Multi-tasking

I am having a hard time at work. This is not a new development. However, I am currently experiencing an unusually difficult time because I have my qualifying exam approaching on July 10 and at the same time, I am somehow expected to train a new student who has had no prior experience in a lab. Summer Student (SS) is however the best case scenario for this, well, scenario. SS learns everything the first time he is taught. Sometimes SS needs reminders about small details, but in general, I trust SS. And given that I have major trust issues, well this is as good as it gets. But I do feel guilty telling SS, "SS, today I will be writing my grant, so we'll do work between around 2ish to about 3ish". I feel even worse knowing that this is basically going to happen over and over until July 10th. But whatever. SS doesn't seem to mind. SS also doesn't mind the fact that I routinely call him "Summer Student".

Apart from having trouble falling asleep because my mind is constantly thinking some sort of rubbish, I also have a hard time concentrating during the day because my mind is thinking some sort of rubbish. Now don't get me wrong; I love Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown as much as you do, but when they keep asking me to tell them how they're supposed to breathe with no air, over and over and over, when I am trying to figure out how many microliters of DNA I should be using for a transfection, it becomes a bit of a problem. And when it's not them, it's ABBA. I get it, I am a Supertrooper. No one else would put up with this day in and day out, so clearly, if anyone were to be a Supertrooper, it would me me. But do you REALLY have to keep telling me?

So the overall idea is that my brain is sort of like a radio stuck between a few stations, playing all at the same time, but none well enough to really discern what is going on on one station from what is happening on the other. I described this once to a doctor who said that she was so impressed by my ability to put such an abstract feeling into practical terms that she had to take a note of it. Unfortunately she hasn't returned the favor and impressed me by tuning my damn radio. So, I still have issues. But at least I'm still sleeping. Last night I actually fell asleep about 15 minutes after going to bed. And I slept all the way until my real alarm clock (not my internal one, or my bladder) went off! So maybe I am not becoming resistant to the latest sleeping drug after all! But the pharmaceutical industry has not been known to satisfy anyone forever, so we'll see how long this lasts.

Oh, and in case you were wondering what Massa meant by "1 savior + 3 nails = 4given" in the last post, that was the caption on a t-shirt worn by a teenage girl at Six Flags yesterday. This was of course overshadowed by the girl who had a swastika made of bones tattooed onto her NECK. Welcome to Missouri.