Danielle Blog

Another day, another dollar

Per my usual Saturday routine over breakfast, I was just getting ready to check some blogs of yours.  But then it hit me that I haven’t updated my own blog since my b-day on the 12th.  *bad blogger! shame on me!* 

I could use being busy as my excuse, which is completely true.  But the other part of it is that A) I didn’t feel like whining and B) nothing totally major has happened that ‘warrants’ blogging.

However, maybe some medium (but not minor and major) things have happened that are worth sharing.

1)  Being busy.

Things are crazy this semester and they are just going to stay crazy as I give exams and have to grade these big lab research papers that my first year students wrote for Intro Bio.   Most nights I have to do prep for lectures for the next day.  Usually, I spend Saturday prepping for Monday.  Sunday prepping for Tuesday.  IF I have time during the workday, I prep for Wed.  But let me tell you, by Wed night I’m staying up until 10, 11, midnight, doing the prep for Thursday.  Then Thursday is just like Wed night.

Hard stuff.

By Saturday, I’m so exhausted that my prep for Monday is too slow, which is why I only get the prep for Monday done and not, for example, all of Monday and then half of Tuesday or something like that.

I’m really looking forward to Easter Break.  (Thurs, Fri and Monday off)  Yay for working at a religious school!

2)  Maybe this is major.  Job security.

I asked my chair to write the high-up people to find out my status for next year.  In other words, am I being rehired, as expected, or did the letter telling me I wouldn’t be rehired fall through the cracks?  For some stupid reason, they send a letter if you won’t be rehired.  But just don’t send anything if you will be.  How dumb is that?  What if the letter gets lost in the system?

Anyway, the end result is that I’m still expecting to be issued a contract next year when they do the contracts for everyone else.  So, that is a relief.  The very  last thing I’d have time for right now is a job hunt.

3)  Summer research

I have 2 super students lined up to do summer research with me.  This research is strictly to get things going.  It wouldn’t help my tenure process in the future – presuming I get a tenure-track position.  BUT it will A) allow me to apply for outside funding, if the results are decent and B) potentially get hired for that tenure-track position that they should have this fall.

4)  The lab for my molecular biology class.

First, I LOVE the lab.  It is a bit hectic, because the students take about twice as long to get stuff done as I do (if not more).  So, I think that things are going to fit in the amount of time alotted to lab, and then they end up staying late.  *sigh*

Second, I am replacing an outdated set of labs (Southerns) with an updated set of labs (sequencing).  This seemed like it would be simple, because the labs were done in the Intro Bio class last semester.  But, of course, in actuality it has been really hard.  This is because A)  when I ran through the labs to optimize them and check that everything is working, I got DISMAL results.  Pretty much 3 reactions out of 6 worked.  And there was no pattern to what worked.

BUT  B)  I just got the data yesterday from a second attempt that 7 out of 8 reactions worked!  And the one that didn’t work was the one with the max amount of DNA in it.  This is something that the company actually warns against, so it fits with their recommendations.  Yay!  Something that makes sense!

C)  I got this working barely in time, since I have to give the students the next part of the manual on Thursday.

D)  The manual.

It took me all of last Saturday, and part of Sunday to write the dang manual that I gave them on Wednesday!  It was an incredible time sink.  (look back at number 1 for how this was a major problem for lecture prep too)

E) Part of why I thought the expts were screwed up, was because the freezer holding the enzyme for the sequencing wasn’t hooked up to a generator when the power was out for 24 h.  But that appears to not be an issue. Thank goodness.  A missing extension cord could’ve been the reason for a loss of a $200 loss of enzyme.  And how stupid is it that if you are the person responsible for the hook-up that you wouldn’t just go to a store and buy more extension cords????  I mean, come on, $20 extension cord vs $200 enzyme?  Isn’t that a no brainer?

5)  Singing for volunteer service

My church organized a day where they tried to get everyone at the church to volunteer for a couple of hours (or for 2 blocks of time, if possible). As it turned out, one of them was a recital for an assisted living complex.  So, I prepped a couple of songs (acapella, because there was no time to get accompaniment lined up), and sang.  I sang “Everlasting Arms” and “I’ll Fly Away,” 2 lively gospel songs.

I also led the whole group of church people in a song that we often sing at church to close the service.  Probably not one you’ve heard of, because it is contemporary, but it was “Reign in Me.”

It was a good service opportunity.  I’m glad I squeezed the time into my schedule to do it and didn’t just use the excuse of “I’m too busy.”  Of course, I did it by skipping the church service that morning, but hey, you have to prioritize. 

Okay, that was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay longer than I thought it would be.  I guess this shows me that I  need to update more frequently even when I only have “minor to medium” things going on.

One final note:  Even though teaching is really crazy this semester it is still  FAR better for me than research everyday.  And next year will be easier, because it will be some of the things I taught this year.