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sublingua | |||||
| The heart with a mind of its own.(Be present.) | The mind with a heart of its own.(It's past.) | The dream that is your waking life.(Go there now.) | |||
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Foreign Exchange
Today was an all day sucker. Or maybe that was me. I got to work at 7 am--after having visited my favorite woman-owned coffeehouse which, despite the posted hour, was closed. No coffee for you! I had the lab to myself for a little less than an hour before Zaphod came in. Luckily, he then disappeared and I had another solitary half hour before the mob mobbed. I had, this morning, to centrifuge something for an hour--a task in a crowded lab that can take all day, what with people needing the centrifuge for their own selfish purposes. Then, there was some buffer making and some more centrifuging and some sonicating and some chromatography. Yeah, baby. I used to think that this stuff was cool, and now, I'm all like, whatever on the chromatography. However, I did realize that I really, really like the smell of labwork. I love the smell of beta-mercapto-ethanol. I love the smell of the inside of the washing machine sized centrifuge. I love the 95% acetic acid and the 95% ethanol and the smell of LB broth and the burnt salt smell of the autoclave room. Zaphod was trying to be helpful today, and, off the 'loft as I am, I was trying very very hard not to be insulted at his constructive criticism. But it was very hard. Yes, indeed. Though we did have a funny exchange about my lunch: Peanut butter and jelly on wheat. He said: "What is for your lunch?" She said: "Peanut butter and jelly sandwich. What do you have? Do you want to trade? Did you ever trade lunches as a kid?" He said: "What is that?" She said: "When your mom packed a lunch with stuff you didn't like, you would try to trade with another kid for something good." He said: "Why they want do that?" (Apparently, in China, mothers only send their kids off to school with wonderful lunches.) She said: "To be your friend." And laughed. Also, there are these new bright purple gloves in the lab that make me smile whenever I see them. Also, I laughed at something, but now I do not remember what. Perhaps--oh, no, I remember. It was Zhibing. He was eating lunch and his new grad student shadow came and asked him a question which he needed to come into the lab to answer. Holding a half-eaten apple, he followed her to the door and stopped. She, ahead of him, kept walking and talking, oblivious to his dilemma. (Can't eat in the lab, children. It could be deadly.) He looked at her, looked at the apple, looked at her, back at the apple, and then, realizing that she was oblivious to his apple leash, made a decision and entered the lab. It might not be all that funny to you, but, having spent a year amongst the Chinese, it was funny. I can't really say why. I guess you just have to've been there--every day for a whole year before it happened and then again at the exact moment that it happened. You know.
More lies:
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