the "real" September

Despite the wonderful reminders of a great trip that I've been posting all September, this month has actually been a bit of a heart attack in progress, time and again.  I don't have a free night until October 5th, which in some ways is fabulous, the mark of a busy life.  (but in other ways, the complete explanation for why I want a nap). 

--See this?  This is what we can, in technical terms, the death spiral.  Our cold room in lab is a giant room at 4ºC (40ºF), and stores plates, experiments, and chilly grad students.  I actually spent an incredible amount of time in a cold room when I worked at the U of MN pulverizing mouse organs.  Brr.  At least it didn't smell.  Anyway, the cold room went down, and as EHS rep, I got the call.  Awesome.  Something more to deal with.  Haven't I had enough practice with the -80 freezer?

--I went to the Penthouse to tidy the garden when I arrived back, got almost all the way around, and ended up disturbing a wasp nest, and they started swarming.  Amazingly, I only ended up with one sting on my lower back, but man, it hurt. 

--I'm playing principal horn on Dvorak's New World Symphony with three new first year undergrads and a returning sophomore.  Those of you that know me well know my vehement dislike for playing first, even more so in a piece with exposed parts and transposition.  But that is how it is.  Sigh.  Thank goodness it's great music, in the very least.

--There have been a number of challenging incidents in my role as a GRT, though to protect privacy, I can't talk about them here.  But rest assured, I have earned my rent this month.

(although---a friend told a somewhat hilarious tale about coming back down from the Penthouse with herbs for dinner and a *very* bright-eyed young student seeing that my friend pressed my floor asking "Are you going to see Bridget?"  My friend looked surprised and nodded.  "She's my GRT!  And she's really awesome.  She bakes a lot.  And she's nice, too."  So there's that.  At least one person likes me here, that's a start, ha).