Booked!

And now for something completely different...

I still hate science and am probably going to be in the lab for at least a part of my weekend and possibly the 4th of July, but we'll leave that alone for now. I've got bigger, better news. Much, much better news.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have officially booked a cruise!!!!!! Duane and I booked it this evening. It is a 5 day cruise to the Bahamas. Leaves on May 3, although we're going to fly down a day early just to be safe, so that will be an excellent post-finals (last possible day is April 30) treat.

I am soooooooo excited! Like really, REALLY, REALLY excited. There are not words. Its probably going to be the greatest week of my life times 1000. Haha. Let the countdown begin: 310 days!

Ugh! v. 2.0

My fluorescence finally worked! Unfortunatly, since it was up and running, Suma thought I needed to do like 50 of them a day to make up for it. Okay, mabye I could do 2, perhaps 3 a day to get a decent amount of data this week...but this all assumes the problem is absolutely resolved and I can easily run through each experiment. Yeah, I didn't see that happening.

And, oh don't ya know, problems return. No matter what, I can either not get it started at all or my readings are so inconsistent, they're pointless. An experiment doesn't mean anything if you can't reproduce those results. I definitely cannot do that. Ugh.

My biggest problem, however, is not that the experiment itself will not work. Oh no, it is that Suma seems to think it is entirely my fault and that I am either completely retarded and screwing it up that way or am sabotaging it for some reason. Oh yeah, I really enjoy spending 8 or 9 hours everyday working for absolutely no gain. I'm just loving it. Come on!!! But really, she thinks I can't do anything. I make new samples when we're out and she's like oh no, I'll make some, you use them. Because I can't twist a knob to set numbers on a pipette? No, I didn't think so. Apparently, I'm incapable of doing even that. And, well, a whole bunch of other "omg, Kailey, you are retarded and I need to watch you like you're five" moments, but really, listing them all out will just bore you and piss me off even more.

How many days 'til camp? I need a break!

Good Grief!

I must be cursed with bad luck this summer or something. Nothing will go right for me at the moment--nothing!

First of all, there's my research. We're now going into the 5th week of work and what do I have to show for it? A week's worth of hair-pulling days, all of which ended in more confusion than they began and yielded no results, and the previous three weeks' work is currently in the fridge, quite litterally chilling, until I get a break from my fluorescence hell.

You see, I've been trying to run this one--ONE--experiment for like two months now. I was supposed to get it up and running before finals... in April. The buffer was bad, so we just decided that would be what I'd start with in the summer. But oh doesn't it just figure, that while we have perfectly good buffer the sample and 800,000 other things have screwed up in the meantime. So now, instead of running a new experiment everyday or every other day, I have been fighting with the same one to start. Not even to get good end results, just getting the damn thing to run! Ugh!!!

And then there is my man Tyler. He also just cannot get a break. Just when it looks like he's back on track and going to finally get better, he either gets another fever or the pressure in his head spikes up again so back to the steroids. And lately, they've found tumor cells in his spinal fluid. Not good. Not good at all... times infinity. Hopefully, he's getting his shunt in either late this week or early next, so he will at least feel better. And depending on how things go, his mom asked me to come stay with him for the weekend like I did a few weeks ago. She needs a break and to get plenty of things done around the house since no one has really been there for about a month and a half now and I'm more than happy to go spend some time with him and the other kids. The baby! I'm still not sure if it will be hospital time or play at home time, though, but I'll take either. I wish we lived a little closer together, so I could see him more. Another companion said at training that he sees his camper about twice a month, I'm so jealous!

Mostly, though, I just really hope that he gets everything smoothed out in time for camp. Poor Ty-guy hasn't really done anything fun all summer long, so he really, really needs to get out and be a kid at camp, which he is really looking forward to. Well, minus the showers apparently. Meg said that he's got this major issue with taking a shower again this year, which from last year's standing there like "omg, why can't camp have a bathtub?!" performance, I can't say that I blame him. Five year olds take baths! So I really, really hope he's well enough to go and dig in the dirt by our "cabinent." Luckily, it is cancer camp and they can accomodate quite a lot, so that should help, and at this point, I think his parents are willing to do anything to get him there.

Fluorescence and brain tumors, good grief!

Arrrgh!

Since movie going didn't work out last weekend, Duane and I went to see Pirates 3 last night. Oh man. I freaking love this movie!

If you haven't seen it yet, I won't ruin anything--suffice it to say TRAGIC LOVE STORY! Oh, so tragic! Of course, if you're a boy, thats probably an interesting, perhaps distracting side plot that means nothing since the main story (lies! its all about the romance, of course.) is the pirate adventures and the movie ends with Jack in a little row boat, chasing after the Black Pearl, conviniently leaving the story open ended. Of course, having raked in a bajillion dollars in only a few weeks, the open ended ending was, of course, a set up for Pirates 4... and probably 5...

So yeah, I would see it again. Definitely. And probably also almost cry again. -blushy- Tragic love... tragic love, I say!

There's always next year...

Its mid-June and we're now approaching the middle-ish part of baseball season. So, you guessed it, that means its time for us suffering Pirates fans to look toward next season as the year they'll turn it around. Fourteenth losing season, here we come!

What prompts this post? I went to the game tonight. But wait, you say, they won. Well, yes, yes they did; however, they won in true, crappy Pirate fashion.

When Duke, who went from being the pitching messiah his first season to limping through maybe, maybe five innings per start, came out at the end of 6, the score was 7-2. Zach kept it together and pitched a good game and the offense decided it was homerun derby day or something (3 in the first 6 innings), so it looked like we were going to run away with this one.

But wait, the phone just rang in the bull pen. Yep, bull pen comes in, Pirates lose. But hey, at least its 7-2, that's a pretty good lead, right? Good, but apparently not comfortable enough. Can't just easily win, gotta make us sweat it out. The 7th inning went well--miraculously. The 8th and 9th... not so much. Gave up 1 run in the 8th, alright, I'll take it. But then we get to the 9th. Double. Next guy: double, run scores. New pitcher. Double, run scores again. Another new pitcher. Three straight outs, game over, Pirates win.

Now, you'll notice that last pitching change seemed to be effective. Gee, I wonder why... Let's see, we're in the 9th inning and winning (-ahem- WINNING!) and other than Matt Capps, our shiny new closer, the bull pen has been particularly awesome at pissing away huge leads. Clearly, Capps starts the 9th and closes out to an easy victory. Nope, gotta make things interesting, let two runs score and put base runners on so that what was an out of hand, run away of a game is now about to slip away. Ugh! At least they did manage to win.

But wait! It was against the Rangers. Yeah, they have the worst record in all of baseball.

Oh well, there's always next year...

Longest Day

Today was our Camp Quality companion orientation/training thingy, so I was off bright and very early to make it there by 9:00.

Last year's training only lasted until about 2:00, I think. I know that I was back in Steubenville to meet Sarah and Becca at Applebee's by about 5:30 or so and that is after I had to go on a HUGE detour because the highway I needed (which I got lost trying to take a short cut to) was closed because a large truck decided to do gymnastics. So since I wasn't going to get lost this time (I finally know where I'm going!), I expected to be out of there and on my way home pretty quickly. And argh, if I only I weren't still a little sick, I was going to stop and visit Ty for a little while on my way home, depending on what time it was.

Well, as it turns out, I certainly didn't need to worry about missing out on visiting Ty because I was sick. Since I wanted to get back to school tonight so Duane and I could go out, I figured I'd only stop if we got done pretty early. Oh no. We were there the whole eight hours. EIGHT HOURS. That is eight hours of what to do when your camper wets the bed, gets homesick, etc. I do not like new rules that say we must complete all 8 hours of the training. Ruin my day.

I pulled out of the camp grounds at about 4:50 and made it home a couple minutes ago, just before 7:00, which is early enough to get back to school but too late to go see Pirates 3 since its forever long. Oh well, at least we can get dinner and oh man, I am starving.

I hate today.

I woke up this morning, wonderfully surprised to breathe out of my nose. Maybe I'm better after only two days? All right!

No, it was fate's cruel trick to make me optimistic about my day so it could then knock me down and kick me a few times while it was at it.

To avoid rambling, I'll do a nice, neat numerical list of why my day sucked up one side and right down the other... twice.

1. The plan: Boiling my already concentrated RNA for 5 mins, letting it cool for 20 and running a gel for several hours, taking it down around 5:00 and getting on my way. What actually happened: Sample not even close to done concentrating, spent 10 hrs trying to get it down to 1ml, settled on about 4ml and left my gel to run very slowly overnight. Yeah, thats gonna be really ugly in the morning.
2. The plan: I talked to my mom last night and she informed me that Brownie had been doing really, really crappy lately. Won't eat, can't hold it so she pees everywhere and generally acting weird and sickly, so they determined it might be "time." But don't worry, we'll wait til you come home this weekend so you can see her again. What actually happened: My phone rang at about 6:30, when I was still in my lab, btw, which is ridiculously late, and it was my "home is calling" ringtone. Well, dog was way worse today. So they took her to the vet and she's gone. :'(
3. The plan: Ty was going to clinic today to start his new chemo. Hurrah, getting back on track with treatment! What actually happened: He's scheduled for surgery to get a shunt back in (big surprise there -rolls eyes- stupid doctor) and has a fever, so chemo is on hold for quite a while and possibly surgery too while they wait to see about the infection.

Yep, today sucked. Unfortunately, I think tomorrow will be worse. Argh. :-\

Seriously now?!

Who gets sick in June? JUNE?!?! It's summer, time for fun in the sun, not exactly the season for sniffles. But alas, I woke up this morning with the sniffles and more! I feel like complete crap.

Luckily, all I had to do was pipette a couple things, pour some alcohol and stick two tubes in the freezer for 24 hrs, so I took the day off from lab. Had there not been incessant sawing and hammering on the roof and a random, unnecessary fire alarm (just my floor, btw), I might have had a quality nap, but hey, at least I should sleep like a rock tonight, right?

Well... assuming I don't die from the mega doses of cold pills I've taken. Hurrah, blood pressure problems!

Insanity!

Well, folks, I have officially lost it. In the past three days, I have attended a wedding, learned of an engagement and looked at about 600 pictures of yet another wedding. And all this wedding hoopla results in a very insane Kailey.

I am certainly not a girlly girl, at least 99.999999% of the time. No pink, no dressing up for the heck of it and definitely no stupid girl drama and giggling things. Weddings, however, are the major exception to my lack of girlishness. Of course, Sarah and I have had ours in the works since we were like 5, so it isn't as if I've never thought about it before. More recently though, like with all the "What is April 25, 2008?!?!" craziness, there has been some serious consideration. And A LOT of sleepless nights for me and Jamie. She's going to have a penguin ice sculpture, lol.

All of that hypothetical stuff all night with Jamie was fun but -blushy- it doesn't hold a candle to my wedding hoopla-induced insanity of late. I'm going to say its a widely known phenomenon that woman + wedding = omg, I want to get married!!! but I have officially lost it. In fact, I have been debating somewhat poofy and gathered kind of skirt (like Belle in Beauty and the Beast) vs. a sleeker lacy dress. Because clearly, I need to make that decision tomorrow. -rolls eyes at self- Yeah, I was definitely on Cloud 9/an emotional mess after the wedding on Saturday night as I went about my insane dress search.

Today in lab takes the cake though. Tim is back from his wedding and had a million pictures to show us, which, being a lab full of women, we pounced upon. Not entirely unlike rabid animals either. So yeah... his wedding was just about what I want mine to look like. Red and white for the colors, bridesmaids wearing tea-length dresses instead of full gowns. Only the flowers were off. They had some sort of pansy looking thing; I want red roses and white lilies. The actual ceremony were the best, however. Manly ol' Tim was a wreck. He was bawling like a little girl in just about every picture. Aww! He was all embarassed that we were sort of laughing at him but I was like oh no, I totally support the crying, its so sweet! Add to this a lab full of girls and the question of "wonder who will be next?" and you've got a recipe for some serious wedding hysteria.

That was an interesting convo. Josh doesn't want to get married because he doesn't want to have to "worry about what the wife is doing and likes [his] freedom," Suma seems terrified by the question and Medhavi is like "ahh, not yet! I don't even have a boyfriend!" Meanwhile, Tim is talking about being an emotional mess, Tyler is anticipating the same at his wedding and I'm like "sign me up!" So I proceeded to have a very nice, albeit quite womanly, chat with the boys. It was nice and even if I did get very blushy, I really do enjoy talking about Duane and that stuff with people... even if Tim did call us freaks for being able to stay together through college from high school.

Hmm, well I think I'm officially heading toward rambling now... So if you'll excuse me, I have dresses and cruises to look at. -blushy-