Records of a Mad Scientist: Visit with AD

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Visit with AD

AD came out to see me the past few days. He arrived on Wednesday, and left this evening. It was SO nice to have him here.

We just sort of hung out on Wednesday. I had to teach, still, and that in and of itself was nuts. We didn't have enough reagents or chemicals for the class, and had to work in smaller groups. I screwed up, and told my students they could dispose of the styrofoam cups we were using for the experiment. Apparently not. I ended up having to find and provide data to an entire lab section. AD and I came home after that, and just hang out.

Thursday, I took the whole day off. I got to sleep until about 11, and then we went down to the largest city in the state, about an hour from here. We went to the zoo, because zoos are awesome. This was not a particularly impressive zoo, but it still wasn't bad. They had rare African Rhinos and a baby spider monkey. The little kid with his grandparents was somewhat annoying, because he kept screaming, "LOOK! LOOK! LOOK AT THE <animal>!!!

Around 3:30, we headed over to the science center. Its totally a kids museum, but when you have an aerospace engineer and a chemist on a play date, its totally appropriate. We arrived around 4 thanks to our awesome navigational skills. As we walked in, we realized that we would only have an hour in the museum, and so we went up to the window to see how much admission would cost. I noticed a poster saying that Spring Awakening was going to be showing one night only: October 21st. I expressed regret and interest in seeing the play. Its won eight Tony Awards. This woman asked us is we knew about the show. I said "Yes", and AD said "no". She said that student tickets were $20, and we debated. Then, she offered us free admission to the science center, and how could we say no? So, we went to the show, split a bento box, and saw the show. It was AMAZING.

I had to go to work on Friday, and I answered about a bagillion emails from my students. I swear, you go out of town 1 day, and you don't hold their hand, and suddenly, everything goes badly. Basically, I can't take any more days off of school that aren't scheduled. AD made me dinner, and we watched The Men who Stare at Goats, which belongs in its own genre, mind fuck movies.

Today, I took him back to the airport, and now I'm home grading lab reports. I has been an awesome few days, and I'm really sad to see him go. He makes me feel safe.

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Cast of Characters

AC -- AD's roommate. Famous for his frustration with his own epic procrastination and ability to curse the latin word on the tip of his tongue.
AD -- my boyfriend. Its new... and exciting... and hard from this distance. An aerospace engineer. Still goes to the famous former football giant across the road from the castle where I went to undergrad.
BD -- one of my best friends from undergrad. Another ex-boyfriend and part of my incestious little circle of friends. Has rigid boundaries that serve him well. Math major and genius.
Dr.jR -- head of the chemistry and biochemistry department. Researches NOM (not eating, sadly, but natural organic material). Nice, but unpredicatble.
DrA -- my research boss. Somewhere in his thirties and totally chill. The first PI I've ever met who bakes cookies during lab meetings.
DrR -- my teaching boss. Crotchety old man who doesn't take shit. Slightly sexist. Smokes like a chimney. A teddy bear.
JL -- our post doc in lab. Chineese. Tells me not to work so hard.
JP -- an ex-boyfriend of mine and sort-of friend. Suitmate of AD. Sort of an asshole. VERY crude. We tend to play off eachother. Once dropped his pants in the middle of a crowded room. Also, halo teabagged someone in real life. More than once. Signature phrase is "Dicking Fuck." Exemplifies why Physics and Math double majors scare me.
Kara -- basically the person who told me to write this.
Michael Cera -- guy in my program. Actually younger than I am (I was suprised). Very nice. Lutheran boy scout. Might decide to teach chemistry. Analytical chemist.
MK -- The youngest member of the Quad (AC, AD, JP and MK). Computer science major. Bearded. Sometimes more mature than his fellow seniors who can drink. More or less uncorrupted. It was adorable when he had his first girlfriend.
N -- my fabulous Indian roommate. Seriously, she is great. And, she feeds me.
St. Pat -- One of the guys in my program. Older than the rest of us by a few years. A good analytical chemist. Smart. Familiar with the works of Joss Whedon.
T -- my former roommate. Gave me a cold for my brithday. LIke, a stuffed one.

A few definations...

Cell Biology -- a field of biology that is basically their answer to the fact that life is based in chemistry. As a graduate level course, it has involved a 2 day lecture on atomic bonding and the Krebs cycle. These were things covered in my freshman chemistry and biology courses.
Cubby's -- My prefered non smoking bar in graduate school
Macrophage -- Somestimes called Macs; a type of immune cell, and the target of my research. I've been told they're ugly, but I think they're pretty cute when I get to dye them pretty colors with florescent dye or proteins and look at them under the microscope. I get geeky abou them.
Microscope -- Dr.A's big, expensive microscope that looks at cells. It can see brightfield (normal cells) and florescent ones. We can also see if protiens are clumping together with it.
Students -- I teach freshman science majors, except for the ones who want to be chemists. I have a lot of engineers, a handful of premeds and biologists, and quite a few pre-pharmacy. Sometimes agravating, often exhausting, and a huge time suck. I want them to suceed, which, according to my defination, is learn something.

WARNING: Scientific Content

I realize that not all of my readers are scientists (I think maybe 1/3?), and even fewer are chemists. So, I propose a science warning system.

* Basic science. Things you should have learned in school if you had been paying attention. Or... if you don't know this, you need to talk to T because our science education system sucks.

** High School/Freshman college science and math. Stuff I would expect you to know after a calculus class and at least one class in physical and life science.

*** Some scientific knowledge. Let's assume you've had 1+ upper level science course in either biology or chemistry.

****Upper level science. You probably need 3 - 4 years of college chemistry/biology to get this part. Maybe not, though. I'll try to avoid this as much as possible. Sometimes, though, I can't help myself and I geek.