Friday, May 27, 2011

TGIF

Thursday, May 26, 2011
It was just a regular day at work.  I started the day off taking the mice out of the alcohol chambers as I have done all week.  For some reason there was a shortage of tasks for me, which was a bummer.  I would rather be super busy doing things and learning (yup, I'm a nerd) because that is why I'm on the east coast! 
It was the last day for one of my coworkers, so I went to happy hour with him at Front Page.  It is a restaurant that has free pork or chicken tacos and two dollar Coronas for happy hour on Thursdays (that is a STEAL in DC).  Plus the tacos were really good!  So I met another researcher in my building that also does research on alcohol, but she approaches it from a different direction than the lab I work in does.  I met a bunch of really awesome people!  One of my housemates met up with me at the bar and we all moved to a different bar called Sign of the Whale.  I loved this place!  It has such a dive bar feel, it was fantastic.  It sort of reminded me of Peggys (Drake neighborhood bar)... only triple the size and equally as packed.

Friday, May 27th, 2011
As soon as I got to work I was busy.  I had to take the mice out of the alcohol chambers as usual.  Then I had to help a coworker inject mice with pentobarbital or ethanol.  We were doing the same experiment I talked about early this week called "loss of righting."  We were timing how long it took to get a mouse "messed up" enough to roll on their backs.  Once on their backs we timed how long it took for them to roll back over (>40 min).  As I was trying to get a good hold of a mouse the DAMN thing BIT ME!!!!!! Do not be fooled, little mice still have very, very sharp teeth!  He latched onto my knuckle for the longest 15 seconds of my life!  Needless to say, I was not pleased.  My sorrow of sticking a tiny needle into such a tiny creature was quickly gone and I felt zero remorse injecting that mouse!  Especially because his bite probably hurt me more than the needle hurt him!!!!!  After I was done helping inject the mice, I had to go cut feed for mice on a restricted diet.  By the time I was done feeding the mice, it was noon. 
Once back in the lab, another coworker asked me to help cover slip slides (the little pieces of glass you put on a microscope to zoom in on something, we have to cover it to protect the specimen from air).  Once we were done with that it was time for our weekly lab meeting.  After the lab meeting there wasn't much that I did.
  Currently it is 4:55 PM and I am about to go drop $90 on a gym membership for a month.  In order to get my money worth, I will be there A LOT.  Time to get my fitness on.
  Later, weather permitting, I am meeting up with a researcher in my building and her friends that I met yesterday to go see Jazz in the Park... *wish for no rain*

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