we brave bee-stings and all

another month. another week. another Monday. Let's talk about my day, shall we?

2 June 2008.
Up early in the morning to shower and stumble through the usual juice+toaster waffle breakfast. Drove to campus b/c of evening commitments requiring transportation. Today with be the first in 5 days that I haven't been on my bike. Sole person in lab pre-8. The AC is still not working properly in our building. :( makes all those temperature sensitive experiments we do quite happy, grumble grumble. Get to work. Plus email. Plus Facebook. Eventually 9 am rolls around; critical mass is slowly achieved in the office.

10 am talk on plant clocks by a guy who postdoc'd with a prof in the UK (who was buds with E at UVA back in the day) that I would be interested in working with come that whole Lex-is-Dr-Webb thing. Talk was pretty good. The free coffee/bagels/donuts makes the students happy. Back to lab and work. Then head to lunch with this plant clock guy. Totally awkward. Me and two other grad students, one of whom he didn't make eye contact with much at all. While I warrant excessive amounts... yikes! Topics ranged from the taxation of married women in Germany to how Obama is uber-left to portion sizes in the great US of A. At one point, the non-sequitur was "God Bless America." Seriously. Flee from lunch to attend lab meeting. Yes, you read that right, lab meeting... where I spend 50% of the time listening attentively and 50% of the time wanting to eat my own brains out with a dull spoon. It was that bad.

3 pm and I'm back in the lab for one last push of work and email and meetings and coordinating all those little things that I take care of in my over-committed-grad-student, who-would-one-day-like-to-finish life. For example, planning the summer Neuroscience course for teachers working towards a Masters in Biology here at Wash U. E and I have designed the syllabus, including lectures, labs and activities. We'll be presenting all the material at the end of July. I'm excited and the $1500 for being the TA isn't bad either. I think I would go crazy if I didn't have all these other things I cared about other than my thesis. :)

5 pm puts me headed towards North StL. As I drive down Delmar to Vandeventer and turn onto MLK, urban blight abounds. I'm going to another meeting, this one with individuals passionate about education and social justice in the City. The average age of the men and women around the board room table is less than 35. I am volunteering my time along with everyone else to help develop a charter school that will target highly mobile (i.e. homeless) youth in StL, set to open in 2009. Our application is due in August. The dedication and drive of everyone invovled astounds me.

By 8 I am eating my dinner of caramelized onions and sausages with a green salad. Paired with Paulner's DoppelBock, I am a happy kid. Not bad for a Monday. Not bad.