When in Doubt, Don't Touch!

Biked to/from work today! No busing! It's actually not that bad, and it gives a lot more freedom than busing does. Plus it saves $4 a day! =P

Finally got the intern picture from the first day of work! It's a pretty good picture honestly. =]

(Left to right, top) Blane, Sid, Andrew 

(Bottom) Me (!), Lucy, Liz.

*Almost* done with all of this random online training. I have got to say though, this Sexual Harassment one is both severely annoying and highly amusing. "If in doubt, don't touch." Seriously. All of these scenarios: pats on the back, hair-stroking, massages... I don't even know. Still have a bit to finish up tomorrow morning (blahhh).

Josh is honestly awesome haha. We went out to dinner with Paul (a guy who works in the same lab as Josh, who has a really freaking cool accent), Andrew, and Alan (Andrew's advisor). Got to go to a little pho place in South SF! There was a guy in a banana suit sitting at a table behind us, and the whole time Josh and Paul kept referencing the banana guy. I don't even know.

Spent the afternoon in lab, just learning the ropes - how to check inventory, where stuff is in lab. Got to use syringes for the first time haha. Made a buffer, ran a few NMRs. Wasn't too hard but I still managed to screw things up. The first buffer I made, an acetate one of sodium acetate and deuterated acetic acid, I very smartly used water as a solvent. That is, instead of deuterium oxide. Twas awkward. But it was super nice being in lab actually doing something, even if it wasn't much. Just measuring and mixing stuff in a lab coat, gloves, and glasses makes me unreasonably happy. =]

Snapped a picture of a picture of Prof Reider (its still insane how everyone knows him! I knew he was a big name, but still surreal that I took a class from such a well-known guy), which is by Stair 2, on the second floor of building 2. (Lots of 2s haha.)

That enthusiasm. He hasn't changed.

Rode back with Lucy, and sort of just sweltered from the ride until Andrew and Blane dropped by for dinner! Went out to a place called "El Patio Mexicano" (yeah haha). It was pretty good though - really reasonable prices and the food was yummy. Though the quesadilla was too big so I brought the leftovers back. Seriously, so many leftovers. I need to not go out tomorrow and just eat the stuff I have in the fridge haha. Dropped by Target and bought orange juice, partly to make smoothies and partly because I needed to buy something so I could get cash back (can't seem to find a BoA ATM anywhere close, which is odd).

Excited for tomorrow! Finishing up the "don't touch" training, having an NMR training session, meeting with someone along with Josh to figure out how to calculate Kd from NMR spectra, and hopefully do some wet chemistry on my project! It might be a bit optimistic - I'll probably still be replicating results from a paper, but that's still pretty awesome.

Amgen. Honestly, I'm still amazed.