Update Before I'm Off to Study...

I know it's been two months since I've written anything, but keep in mind that in those two months, not a whole lot has happened. Finals and winter break do that to you.

Anyway. I'm in my last semester at VT and honestly, the weather is doing its darndest to drive me out. I am so over snow and the people around here not knowing how to deal with snow (hint: you start salting/sanding BEFORE there's any snow, let alone 3") and being plowed in and digging my car out with a tupperware because Kroger, Food Lion, Target, and Walmart all sold out of snow shovels ages ago. I am sick of unshoveled sidewalks ON CAMPUS that mean I'm walking to my classes in snow past my knees and black ice everywhere.

I'm also sick and tired of having to remind my roommates that just because they don't have class until noon (or at all) doesn't mean that everyone doesn't.

But I digress. I've got Food Microbiology, Immunology, and Detective Fiction, as well as the staple of Research to keep me busy. A test in Immunology to keep me oh so busy that I'm actually considering blowing off the research lab today in order to study. And because it's a 20 minute walk to the lab from my class (already a 15 minute walk from my apartment) and it is still currently snowing/sleeting/who knows outside.

I think that's what I'll do.

And the envelope please...

OK So the actually envelope isn't in my hands, and won't be until at least Monday. But today, whilst I was out and about doing some Christmas shopping, I got a phone call.

From Augusta Health.

Offering me admission to their program. The director called to see if she should mail the letter to my apartment here in the burg or to my parents' house in New Jersey. Since it's being mailed today, I told her sending it here would be fine.

And after we got off the phone, I proceeded to freak out.

OH MY GOODNESS HURRAY!!

Waiting...

So I've had two interviews now (Augusta and Valley) and there is nothing to do but wait. Valley is supposed to send of decisions on December 1, and Augusta just said that I would know "before Christmas". It's so vague; it's making me crazy.

In the mean time, I have to work on my presentation and report for my undergraduate research. I have my own project now, working on capsule production and motility, but nothing really has been determined with it yet, as I only started at the beginning of November. I have to present sometime before finals--the exact date depends on the availability of the other undergrad in the lab, so we can present at the same time. However, she just had a baby so she's not even sure when she'll be available.

That's all I've got for now. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, whether they were home with family or far away.

The Waiting Game

So I had my first interview (Augusta Health) on Friday. I think it went well; one of my interviewers said she was very impressed by my knowledge of the profession.

I am supposed to find out by Christmas...

It's official...

My first two interviews are scheduled:

Augusta Health - 13 November, 3 PM
Valley Hospital - 23 November, 11 AM

I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!

Now if only the sweaters I ordered for the express purpose of wearing as interview attire would arrive. I managed to find nice pants at the store, but for some reason, there were no sweaters in XS to be found in the entire store.

Oh Em Gee!

So those who know me well know that I've applied to three clinical lab science programs (Carilion Clinic in Roanoke, VA, Augusta Health Center in Fishersville, VA, and The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, NJ). I also thought about applying to Virginia Commonwealth's program (Richmond, VA), but as it's in a college setting, it takes longer. Semesters and courseloads and all that. For hospital-based programs, it's done on intensive block scheduling, and you work for 12 months straight (with a week break between Christmas and New Year's).

For those who don't know what that is, clinical lab science is a branch of pathology (medical specialty) that deals with the biology and chemistry (and biochemistry, which I'm loving, btw) of disease. If you've ever given a urine sample, had a blood test, or even just a throat culture for mono or strep throat, a clinical lab scientist processed and analyzed your tests. The results of these tests factor into about 75% of diagnosis and treatment decisions made by physicians; other results can be used to determine if blood is suitable for transfusion, genetic testing to see if you are predisposed to a disease, or simply typing blood. There are several divisions of this science; at the moment blood banking (transfusion science) and microbiology (I know, shocker) are the most interesting to me.

Anyway, I've been having kittens over the fact that two of my letters of recommendations were lost in the mail (one of which is due next Saturday). Obviously, this is crucial for Valley, as their deadline is October 31; it is also a serious issue for Augusta, who does semi-rolling admissions. Augusta chooses about half of their class through people who get complete applications in early and the other half by those who have their applications completed by their February 1 deadline.

This became especially agitating as Valley e-mailed me on Monday offering me an interview, but only if they received my final reference by their deadline. For the record, it was sent out September 15. Curse you, United States Postal Service.

Fortunately, the professor who wrote my missing references agreed to issue new ones, as he had saved them. He even gave me some money to cover the cost of sending the letters priority mail so they would arrive at Augusta and Valley by the end of the week.

Anywho, I just got an e-mail today saying they had received my third letter and they're offering an interview as well...I'm so excited!

The more I learn about this career, the more I realize it's what I really want to do. I've been doing bench science and lab work my entire Tech career; it's what I love. I also am completely fascinated by how the body tells us that it's sick or damaged. I can't imagine letting this knowledge and these skills be wasted, especially when I get so much joy out of it. So I'm hoping and wishing that these interviews go well.

In other news...in Patho lab today, I got to culture Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The species name should tell you what nasty disease that causes; the bacteria we use in teaching labs are engineered to be non-virulent though, so it's really not so bad. They made us work in the biosafety hood anyway, to give us experience with the skills. I'm super excited to look at this particular bacteria under the microscope on Tuesday. I'm such a nerd.

Augh.

So either one of my letters of recommendation (that went to two of the three schools to which I applied) has been lost in the mail or was never sent in the first place.

AUGH!!!!

You're Incompetent!

Oh my cells...

We've been trying to transform bacteria in order to determine some genes, except none of the transformations are working.

So today I started a test to see if these cells are even competent. For those who don't know, competence is the ability of bacteria to take in foreign DNA. I tested the strain we've been using, a newer stock of this strain, and another strain that we know to be competent.

Man I hope I find something.

Sorry I haven't written anything in a while.

Keeping Track, Week 1

So I have to write a paper (and make an oral presentation) at the end of this semester about what I've done and learned doing undergraduate research. This isn't such a terribly big deal to me, but I definitely need to keep a log of what I've been doing. Granted I have a laboratory notebook for this purpose, but that's a lot of notes and scientific data. This can be in more narrative form.

So Monday I spent most of my time in the lab reading the safety manual and skimming articles about the organism we're working with, Pantoea stewartii stewartii. I also inoculated an overnight culture for the grad student to use the following day. Included in this was actually making the solution in which we're growing the culture and then collecting samples from the freezer stocks. I learned to use the automatic pipetter (love. it.) and just generally worked on lab skills.

Wednesday (yesterday) I continued to learn some basic skills by performing a Mini-Prep plasmid extraction. I'd done them in G&P lab last semester, but never with a filter. I also accidentally spilled one of my cultures, so I wasn't really surprised to see that particular culture reading at almost no DNA content when I used the mass spectrometer at the end of the extraction. I also learned how to use an optical density reading and convert it to the mass of what is in the solution (in this case plasmid DNA).

Other than that, school has been, well, school. We had a lecture in biochem about multitasking (actually pretty interesting), my patho teacher has successfully scared at least 20 people into dropping his class, and toxicology...I can't even determine how I feel about toxicology. It's just a huge blank.

In case you were wondering...

I got the new wet-lab position! Woohoo!

Interviewing

So today I interviewed with my advisor and her two doctoral students with regards to working in the lab. I think it went well...I may have impressed the grad students more than my advisor, but she did catch me off guard.

That's what I get for not reading up on her research before going in. Not that it would have really mattered, as she has almost nothing written about it on her faculty page.

But I got along incredibly well with the two grad students, and that's what I was really worried about. Both of them (both women) were easy to talk to. We soon strayed away from discussing the lab projects and talking about classes (I've had two courses with the both of them, as the Micro program has grad and undergrad sections of the same classes--with the only difference being that the grad sections have an extra meeting each week). We also talked about vaccines, IVF (in vitro fertilization), birthday cake, and how cartoons were so much better when we were kids. I had a great time and my advisor was shocked to see that I was still there talking with them when she came in to talk to one of the students about her project.

So I've got my fingers crossed at the moment. I already wrote my follow-up e-mail expressing my desire to work in the lab, so hopefully I'll hear by the end of the week.

I just want to point out that this was a completely different experience from applying to my first undergrad research lab.

And on that note...

I would have written this Monday, but I did end up quitting my research. I'm also interviewing this upcoming Monday for a position in a wet lab, where I can actually do microbiology things. NO MORE EUKARYOTES!! HOORAY!!

Wow that was nerdy.

Gathering the Nerve to Quit and Applications

Summer's a slow time. Time to break down what's been going on lately and update on my life.

I've totally given up on my research at this moment. I haven't looked at it in weeks and can vaguely remember what I'm supposed to do. My PI's going to be pissed.
But I hate this. I honest to god want to quit. I'm over the frustration and not being able to actually DO anything. None of my work is hands on in the lab, it's all on the computer, and I hate computers. Linux is not my friend. And I'm tired of having to do long-distance communication with my PI and my project partner whenever I have a problem. I can't solve these things remotely, I have NO computer science skills.
I really want to quit, to the point where I actually had a discussion with my advisor about it on Monday. She heard through the VT Microbiology grapevine (the program is small and everyone's a gossip) that I was miserable and wanted to talk to me about it. She thinks maybe I'd be happier with a different project and even, in a roundabout way, offered me a spot in her lab, but first I have to talk to my PI.
I hate talking to adults. Which is pathetic given that I'm graduating next May and will be an adult myself. But I'm always so freaking terrified of disappointing authority figures in my life...hence why it took me over a month to tell my advisor that I wasn't applying to grad schools anymore. I hate being a disappointment or letting people down. And I hate having to tell people who have authority over me that I'm going to do so.
But I need to tell him. I've been putting it off since Monday and will probably put it off at least another week (hurray Hokie Camp actually allowing me to procrastinate). But this needs to be taken care of before school, and time is ticking down. Otherwise, I may be facing a completely miserable semester.

In other news, I've decided to not apply to graduate school for the time being. This is partly because of my general frustration with research as a whole and partly because I am SO OVER school. I love learning and classes, but graduate school is more working than learning. You're sort of between an employee and a student.
Oh, and I've spent nearly 17 years being a student...I think I need to do something else for a while. I need to grow up and be an adult. Maybe learn to talk to them (see above).
So I've been applying to medical technology certification programs. They're one year programs, doing hands-on lab work and I should be able to get a job once I finish. The field has a severe shortage. I want to work in a lab and run tests and things...another drawback, really, to going to graduate school. All the PhDs I've met (post-docs and professors) spend more time in their offices than in their labs. I want to do actual work. OK, the post-docs do a lot of lab work, but for the goal of living in their offices...I don't want that.
As of Monday afternoon, I've sent off two applications and requested three letters of recommendation for each. I'm waiting on a third program to release their application...and hoping beyond hope that all my letters get in ASAP.

Well, that's all that's going on in my life right now.

Yup.

This pretty much sums up how research has been going for me lately. Except my PI thinks I'm a moron who can't operate a computer. Which, let's face it, I probably am.

shocking.

I hate Linux. So much. So so much.

whatever

Why is it that every day of my vacation I had no problem waking up at 7 (or earlier), but as soon as I had to go back to work, my body has been like "ugh, 7:15...I want to die"?

Also, I've determined that the lab computer just doesn't like me.

Deja Vu Much?

I felt like I was going to class this morning, as opposed to work. I was armed with a backpack loaded with the following: a notebook, my Microbial Physiology textbook, my laptop, a long-sleeve shirt in case I get cold, and a copy of the CT when I was able to find a newsstand.

Welcome back to research-land.

My Very Own Project

I meant to write this last week before I went on a trip (the boyfriend was a groomsman in a wedding and his sister's graduation was in the same week, so we made a vacation out of it), but I'm doing some summer research and I now have my OWN PROJECT!

I'm doing pretty much the same work I was doing in the spring, but I'm starting a whole metabolic system from scratch, which includes doing gene look-ups and actually creating the trees I need to annotate. This means learning more Linux and getting trained to use SystemX. I'm not a huge computer nerd, but I'm actually really excited to be using SystemX; it's only one of the fastest supercomputers on the plant.

What system will I be working with, you ask? Ever heard of The Krebs Cycle?

A Completely Non-Scientific Note

So I've had a mole removed. Hopefully this will be the only one, as I'm not particularly fond of the implications.

I'm a pale kid. I don't tan (intentionally or otherwise), I wear sunscreen almost all the time if I'm not covered up, and I don't mind that my skin could probably be described as "alabaster". 200 years ago, that was sexy, right? I'm a pale, brownish-red haired, slightly freckled girl with tanned blondes for a mother and sister.

Honestly, the worst part was after they put in the anesthetic and waited for it to kick in. I must have been lying on my stomach, with my butt exposed to the world, for a good 20 minutes. I don't have butt issues, per se, but I'd prefer to not to be lying prone on an exam table with only a hospital gown preserving my dignity. When they were actually cutting it out, we talked about prions (apparently they factored greatly into this past season of 24), Swine Flu, and hummus. I could feel pressure on my back, mostly when they were stitching me up, but it didn't hurt. Apparently, people believe that when you get anesthetized, you can't feel anything. People, you'll feel pressure, but it won't hurt.

The mole was on my back, slightly above where a bra or bikini strap would rest, and tiny. But it was slightly star-shaped. Like Star of Bethlehem, not a sticker you got on your spelling test in the 3rd grade. And apparently it was deep, deep enough to warrant a subcutaneous stitch, as well as the nice collection I've got holding my back together.


I've had stitches before and have no issue cleaning them and I can deal. These, however, are driving me nuts. They're at the exact place on my back that I cannot reach, so I have to rely on others to clean them for me. And they itch like crazy (my back hurts a little, as well, but the itching is more annoying). I'm also incredibly paranoid that I'm going to inadvertently rip these out. Or have them ripped out by my cat, who is a terrorist and has a penchant for jumping at my back anyway. I had to move seats twice at dinner to get away from him, as he kept jumping behind my chair and twice got his claws into my back -- nowhere near the stitches, but enough to make me incredibly anxious.

So that's all that's new right now. I'm sure I'll have something to say about work and research once I get back to the 'Burg.

Blah

It feels so weird being around here and not having work to do.

The latest adventures in my life include surreptitiously gathering graduation presents with those of us who are not graduating for those who are (all in our group of friends except for the three girls and two of the guys). After a brainwave last night, we finally got everyone covered and hopefully the last of the ordered presents will arrive today. Graduation is Saturday, and they're all graduating from the same college, so we don't have to juggle ceremonies.

I managed to get A job. Not a job I really wanted mind you, though for the last few days, it was starting to look like any job would be acceptable to me. So I'm part of the Personal Computer Initiative at the bookstore, which basically means I answer the phone and organize laptop orders for incoming freshmen and other people who are ordering new computers. Funsies.

So I guess I'm going to go do my dishes now because they've accumulated rather well. Then I'm not sure what I'm going to do...no one else is up this early, and the only reason I am is because I had to drive the bf out to the Village to find his car. He left it there when he went to a department barbeque, at which he got rather drunk and obviously did not drive home.