Some days would've just been better to stay in bed.... It's not even 10 am on a Monday, the week hasn't even started really, and I am ready for it to be Friday afternoon. Or, better yet, beginning of a long vacation (yeah, that's not happening).
It's been a couple of rough weeks at work, LOTS to do - new things to invent, tweek and fix - and most of all, stress from others spilling into your own work. This on top of being in the middle of transition with new people taking over from people who left... I thought I was doing fairly good with it, and I probably was... until one of my crucial assays decided to take a little vacation and not work as well anymore. And that would be the assay I'm alone of being qualified on, so there is no backup person (yeah, we're training someone but they're not there right now....)
So, for the last couple of weeks I've been doing and redoing (and redoing and redoing) this assay. The part why I am ready to accidentially hurt one of my hands so I can not perform it for a few weeks? That half of the problem is that my assay readout isn't reading what "they" want to to be.... Guess what though? That's not due to the assay, or my performance. It is all in the samples I get...
Oh joy and happy times. It is good that I got some good ego boosters last week in terms of emails telling me happy things. One of my first students I mentored back in country far away have landed an awesome job and wrote to thank me for all the good advice and teaching I did back in the days of undergraduate for them... And a post doc wanted to pick my brains on industry and interview techniques and she got a fly out interview based on her good phone interview we pep talked for.
So, I guess I should relish in "those who can't, teach?" since clearly I can do something.....
Well, nothing will be better by me being grumpy this morning so I'd better get right at it and go chugging at that assay. Yep, yet another day of "assay from hot place" and no refuge insight yet.... I might feel better if I make plans to go out after work and have a little break with friends?! There is nothing a little laugh can't help with, right?
;)
4 comments:
Oh man, I have been in that position SO MANY TIMES where an assay suddenly stops performing well and you have to do it over and over and over (and over.. and over...) trying to get functional results. Wishing you lots and lots of luck...
thanks for the well wishes. MUCH needed. If I thought it was me I'd be so glad to give it away... alas, other people who try to make it work all of a sudden miss the mark too....
I am right there with you, chall. This month I wanted to blast through some assays that normally work fine for me--assays I've done before in various ways. All I wanted was to get enough repetitions done for statistical analysis and a figure. And now everything's f---ked up. And my cell cultures got contaminated. And I'm ready to pull out my hair and run screaming for the hills.
BeanMom- Hope you get it to work soon. And can thaw up some cell cultures to get going again.
And yes, I recognize the "only need to do it one more time to get the statstics going".... duh. Then again, if it worked that easy it wouldn't be called science, would it?
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