecks) are made of, evidently. To that: ALLONS-Y, I say - and someday, I will write and I will bloody well get paid for it! Damn straight. 

So, Happy New Year, everyone. :) Where has the time gone?!

New penname. I feel weirdly vindicated. I’d been ‘Silverspinner’ since the age of 15. (I’m 23 now.) It was time. 

It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to say I met my boyfriend under the Perseids meteor shower a couple of years ago. - We actually met on a martial arts mat, but the first time I really got to know him was while we were lying on wet sleeping bags at 2AM, watching the Perseids burn across the sky. We counted shooting stars that night. I don’t remember how many we counted, but between the two of us I know it was more than seven. 

He and I have had our fair share of issues - some of which we almost didn’t resolve - but anyone who reads Inertia and loves James has a piece of my boyfriend to thank. He’s the source of James’s tenderness. Overall they’re wildly different people. Except for that. 

Sigh. Tender moments between Lily and James - I’m almost making myself cry (FFS, seriously). I think I must be listening to too much Jeff Buckley. 

(Source: themessrsera)