Aftermath

Sort of a pun, there - I did actually have math to do yesterday, and now it's, um, after the math. Hahahaha!

The biology final was okay. I'm now feeling slightly sick to my stomach over having reversed the functions of parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems; bang over head repeatedly, here. On the plus side, I did all the sample exams and actually retained a few especially weird little bits of information that then showed up as questions on the final. Plant hormone systematin! ha ha!

Biostat, eh. I totally forgot how to interpret computer results for logistic regression and had to try and re-learn it. Also couldn't do the really simple, straightforward first question for some reason, took a guess.

In general, I'm in the "horrified reliving of all the questions I probably got wrong" phase of post-exam. Grades come out next week. It's hard to tell if I feel more like throwing up now, or if it was worse before the tests; I'm thinking it's worse right now, in part because I shut down as much as possible anything that felt like welling panic before the exams - now it's unclamped and flooding my system.

It hasn't sunk in at all that the academic year is OVER, especially that I don't have that biology class anymore. A. and I started listing all the things we can now do:
1) Laundry!
2) Reading books not related to schoolwork!
3) Sleep like a normal person! (this last is unlikely - it'll be a while before our systems re-adjust) (assuming that, um, happens)
4) Brains not able to think of anything else!

Hey, I can go to knitting, and also knit, and also take care of a whole bunch of family stuff, and like that.

Whoo hoo.

Cartilage vascularization. Parasympathetic nervous system. Arghhhhhh....

Trying to take deep breaths and wait for myself to stop obsessing. I guess I'll need to be in the obsessing for a bit.

Hi!

Shakespeare

So it's now officially Okay to Discuss - MK and M and I are going to direct/produce/etc. a Shakespeare play this fall at our coop. It's been surprisingly contentious trying to get this in place, but the board agreed that another creative team would be a good idea. After five years of the same person, and various people getting so pissed off that they refuse to work with her, the community could use a change.

So here we go, "being the change we want to see in the world," to paraphrase somebody or other - Margaret Mead? Gandhi? I forget. We're doing "The Tempest." Yay! I'm really looking forward to it. So many ideas, and it's probably my favorite play in the whole canon, and MK and M are so awesome.

A lot of yesterday was a meeting about this new plan, which includes a reduced schedule, and then post-meeting processing. One of the really difficult things about the previous model has been that it's always a year-long project. Previous person will have a half year, now, and we'll have the other half year. She was very upset about this and made sure everyone knew it. Her part of the meeting was a protracted implosion, which was hard to be in the room for; we'd agreed beforehand not to interject in each other's time, and while MK and I were excited and happy, once the time was turned over to Previous Person, things got very unpleasant very quickly. There was yelling, there were people walking out - eww. So there we were, biting our tongues while our whole argument for changing things played out before our eyes.

A fairly draining day, on the whole. I'm procrastinating studying right now--better get back to that. Apple Blossom festival this weekend, finals next week, and then - ah! - a month off before summer classes start. Have a wonderful day, all.

Spring!

Happy Mother's Day!

The B-52's are playing Boston today - in their honor and in hopes that witchypoo isn't freezing her ass off, an oldie but goodie:



I can't even remember the last time I posted photos, so here's some of the building across the street from my apartment building:





And here's my wonderful building:



Have a lovely day, all!

Beer is good

Ahhhh.

The particular beer I had a while ago, not so much.

Let's see...town elections were today! All the people who had campaign signs in my yard won! Most excellent were K. and D.'s wins - they will be good additions to their boards. Yay! So after molecular biology review session, I went and congratulated K. in person and had some wine and yakked with D. for far too long. D's sister is working for the Clinton campaign and almost literally working her ass off; I told her the question Jon Stewart had for Obama a couple weeks ago: "Are you worried that after election day, at your inauguration, Hilary will still be running?"

I'm pleased that all the primaries matter. But I hated the lead-up to the primaries, and I hate the assinine press coverage of crap nobody seriously believes matters. (end o' rant)

There's a project I really, really want to do, especially now that I'd be teaming up with two people I would so love to work with, and there's a decision happening very soon. I am excited about it. And hopeful. And stuff.

Also staring at a job posting at school: a research assistant position to help maintain and build a neuroscience lab. Gulp. Throat goes dry. It screams, hey! weasel! apply for this! I'm a bit flummoxed. Sigh.

The rat dissection last night was really cool! wow! It was fun! The specimens we had were pre-killed and vacuum sealed in plastic, rather uncomfortably like lunch meat, actually...anyhow, my dead rat had been treated with some dye so that when I cut it open, I saw a bright blue liver. And lungs. WAY cool. (Lab partner dismayed at first that we had no aprons, 'cause he was all dressed up, but there wasn't anything squirting).

A rat uterus is a long band of tissue, not a single compartment - and the bench across from me had a pregnant rat, they discovered! with bumps along the uterus that looked basically like pinkish peas in a pod. It was neat. Itty bitty rat trachea, teeny rat kidney and ureter... interesting.

And thanks, Mel - I can't spell French correctly, either, as you can see. But my accent is pretty good. Lucia, maybe see you at Javaroom, huh?

At last I feel sleepy. Good night!

Another day, another staggering mountain of work

So it's May 2, already, and I sort of missed how that happened owing to the not having slept more than three hours. The shift from April 30 th May 1 I sort of missed. Ditto the May 1/May 2 changeover. Um, yeah.

BUT - I did get my paper finished and uploaded with two minutes to spare! huzzah! After finishing with the mind-blowing lab report I turned in on Tuesday, I started (!) the reading in earnest for the paper. Yes, this Tuesday. That would be me, not sleeping, just reading Edward Said as he lapses into French when he's talking about the French colonization of Egypt. In fact he quotes Hugo, fairly gratuitously: "Au Nil je le retrouve encore./L'Egypte resplendit des feux de son aurore" - Ed! baby! poopsie! Je parle un tres petit peau de francais seulement, sweetheart! you're killin' me, here!

I really love reading Said and am deeply sorry that he's dead, but at three in the morning, this I did not need.

Anyhow, there were apparently some explosions near my apartment. No, I wasn't there, dears, and I'm fine, and I'll go check on things tomorrow. Quite close by, but not actually on my street; I'm guessing the power is out.

Nearly time to watch the replay of Doctor Who! Oh, boy! And my daughter's performance tonight in "Midsummer Night's Dream"? Le awesome. Oui, tres awesome. Later, all.

Oh: gratuitously fun thing here. Thanks, K.