Happy Birthday American! Thanks for the Sunburn.
This week proved to be a lot better than last week. There were less failures in the labs, more promising data collected, better memories made with my roommates, and one really, really BIG surprise.
Monday was a slow day in the lab. I worked a lot on DNA ligations and transformations and ran many gels. I am excited that I have finally perfected my gel electrophoresis skills since taking Cell Biology with Dr. Brame back at Centenary. During our weekly lab experiments in Cell Biology, I was always so scared to pipet and load the electrophoresis gel but now I am a professional at it. I think Dr. Brame would be proud. After work I found Rita and I convinced her to come to Pilates with me. I absolutely love the LSU pilates classes. Now Rita loves them, too.
Tuesday was an exhausting day for me. I was slightly bummed because I had made six slides of larval fruit fly imaginal disc tissue and NONE of them were any good. Just for a bit of reference, making six slides of imaginal disc tissue takes ALL day in the lab. So, I had to make more slides. OH JOY! Fortunately these slides turned out MUCH better. After work I went back to the apartment and began packing for my upcoming Fourth of July celebrations. I realized that I didn’t have a lot of water necessities such as a beach towel and went to my dear friend Jamie’s apartment to see if she needed to take a much needed trip to Wal-Mart. Fortunately, she did. Also, Naomi called me to tell me that Hobby Lobby was having a half-off sale on ALL of their scrap booking materials. For Naomi and Me this is about as close as we can get to Heaven.
Jamie, Naomi, and I all loaded into Jamie’s Oldsmobile and headed to Hobby Lobby where we swam in an ocean of half-off wonder. Afterwards we headed to IHOP because Naomi and I had been craving it ALL weekend. It was pretty good, I must say. Nothing like French toast for dinner! Stuffed, we headed to Wal-Mart to buy some last minute items for the following day’s events.
I woke up early on Wednesday, July 4th. I had big plans for the day. And when I say big… I mean monumental. Today was the day of my very first tubing trip. Growing up in South Louisiana I had never reveled in the gloriously refined Southern activities such as tubing down a Bayou, fishing, and mudding. But now I could truly call myself a Cajun. I applied my SPF 50 sunblock and headed out the door to meet my destiny… and the other people heading out to the Amite River. We arrived at Tiki Tubing and I rented my tube… a big neon green eyesore. We floated down the Amite River with many a frat-boy and shirtless trucker. Ah, the experiences one gains when living in South Louisiana. I became bored after about three hours of floating at about 0.1 mph. After we all returned to the apartment I headed straight for the shower. To my horror, I was completely sunburned head to toe… but only on the front. I later described this look as the coconut bar look. For those who are familiar with the confection I speak of I was red on one side and white on the other. I figured I would be funny and I put on a blue sundress to show my patriotic side. Nothing like being Red, White, and Blue on our nation’s birthday.
Rita and I headed out to our research friend Allison Hickey’s Aunt and Uncle’s home. They were throwing us a barbeque. I was SO excited because this was my very first barbeque in which the hosts were vegetarian like I am. We had a lot of fun visiting by the pool, playing croquet, and eating the delicious vegetarian food. Rita and I left the celebration early in order to meet with our other research buddy Tranole to go out to the levee and watch the fireworks. Unfortunately Rita misunderstood Tranole and we were running late to the fireworks. As we drove down Highland Road we watched the fireworks between the trees. We finally found a place to park and ran through downtown Baton Rouge towards the Levee. We managed to run up the Levee just in time to catch the last three minutes of the fireworks show. I went to bed that night with a ringing in my ears, a terribly painful sunburn, and memories sure to last me a lifetime.
Thursday was a painful day as I tried to maneuver my way around the lab without bumping the sunburn that was covering exactly 50% of my body. I did the usual gel electrophoresis and was bummed when the ligation did not work. I took many pictures of the cells I had made a few days before, as well. I was happy that the slides were very good and I got many great pictures for my final poster presentation. After work I decided I was too sunburned to go to my beloved pilates class. I decided I needed a three hour nap. I woke up soon after Rita came home and we decided it was time for us to eat out again. We managed to wrangle in our roommate Spring and invited Tranole to come along, too. We went to Macaroni Grill to gorge ourselves on carbohydrates. The service and food were mediocre but the conversation was truly golden. After we finished eating we headed next door to Barnes and Noble. Baton Rouge has a nifty two story Barnes and Noble that I am always in awe of. While at Barnes and Noble, Spring, Rita, and Tranole hung out together discussing books to read while I flitted all around the two stories of literature in search of more books to buy. After reminding myself that I am already reading three books at once, I settled on only buying two books. That’s some self discipline I displayed!
Friday was a very interesting day indeed. We decided to try applying a new dye to the slides I had made earlier in the week and we discovered that they showed some modestly interesting data. I can’t quite say what yet, but it’s leading us to a slightly good conclusion that we will continue testing during the rest of the summer. For once, I was excited in the lab because something WORKED. I also got a call from my dad in the middle of the day which is REALLY weird. I picked up the phone and my dad said “We’re on our way to pick you up. You’re coming home this weekend. We bought you a car.” Talk about a change of plans! I ended up spending the weekend in New Iberia with my parents and my very first car. What a great week!
