Its all another phase turning the page in the book of growing up

Minnesota was fun, though somewhat surreal. It's nice to catch up with my friends, and see familiar faces. I always have fun hanging out with my parents, of course. The time spent there was too short, yet just perfect. I can't really explain it anymore than that... I realized that I have a hard time grasping the ideas of place and time, often, and just sort of go with it. Though while I'm there I think of here, and while I'm here I think of there, it all seems so distant. Even today I was reminiscing about that time I was in Minnesota, already thinking it was last week, when in fact I was just there 36 hours ago or so!

It was a good vacation. And now I'm back to reality.

Today I started my lab work with RickAwesome. He's the coolest PI ever in existence, I think. Mind you, it's only been a day, but he's great, even when I make mistakes ("Rick, I think I added the wrong amount of buffer..."). I guess it's good that we weren't using any of our actual DNA samples today, so it was just a learning day. By the end of the day, despite the minor screw-ups, still, he was comfortable letting me do my thang and finish the procedure for the bisulfite conversion on my own. He was really sweet about not looking over my shoulder too often, and just being there when I needed help, or giving me reminders like VORTEX THE PRIMER SOLUTION BEFORE USING!

I think it'll be a fun summer.

Tomorrow, I get my official key to lab, and I've already been told the passcode for 7th floor access, as well as 5th floor. So, I now have access to many of the restricted areas around SPHI and SPHII.

I also signed up for a summer gym membership, despite the fact that I think it's stupid that I have to pay $80 to use the facilities for the next 3.5 months since I give them $35K a year for tuition! But, it'll be nice to have since I will have some down time with incubations and while running PCRs, so I may be able to sneak over for a workout, then come back and get some stuff done.

Anyway, it's long past bedtime and tomorrow's a busy day with labbing and Ignition practice. So, I'm getting some Zzzz's.