0545 – Alarm goes off. Gimme 5 more minutes…

0550 – 5 more…

0555 – Okay last time…

0600 – Seriously now… 5 more minutes…

0606 – I am out of bed and half awake.

0704 – Bus. 

0718 – Starbuck’s Pumpkin Spice Latte in hand, I am now awake.  The barista asked me why I don’t drink it with the whipped cream, and I tell her because it’s unhealthy.  She says that the Pumpkin Spice Latte itself is unhealthy.  I shrug.

0800 – Start work. Dear God, WHERE ARE MY SAMPLES? There’s not enough to run this test, JESUS CHRIST, WHY DID THEY USE IT ALL UP?

1100 – Monthly lab meeting. There’s cake to go with our 5S videos on how to be productive.

1300 – 1600 – Wrkwrkwrkwrkwrknotimetoslackoff (or use a space bar i suppose).

1600 – Search for dinner at the BCIT Burnaby campus.  Choices are Tim Horton’s, Quiznos, Triple O’s, or… Oh hey! There’s a cafe that sells Bread Garden, gonna try that out.

1700 – I’m the only one in the classroom.  The 2 instructors + 1 T.A. eventually arrive, and they start setting up, while I sit in the 2nd row, 3rd seat from the left, silently reading A Feast for Crows… So awkward…

1800 – 80 student class, people start arriving.  I see some familiar faces.  I’m too tired to be sociable… Please don’t talk to me. Please don’t talk to me. Please don’t talk to me. “OH HI!”

1830 – FSCT7001 starts. Course outline first. This class seems manageable.

1900 – Doodle a bit, think about how I’m gonna get home later, that wrap wasn’t very satisfying.  Oh the pace of the class seems to be picking up. Hmmm… What’s going on?  I thought I was fluent in English… What is he talking about? Wikipedia will be my new best friend this term.

2000 – Break.  It’s tough going back to school and taking an in-class course after a year.  I miss sitting in front of my computer doing online courses.

2015 – Class starts again, and we get into Latin terms.  Unfortunately, group work next.  The groups were decided based on the candies that we were instructed to choose at the beginning of class.  Does our candy choice (Tootsie Roll for me) say anything about our personalities? 

2130 – Class ends.  I just want to go home and shower…

2215 – Finally home.  I am completely drained.

0545 – Alarm goes off.  My hair’s a mess, but nobody really cares at the lab.  Brush teeth, make breakfast, turn on laptop, eat while watching 30 Rock (the episode where Jenna has a new catchphrase, “That’s a dealbreaker!”).

0630 – Is that a spider crawling out of my pillow case?! Oh dear, take a picture of it, and send it out the door with a mile of paper towel.

 

0704 – Awesome, I’m on time, the bus is on time. Things can’t go wrong.

0715 – Starbucks for coffee.  The Pumpkin Spice Latte is back!  My order: tall nonfat, half sweet, pumpkin spice latte.  Usually I get no whip, but today the barrista was already heaping it on before I could stop her. 

0736 – It’s too early to start work (shift officially begins at 8AM), so I sit in the break room and read A Feast for Crows.

0745 – Head down to the lab.  Throw on my mud stained lab coat, slip on safety glasses, enter the lab.  Immediately get made fun of for “sleeping in”, since the other 2 guys (let’s call them JB and R) I work with start at 6AM.  It’s too early to be nice to people, but luckily I had that PSL so I just laugh. I’m told to help one dude with his tests, so I look at the summary of the work to check deadlines.  Nothing’s due today…  Guess I’ll take it easy for a bit and check my emails.Hopefully no samples come in.

0800 – Still checking emails.

0810 – Finished checking email, make my worksheet for a test for one sample that is due tomorrow, and slowly gather the supplies for it.  Oh, but the other team has to use the balance that I need to weigh out their samples first.  Guess I’ll have to save the work for after lunch when they’re usually done with the balance.  Stand around a bit and watch someone else work. She calls me creepy, so I walk off.  I walk around the room a few times, and finally end up back at the beginning… Staring at my summary of work.

0830 – Look for my other samples for another test due tomorrow… Try to waste time by typing slower, walking at a leisurely pace, and double checking every number and letter.  Give me something to do!

0900 – I know! I’ll go verify my pipettor! Off to the  balance in the other room.

0907 – Well, that was fun.

0930 – Take over weighing dirt and shit for R, so that he can mash up more dirt and shit for other tests.  Great, this will help pass the time.

1000 – Dispense water into samples, cap them, give them to R so that he can tumble them.  I don’t want to steal your entire test from you.  I check my email again, and watch JB work.

1015 – JB is calibrating the pH meter, but it looks like he’s having some trouble getting the correct reading for the standards…

1020 – JB recalibrated the meter, and now it seems to work.  He goes for lunch with R, and I am left behind to measure pH for the samples, and pick up the other samples for R after the tumbling.

1120 – Pick up samples from tumbler and bring them over to the centrifuge in the other room. 

1130 – NOOOOOooo the centrifuge can’t take all the samples! 2 left over! Guess I’ll have to use the one in the other other room with the creepy looking guy who thinks I’m his friend.

1133  - Calibrate my other pipettor. S comes to ask us to go eat with him, since he doesn’t like sitting in the break room without a friend. Fine, might as well, since I’m getting pretty hungry.

1150 – S leaves for his meeting. Gosh. Leaves me alone with my book.

1200 – E joins me at the table. 

1203 – Creepy guy joins us.  His food smells really bad. Get awaayyyyy from meeee.  Luckily, JJ joins us soon after, and I have a great time showing her my spider photo.  She flips out because she’s arachnophobic. I am highly amused. I text the photo to her, and she knows she shouldn’t open the message, but she can’t resist.  Once again, she freaks out.  At the same time, she’s laughing so hard that tears come out.

1230 – Back to work. 

1300-1600 – Work hard. Time flies by.

School starts tomorrow. I’m excited.