I think we are all on the same level here. I am a failure. So, I am no longer going to apologize for my lateness in blogs or long intervals of time between some of them. There really is no point. It's a major character flaw that is a permanent fixture in my life. I've accepted it.
Right this very second I am doing my all time favorite activity... procrastination. I have a huge paper due tomorrow and I just don't seem to want to do it. I need to do it. It's 25% of my grade, so yeah I need to do it but I don't want to. This is also a character flaw. I've been noticing more of them lately.
On the positive, I have several pages of this paper done. There is no page limit or recommendation for how many pages we should have so I suppose this really has nothing to do with the productivity of the actual paper. I still have the virulence factors, a case example, and a health fact sheet to do. In case you were wondering, this paper is about Campylobacter jejuni a sweet little bacterial food-borne pathogen that causes some not-so-sweet problems with your insides.
But holly hell, this thing has like 85,000 virulence factors (factors which make it toxic and make the infected person really wish they had cooked their food better and washed their hands) which means 85,000% more writing to do. I should have gone with a simpler one who simply produces a toxin and causes you too poo. But no, I had to be difficult with my 20ish citations and hating life on my last week of classes.
I really cannot take this paper right now. I have 2 weeks exactly before I leave for Maryland, then Boston, then Michigan. Does the universe really want me to be doing papers and taking finals... NO. The universe wants me to eat amazing food, drink tons of wine/liquor, have good old fashioned sleepovers, watch movies, go look at beautiful houses, visit my old high school one last time, and of course see all of my friends.
These are just some of the planned events I have coming up on my last 2 weeks. Obviously, there is no time for papers or finals. Or packing... I've decided I should really pay somebody to do this for me. Lets just graduate and be done with this nonsense.
At least work is done! Bye bye sheepies, and cowsies, and all other farm animals that I had the distinct pleasure of working with for the past 4 years. But really, it was time for me to move on from smelling like a barn and instead get ready to freeze my behind off in cold Michigan winters.
I am actually quite scared for this. I just watched The 5 Year Engagement on Monday and it was like my cold frozen life was flashing before my eyes (Emily Blunt ends up being a postdoc at the University of Michigan).
Well, ladies and gents I hope you enjoyed these random paragraphs of my life's nonsense but now a cup of very strong New Orleans Chicory coffee is calling my name along with the end of the school year. I must fight my ongoing battle with procrastination!
Showing posts with label sheep. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sheep. Show all posts
The Clash of the Sheep
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
| | | 0 Witty Remarks
As you know by now (or if you don't you should probably read some of these: sheep and more sheepy, ), I work with animals. As of late, a lot of sheep. Each with their own quirks and personalities. Each of which drive me insane, besides Big because he is just so sweet and never makes trouble.
At work, we have this excellent routine down to get out of the barn and up in the lab as soon as possible so we can start the days work of sampling and centrifuging and weighing out incredibly smelly things like rumen fluid, duodenal fluid, and even dried ground feces. I know, you can't even imagine most of these smells and I urge you not to. It isn't pleasant, but once you are around it for long enough you don't smell it anymore. But that doesn't stop every single person from smelling you unfortunately. One hour in the barn and you are officially tainted. You can change your clothes, you can put on apple smelly spray, you can change out of your boots but the smell lingers there until you take a shower. It kind of seeps into your hair and you smell like a fresh ball of hay!
That isn't what I wanted to talk to you about at all! So... we have this routine. We dump/weigh the orts (just a pointless fancy word used to describe the food they left over). Weigh out new food accordingly. Dump the water buckets and refill them. Clean the pens and put fresh shavings down. If there are two of us doing this we can usually get 16 animals done in 1-1.5 hours. If it is just me, then it takes closer to 2.
On this particular Tuesday, as Melanie was running around trying to get their feed together because they have been stubborn and not wanting to eat what we have to give them, I was left to clean by myself. I get to Pen 9, more formally known as Stompy because he gets angry with me and stomps his feet a lot in a show of his extreme disapproval of me being there. He has fresh water, a particularly clean pen, and I am now giving him a light, fluffy and dry bed of shaving to sleep on.
I don't see why this is a problem. I particularly like sleeping on a dry warm bed and drinking water that isn't filled with dirt and other hay particles. You would think sheep would like this too. The other 15 fellows I deal with seem to quite enjoy it.
But not Stompy. Oh no. These accommodations are not up to his golden standard and he is peeved by the fact he isn't staying at the Ritz. I think this has slowly been stirring inside him for some time. I think he has been plotting his revenge on me for quite a while. After seeing that stomping was getting him nowhere, he had to plan greater and bigger things! Therefore, the next obvious thing for him to do is 1. Ram me. 2. Bite a large chunk of my hair out of my head.
I wish I was kidding. I wish I could say I didn't look up in complete and utter surprise at Stompy's smug expression as he was holding a mouthful of my hair. I wish my head didn't start bleeding down the side of my face. And I wish that he was a person so I could have smacked that stupid, arrogant expression off of his face. You wouldn't think sheep could be arrogant. Oh, but they can. They really really can.
But we don't all get what we wish for do we? Nope. Not this girl who now has hair matted with blood.
Stompy: 1
Kaitlyn: 0
At work, we have this excellent routine down to get out of the barn and up in the lab as soon as possible so we can start the days work of sampling and centrifuging and weighing out incredibly smelly things like rumen fluid, duodenal fluid, and even dried ground feces. I know, you can't even imagine most of these smells and I urge you not to. It isn't pleasant, but once you are around it for long enough you don't smell it anymore. But that doesn't stop every single person from smelling you unfortunately. One hour in the barn and you are officially tainted. You can change your clothes, you can put on apple smelly spray, you can change out of your boots but the smell lingers there until you take a shower. It kind of seeps into your hair and you smell like a fresh ball of hay!
That isn't what I wanted to talk to you about at all! So... we have this routine. We dump/weigh the orts (just a pointless fancy word used to describe the food they left over). Weigh out new food accordingly. Dump the water buckets and refill them. Clean the pens and put fresh shavings down. If there are two of us doing this we can usually get 16 animals done in 1-1.5 hours. If it is just me, then it takes closer to 2.
On this particular Tuesday, as Melanie was running around trying to get their feed together because they have been stubborn and not wanting to eat what we have to give them, I was left to clean by myself. I get to Pen 9, more formally known as Stompy because he gets angry with me and stomps his feet a lot in a show of his extreme disapproval of me being there. He has fresh water, a particularly clean pen, and I am now giving him a light, fluffy and dry bed of shaving to sleep on.
I don't see why this is a problem. I particularly like sleeping on a dry warm bed and drinking water that isn't filled with dirt and other hay particles. You would think sheep would like this too. The other 15 fellows I deal with seem to quite enjoy it.
But not Stompy. Oh no. These accommodations are not up to his golden standard and he is peeved by the fact he isn't staying at the Ritz. I think this has slowly been stirring inside him for some time. I think he has been plotting his revenge on me for quite a while. After seeing that stomping was getting him nowhere, he had to plan greater and bigger things! Therefore, the next obvious thing for him to do is 1. Ram me. 2. Bite a large chunk of my hair out of my head.
I wish I was kidding. I wish I could say I didn't look up in complete and utter surprise at Stompy's smug expression as he was holding a mouthful of my hair. I wish my head didn't start bleeding down the side of my face. And I wish that he was a person so I could have smacked that stupid, arrogant expression off of his face. You wouldn't think sheep could be arrogant. Oh, but they can. They really really can.
But we don't all get what we wish for do we? Nope. Not this girl who now has hair matted with blood.
Stompy: 1
Kaitlyn: 0
Baby Face
Monday, January 9, 2012
| | | 0 Witty Remarks
Today I woke up and thought... wow, I really don't want to do anything with my life today at all! But sadly, I got out of bed, went to the gym, and decided to get a manicure with my grandma. Who knew today was going to be such an amazing day? Funny how things work out like that sometimes.
So after taking a shower and thoroughly deciding that actually doing my hair would be too much effort I let it curl/crimp/wave into its natural fro self. Deciding it was a little too "Texas Big" pin the front back and am off to go get a manicure.
We arrive at my Grandma's favorite nail salon. My Grandma is getting a pedicure and so they whisk me away to the other side of the room where the manicure stations are. I sit down and am a little awkward. I think in my entire 21 years of living I have had 1 manicure and 1 pedicure. I don't really know how to conduct myself. Do I talk to her? Do I sit here quietly and daydream. I honestly don't know. I think sensing this, my manicurist asks if I had the day off from school. I say no, that we are still on vacation until next week and am just enjoying my time off.
She looks at me a little quizzically but then returns to putting some gooey stuff all over my nails and making them nice and shiny. Off in the distance, I hear my grandma talking to another lady and she is saying how I am her granddaughter and I am graduating this May. I love my Grandma. She is a character but it makes me happy to see how proud she is of me and it makes me feel like maybe I am doing something right with my life.
Then the nice young lady says to my Grandma, "Oh she is graduating!? That is so great. I remember when I graduated high school."
At this, my head flicks up and I almost knock over the soap bowl that is on my manicurist's station. Then these two women begin to chat back and forth in Vietnamese (I think). My manicurist turns back to me and says, "Oh how nice, you're graduating high school!!"
For a second I look a little bewildered and some how manage to stammer that no.... in fact, I am graduating COLLEGE... with 3 degrees I might add and it's taken me 5 years. She kind of laughs a little and goes, "Are you sure? You look like you could be in high school still."
On the downside/somewhat upside I have to go back to work tomorrow. I have been holding off!! I know the people at work know me and if they are in dire need of a lot of help they will have no trouble calling. So I wasn't surprised when i got the text today saying new sheep study starts tomorrow. And so I will be there bright and very early, baby face and all. Messing up my new manicure in sheep world.
So after taking a shower and thoroughly deciding that actually doing my hair would be too much effort I let it curl/crimp/wave into its natural fro self. Deciding it was a little too "Texas Big" pin the front back and am off to go get a manicure.
We arrive at my Grandma's favorite nail salon. My Grandma is getting a pedicure and so they whisk me away to the other side of the room where the manicure stations are. I sit down and am a little awkward. I think in my entire 21 years of living I have had 1 manicure and 1 pedicure. I don't really know how to conduct myself. Do I talk to her? Do I sit here quietly and daydream. I honestly don't know. I think sensing this, my manicurist asks if I had the day off from school. I say no, that we are still on vacation until next week and am just enjoying my time off.
She looks at me a little quizzically but then returns to putting some gooey stuff all over my nails and making them nice and shiny. Off in the distance, I hear my grandma talking to another lady and she is saying how I am her granddaughter and I am graduating this May. I love my Grandma. She is a character but it makes me happy to see how proud she is of me and it makes me feel like maybe I am doing something right with my life.
Then the nice young lady says to my Grandma, "Oh she is graduating!? That is so great. I remember when I graduated high school."
At this, my head flicks up and I almost knock over the soap bowl that is on my manicurist's station. Then these two women begin to chat back and forth in Vietnamese (I think). My manicurist turns back to me and says, "Oh how nice, you're graduating high school!!"
For a second I look a little bewildered and some how manage to stammer that no.... in fact, I am graduating COLLEGE... with 3 degrees I might add and it's taken me 5 years. She kind of laughs a little and goes, "Are you sure? You look like you could be in high school still."
 |
| Apparently, this is what a 16 year old looks like :( |
Am I sure? You know... I think I am. Unless this is Inception and I am lost in my own mind and have therefore simply dreamed the past 5 years of my life... I'm pretty positive I am not in high school. At this point, I am panicking. I am 21 years old and going off to hopefully start my PhD journey this fall and I look like I'm 16?! Awesome. That is just awesome. If I look 16 now, what in the world did I look like at 16 when I actually graduated high school!? I must have looked 11. Peachy.
Despite my baby face, the manicurists were very nice and I quite enjoy my periwinkle nails. I also enjoyed the lunch I had with my Grandma and Grandpa. I even more enjoyed the fact that I received word about my interview at BU in February. That's 2 interviews so far. I can hardly contain myself!! All this anxiety waiting to hear back from schools is giving me ulcers. And this is just interviews. Not even acceptances. I don't now how much longer I can handle this pressure!! And now I have to throw my apparently dramatically young looking appearance into it. How am I going to get people to take me seriously!? I probably won't. I'll just dazzle them with my wits and quirky sense of humor ;)
On the downside/somewhat upside I have to go back to work tomorrow. I have been holding off!! I know the people at work know me and if they are in dire need of a lot of help they will have no trouble calling. So I wasn't surprised when i got the text today saying new sheep study starts tomorrow. And so I will be there bright and very early, baby face and all. Messing up my new manicure in sheep world.
1079
Friday, December 23, 2011
| | | 0 Witty Remarks
This has been a wonderful pre-Christmas week.
At my last day of work before Christmas, Wednesday, I found out some interesting things about myself. It was lets pick on Kaitlyn day which I don't mind. I feel sometimes I am so gullible and naive that I deserve this. It started when I was literally elbow deep into a sheeps rumen collecting their rumen contents. Despite the fact that I smelled the exact opposite of lovely and had a thick layer of rumen liquid pretty much covering every square inch of my body. For those of you who have not worked with ruminant animals. Here is the low down... Ruminant animals are those who have 1 stomach with 4 compartments. The largest compartment being the rumen where bacteria breaks down a good portion of their food before it actually passes to their intestines and what not. So this rumen fluid we sample we are looking at the bacterial content... bacteria smell. Let me tell you. They smell really really bad. But, despite this fact, I was excited because I said that in less than 1 hour we were already half way through. Which I was thrilled about because everybody thought it was going to be a dreadfully long day.
One of my co-workers quickly told me to be quiet and not jinx our luck! From this started the conversation about how I was so optimistic. Which really was the biggest shock I have ever heard. Not once in my entire life have I ever been called optimistic. This is because I'm rather skeptical and realistic... and to be honest pretty pessimistic about life's outcomes. I am definitely the glass is not even half empty... it's actually three quarters empty and there is a whole in the bottom of the cup. So the rest of the contents are about to be on the floor.
But my coworkers started talking about how I am the one person in our lab who is actually positive about the outcomes of our experiments and the time it takes to get them done. With this it was decided that research was the perfect field for me because of this. Which made me feel pretty darn good. At least I am going into a field I enjoy and can hopefully continue to be positive about, when everything else in life sucks!
Just kidding. Life is pretty good actually, considering. I did not however get the HHMI fellowship I applied for. But honestly, I wasn't expecting to. When they only pick about 9 people out of hundreds and I didn't get to spend as much time on my application as I would have liked... I find it quite understandable that I didn't receive it. I do feel a little disappointed in Charbie though. I think he has officially abandoned me. Or maybe he is just working hard on those grad school applications for me and couldn't allocate his time appropriately. I am choosing to believe that for now.
But the best part of this all is that work is done for a while. The sheep trial is over and now we just have to run the samples up in the lab. But what this all really means is that I don't have to wake up at 5:30 every morning for a while!! It means I had time to actually go to a bar and hang with people and get in at 1:30 in the morning because I didn't have to wake up early. Granted I woke up at 7 yesterday and 4:10 today. Which really ticked me off! But I didn't have to leave... I could at least sit in my bed and pretend to myself I was sleeping in a little more. And I have time to take a nap now so it really doesn't matter. Oh sleep, I have missed you so much!
But one sheep, my favorite sheep, was not deemed worthy enough to receive a name. They said he was too plain and rather boring. But he was so nice. Mr. 1079 aka Pen 15. He let me pet him and was never really afraid of me. So I took pictures with him and started singing "Talking bought my best friend." That is when my coworker decided on a name for him. He is Big and I am Rob. You know, Rob and Big? If you don't know who they are I feel very sad for you. You should watch Rob and Big or Fantasy Factory. They're pretty hilarious. Big is Rob's body guard and I feel this adequately describes our relationship. So I must say I will miss him. But he is out gallivanting around the outdoor pasture... enjoying the freedom! 
Also, today I woke up to snow again. Twice in 1 month is pretty darn impressive for Cruces. Quite a lot actually. I hope it continues to snow and stays in place until Christmas. The last time we had a white Christmas I was a little girl. I do miss it.
My mom already had off but my dad didn't. But with the snow came a call from his boss saying he shouldn't come in today because he didn't want him to drive on the icy roads. Oh how I love how our city/state shuts down at the first sign of anything snow. Sorry to all the people trying to come in or leave Cruces though because I don't think the roads are staying open for long.
Just found out that they are now charging for the Yule Log on TV and no longer offering it for free. Oh happy day!! I dislike watching that thing.
Sorry for the randomness of this blog. It is what it is. Now, I am going to enjoy a family breakfast since everybody is home. Then Christmas Eve and Christmas. Even this scrooge is actually rather enjoying the holidays.
Here's to dreaming of a white Christmas...
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