Stumbling Through Adulthood

OMG, it's been a while since I've written... And a result, there is so much accumulated stuff to write that I didn't want to write because, well, I needed to spend so much time at it. Let's see if starting with a simple three things will help me get at it over the next few days.

1. After a very VERY hectic end of May and early June, we went to Iceland for 10 days. The trip started out well, what with a small face-to-face with camelsamba in Reykjavik, which felt very jet-setish. I mean, Reykjavik isn't Bali or Timbuktu, but it's also not the local Starbies! After that auspicious beginning... the trip continued to be just as awesome. I think it was one of the best trips of my life. Puffins, Icelandic horsies, hiking, and Midnight Sun. I'm back and I miss Iceland. I don't understand how I can be homesick for a place that was never home. I need to get the trip report written for my mom and all my photos uploaded. I'll get there. Eventually.

2. We finally made an executive decision to skip Eclipse 2026. It's only visible in Western Iceland and Spain, and totality is going to be very short. I mean, if I can, I might do a short trip to Iceland and if the weather cooperates, great, if not oh well, but we decided (with my sister) that we'd aim for the 2027 eclipse, which we will try to see in either Egypt or Morocco. Totality in Egypt will be over 5 minutes so. I suspect, since it will be August, that my plan will be "land in Egypt, look at one pyramid, look at the Sphinx, hit the National Museum, eclipse, get the fuck out to somewhere a lot further north, like, oh, the Faroe Islands or Sweden". Heh.

3. We bought a car in early June, part of the pre-departure hectic. It's a blue Honda CRV Hybrid and I need to find it a name before it gets known as 'that stupid car'. Because right now, it beeps, tries play my music even if I haven't told it to, beeps some more, locks when you walk away from it, and basically is going to require hours of work to beat it into silent submission. It's a good car, I'm sure, or will be.

My new schedule starts next week. I have tried three times now to get my boss to discuss what days he wants me in. Each time he asks me which days I prefer, I tell him, and he says he'll think about it. And it's next freaking week. I'm stressed by the uncertainty.

I suspect that he wants Golden Girl Elena (whom I really like, actually) to get to pick which days she wants to work, and I'll get what's left. And while I like her a lot, she's a bit of a flake. We're trying to do a project in parallel (so she can "train" me on something I've been doing for a while) and she is invariably late, getting in at 11 or noon, rather than the 9:30 she promised. So a three-day project has taken three days already and we have two more to go, both are overnights so at best we'll be done Wednesday with verification Thursday night. I'm sure the boss will blame me since my work hours mean I'm often on my way out of the lab when he comes to do his afternoon review of the fiefdom past 5pm, but I've gotten there before 9am.

And we now have a rat that is supposed to give birth Tuesday or Wednesday that Elena is supposed to 100% deal with. I know how long these preps take and how physically demanding they are. She has health issues that have me concerned about her ability to take on a prep that typically takes at least 4 hours, even for someone experienced. And despite boss's claim, she hasn't done the time-consuming part of these preps before. Frighting that I might have more experience than she does. Nutshell: the prep involves removing the hippocampi from the brain. These are tiny in mice, apparently bigger in rats. She hasn't done that at all; I haven't done it in rats. The other part of the prep, which is tbh the easy part, is transforming the hippocampi into a neuronal culture. The dissection part involves being hunched over a microscope that is in a biosafety cabinet. I don't have back or neck problems and I'd finish those days in serious pain.

I'm stressed out and very unhappy at work right now. I'm desperately applying for other jobs, but there aren't many out there, and plenty of people more qualified than me so I don't have much hope of finding anything.

ETA this evening. Elena stayed home today, she was too tired to come in. Boss showed up asking me if we had colonies, and sounding dismayed at how long this joint project was taking. UGH. But in good news, I got an email to set up an interview for one of the jobs I applied to last night, so fingers crossed.

Argh! Of freaking course the damn gene went in on the wrong freaking direction!!! Argh! Please go back (almost) to the beginning. Argh!!!

That would be "Wednesday" in Icelandic and I love how it's literally mid-week day, LOL.

1. Perry did what dh calls a speed run of a viral illness this week. He was a bit tired on Monday night, Tuesday he was awful: highish fever (104F, which isn't the highest his has ever been, gulp), body aches, sore throat, the whole nine yards. Note that he's had both flu and Covid vaccines. Anyhow, by the evening, he felt even worse, and his neck was stiff, and his lips numb. I heard that and sent him to the MS clinic. Negative for Covid, negative for flu, and the NP was shocked, she'd expected the flu to be positive considering his symptoms. Today? He's fine. It was a nasty intense 24 hours, but it's apparently over. He stayed home from rowing at least but expects to be back tomorrow. It's not the first time he's done this, gets very sick very fast, but it only lasts a little bit. Ugh.

2. This happened today, as recounted in a text to my spouse:
PI to me: add Nahuel to the animal protocol.
Me: adds Nahuel.
Our animal protocol coordinator: no can do, he hasn't had the proper training.
PI in email to coordinator: please remove Nahuel, he was added in error.
Me, privately: 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
I submitted the amendment to the protocol so I'm the one who looks like the idiot.

Also. Last Friday PI tells me we're getting a cell line (that we don't have authorization for) from another researcher on Monday. I scramble to make sure we have the needed supplies on hand (we do, or close enough). I write up a quick change request to our biological use authorization, which won't be reviewed from another month, ugh.

Monday, I went to get the cells, thawed and plated them. By Tuesday they looked good, so I divided them, which eh, needs to happen so we can freeze stock to have as backups. I checked them this afternoon, they should be ready to freeze tomorrow at the earliest, Friday at the latest. Note that freezing these down and keeping one plate to passage for experiments next week is my priority. Note as well that I don't know how these things grow. If they were my usual HEK-293, I could predict doubling time with much more accuracy. These cells are smaller and I have no idea of their growth patterns.

Today PI asks me how the cells are doing because Nahuel needs them by tomorrow. I'm like... Dude. No. I might have some ready by Friday at the earliest, but not tomorrow if I want to have backups. And really... We got them Monday; it's a new cell line etc. No doubt he'll mention to me again that I have almost no experience in cell culture... well, no, maybe not (I mean, beyond a year and a bit, ya know), but I do know one thing: I can't make the cells grow any faster than they are so bug off.

Linnea has a regatta on Saturday and needs to be in Seattle Sunday (more on that in the 3rd thing) so I'll probably stop by the lab and check on the new little guys.

3. Remember last years when Linnea's team were Div II NCAA champions? Well, it's March madness and there are games in Seattle. And the team is going to be honored at the start of one of the games, at the big arena in DT Seattle. Can't be there, so hopefully NCAA will have it online. How exciting for them! They're also, along with the 8 other women's champion rowing teams at WWU going to be inducted into the school's Hall of Fame in early April. Also pretty damn exciting!

It was clear tonight. We went out on the deck and managed to find the comet. It was very dim, could only see it with binocs, but see it we did!

The weather cooperated today. So nice.

Dh got a few photos, he's uploading them now, but he sent me one.



That lens was worth every single penny we paid for it. Lots of pennies, but so so worth it.

Ugh. It's been a week. Not all bad, but not much great either.

I got some unexpected results that I knew were a fuck up on my part. The question was how far back did I make the mistake? Turns out at the middle step of five, and I'm pretty sure I can remember what was happening when I did: namely someone coming to talk with me urgently at a point when I needed to pay attention to what I was doing and I swapped two tubes. Blah. All fixed now, but ugh.

And the -20 was full of ice. Last time I needed trypsin, I had to really carefully get it out. Raul was chiseling -not a good idea- some stuff out earlier this week. And then on Wed, we could no longer close the door of the damn freezer without effort. It was time to defrost.



This is the top shelf after I'd pried about half of the boxes that were embedded in the ice out.



It took a lot of puppy pads, warm water, and persuasion. I was able to borrow a freezer for the night so I didn't have to overstuff our other -20. Anyhow long day.

And yes, in case anyone is wondering. That is a mercury thermometer in there. 😐 I need to get rid of it, I shudder at the consequences of it getting broken.

This morning, everything was good, we were at -12, so we transferred everything back. Only to have the temp shoot up to 5. Not good. Note that we'd put in stuff from another -20. It took a while and not opening the door to check the temp every 15 minutes like I wanted to, but it was at -15 when I left so fingers crossed.

My plan this weekend: find a place to buy a small plastic dragon or dinosaur and place it towards the back of the freezer. If the next person to defrost isn't me, hopefully they'll get a grin out of it.

Some of what I do in the lab is standard lab manager crap, which I loathe. Some of it is neuronal preps which means, yeah, killing mouse pups and the cell culture follow through of that. Those neurons go to Raul to do stuff with. Some of what I do is going back and making a systemic catalog of the DNA constructs in the lab, so bench work and database/Excel work, and I'm about half done with that. Some of what I'm supposed to be doing eventually if another department ever gets their act together is some drug screening but that will be almost no bench work (a few hours a week of routine cell culture work at most) and a lot of data analysis at the computer. But here's the deal. Raul has another job (downstairs and he said I can still ask him questions if need be. When the previous lab manager left there was a lot of knowledge lost, but at least Raul had been in the lab for four years and knows a lot). We were supposed to get another post doc staring in October but now it looks like, because of visa issues, that won't happen until next spring. That leaves me a) alone in the lab and b) without enough to do, even if the drug screening thing happens in a timely manner. I have no idea how this is going to work. Unless I can get a project involving neurons, it makes zero sense to maintain mice for over 6 months if we are not going to need a fresh supply of neurons. I don't feel comfortable sacrificing a bunch of mice over that amount of time so I can practice.

All this to say that I think I'm going to start checking out jobs again. I don't love this one enough deal with 6 months in a lab with no real direction and no overarching project beyond sitting at the computer analyzing FRET images.

Blah.

That was so incredible.

Just.

OMG.

I'll try to post photos, I got some ok ones, dh got some great ones, but OMG.

There was visible aurora, with aura of color, over about 3/4 of the horizon and overheard was a starburst type pattern. We were surrounded by this, it was incredible.

We'd still be out there, but dh has trains tomorrow and Perry coaches and my phone had very few electrons left.

But wow. I just...

Anne-Chloe went out, Linnea, alas, went to bed about half hour before things got interesting. She has a plan to be woken up for a bit around midnight and I hope she does. Because this was phenomenal.

Headed out to Baton Rouge and... Arkansas. Rather than Texas. And one OMG expensive hotel room, booked last minute, LOL.

Perry is doing cat sitting duty and picking up our car, via a ride to Redmond on his bike, from the Transit Center.

Not taking my computer, so eh, updates will be minimal if at all.

Fingers crossed for good weather!

1. Mixed feelings on this one: Anne-Chloe got a pretty major promotion at work, from research tech to staff scientist, she'll be the lab leader. It's... big. But... the guy who was there before was there for 30 years. Just... being the lab director. Not the PI. The director. I don't want her to get caught in the more responsibility/more money trap and not get that MD/PhD she needs to do something truly creative with her life. So. I'm very proud of her and a bit scared too.

2. OMG, my stupid bitch of a SIL. OMG. So. For the past... what, 20 plus years? If I am here over a given holiday, I will host, unless plans are specifically made to all to go dh's aunt, which we did once or twice over the past few decades. During the pandemic, I made a delivered full holiday meals to MIL and SIL. This year, we decided to invite dh's aunt specifically since her "problem child dog" has died and she's a bit more free to do stuff like haul the other four dogs up to us for the day. Apparently, after we texted her, she texted SIL to tell her she'd be there. SIL immediately got her nose bent out of joint that she hadn't gotten a specific invitation. Reader, in the past twenty years she has never gotten one, just a call or a text close to the holiday to specify time. Same as for my MIL. So. SIL got into a snit and refused to come for Thanksgiving. Fine, we said. For Christmas, dh texted with his nephew a few days before and finished off with a reminder that they were invited for Christmas. The day before Christmas we find out that again, my SIL does not feel that her invitation was sufficient, so she was not going to grace us with her presence. Fuck that shit, nobody cared and we had a great time without her. She sent us a major passive-aggressive text. New Year's dh sent her a text specifically and she came. Whatever, not after, when we asked MIL if she wanted to come over, she asked "Is everyone invited?" Fuck that shit. So where are we right now? We often invite MIL to come over for dinner, because eh, it's not a major event, we're just asking if she wants to come over and share whatever we're having, ya know? Nothing formal. The past two times we did this (early Jan and today) dh got a text back saying "Is everyone invited?" and well, NO. This is not a major meal, just having her over. Dh now does not want to invite his mother over any longer because he's feeling like now, SIL has intruded in a casual relationship between us and his mother, and his mother is making it worse, so now, we're done. Long story. But yeah, my SIL is a stupid bitch.

3. Norway section of the trip is planned. After a small cancellation of a plan a few weeks ago, which was annoying, we ended up going with a small agency who booked everything for us (according to the plan we'd already made). It cost a tiny bit but saved a lot of time and frustration (see above: cancellation). What was nice is they were able to find another Northern Lights cruise for us! We need to plan Iceland next! Volcano is back erupting in Grindavik, but unlike the two first times, this isn't a tourist excursion to the middle of nowhere, it's a town being destroyed.

Wow, that didn't go well. Had a phone screen for a Research Tech II position this morning. Was told in not so many words that I'd never get a RT II position because I didn't have any experience, and no, education does not substitute (I guess that MS was useless), and good luck finding an RT I position because while they usually only require a BS, PIs want young people straight out of college who want to pursue a PhD. And yes, he said young people straight out of college, which I am clearly not. FML

It's pretty clear that I'm not going to find a low-level research job. The only others jobs I've been seeing around are shift work, which I was hoping not to have to do. Most of those have the typical must be able to carry 50lbs around, which, WTF? I can't quite do that, so I'll have to look for those that only need you to be able to haul around 25, which I can do. Either than or get a phlebotomy license, for some reason there seems to be plenty of openings there, though again, mostly swing or night shift.

I've only had a few phone screens and interviews recently, but I did talk to a few people at Western when I was "interviewing" there before being accepted, and I did interview a lot back when. I have never had anyone pretty much tell me my education and experience aren't worth shit, even when I interviewed for jobs that I was clearly underqualified for.