whew. what a day.

First of all, whoa.  This day was frantically running around, finishing my poster for the Bionengineering retreat on Monday, finishing problem sets, attending our weekly student seminar and NOT having enough copies thus warranting me running---fast---in my three inch heels to pull an amazing confusing-copy-machine-feat, then being frustrated with lab buffers and having a terrible headache.  Ugh.

And then there was this:

Recitation professor:  So, does anyone have any questions before we start?  General things, the readings?

Me:  So, why exactly do you call removing hydrogens abstracting them?

Recitation professor:  (hedges a bit)

Me:  I guess, I'd never heard of it put that way before this class...we just called it removing hydrogens in undergrad.

Girl behind me (who continually editorialized our class with comments):  God, uh, where did you take organic?

Me:  seething.  (also, upon looking it up, abstract has an alternate definition of "to steal away" and it comes from the late 14th century and is from the Latin word "abstractus," (drawn away).  This is legit...but I had seriously never heard it in terms of hydrogens before)

Now, organic chemistry is not my strong suit.  As I've pointed out, the slight lysdexia and complete lack of spatial perception make this subject terribly difficult for me.  Histology just makes sense.  Physiology (yes, even action potentials!)  -- we understand each other now.  I've been able to get by in orgo and learn because I studied hard, not because it made sense to me in some sort of natural way.  But holy schmole, just because I didn't go to MIT and take Their organic chemistry doesn't mean I'm an idiot.  (says me, who, you know, read the book and did the problem set and ---whoa, wait for it---got several things right during recitation.  N-deacetylation for the win).  There are no stupid questions when you're trying to learn...I've been there.  A lot.  See: my entire first semester of graduate school trying to program math-based systems for which I'd never actually learned the math.  But there are people like you, who are in a whole different league, and because my mama told me not to say anything if I can't say anything nice, I won't.


Fortunately, I finally got my drunken noodle tonight as well (plus a boba bonus!).  Earlier this week, a labmate was eating spaghetti for lunch, and I excitedly shared that I learned what pasta puttanesca meant (whore's pasta!  it's true...)

And we got into a whole conversation about people's rationalizations for the names of food, like drunken noodle.  It's not called that because the noodles are swirly, it's called that because it's easy good food to make/eat while drunk. 

And then I said, "Man.  I want some drunken noodle."  And tonight, spicy deliciousness in Allston ensued.  After today, it was exactly what I needed.

And then my male-male audio cord came in, and there is SOUND.  Oh man, I may just watch something on Hulu right now, at 11:49 pm, just because I can.