So a couple days ago my dad says the very words every busy, motivated, doing-too-much student fears hearing 3 weeks before the end of the quarter; "Hey, you got called for jury duty!". But of course, being the civil minded person that i am, i actually felt like it would be kinda cool to be selected to some sort of murder trial and deal out death and judgment. "I just hope its not going to conflict with anything important . . . March 14th, hmm . . . mol bio final". Another example of how the world is plotting against me with randomly bad luck and ironies. And after cursing the justice system and all superior courts, i discovered that i could postpone my service until the summer, so now all is well and balanced again. So watch out all people having trials over the summer, because Mike the Juror will be handing down flaming punishment and retribution.

In equally exciting news, christine, one of the hampotn lab undergrad trio, is learning to utilize the scientifically advanced technique of FACS analysis. Of course, since thats basically how i get 90% of all my data, the wise lab folks decided to have me train her. Everything was going fine until we got to the machine, stuck in our sample, and saw nothing come up on the computer. I had been counting on getting it done in 15 minutes, but of course all my lab related time predictions always end up being painfully inaccurate. And since we had class coming up we didnt have time for me to apply my acute skills of problem solving to fix the machine (usually involves clicking on every button, resetting, then trying again). Instead we had to come back at 6:30, where we waited for Tai to use the machine first, saw it break down again, and then finally got to do our analysis which took 15 minutes. So, the moral of the story is that FACS machines suck.

The other moral is that i'm thinking i should find a backup to grad school, which thus far had been my med school backup.

"Back that thang up!!"

Heartbreaking, soul crushing, earth shattering words to hear from the most perfect girl in the world;

"I was shopping for a birthday present for my boyfriend"

*hands clinched, fists raised towards the sky* "Noooooooooo!!!!!!"

So Randy, being out of town, left the lab some money so we could go out for lunch. "Oh, where are we going? Islands? CPK?" "You might not want to go if I tell you". We ended up spending Randy's massive amounts of money at none other than Jack In The Box!!! Woooo!!!! Good stuff!

This weekend I dont have that one MCAT class, which means my first weekend this year where I dont have to go to school on saturday or sunday!!!! Damn!!! I can just stay home and . . . study . . . and go to a lab meeting on a monday holiday. Damn.

Midterms are done except for another psych one which, after mol bio and microbio doesnt even count anymore. So time to play video games again.

LT and antonio gates both scored touchdowns at the pro bowl. Still my heroes.

Alicia Keys is both hot and cool.

Prediction (Jan 24): Patriots 31, Eagles 17
Actual Score: Patriots 24, Eagles 21 . . . eh, not too bad. If it was ochem I'd have a 4.0 GPA (ok maybe not)

Watched the superbowl with vic, along with lots of pizza, chips, soda, and generally unhealthy food. Woohoo!!

Friday was a long day in the lab, which included playing with restriction enzymes, doing some good old gel electrophoresis with renee, and learning how to dissect yeast zygotes with christine (incredibly difficult and frustrating, and it makes your eyes hurt staring into the microscope).

So all that fun lab stuff made me realize how much the stuff i'm learning in my classes applies to things i see everyday. Mol Bio: all that stuff about plasmids, transformations, PCR, etc., Bacteriology: growth of microorganisms and autoclave fun, Disorders of Childhood: ADHD, phobias, delinquency . . . er . . .

Happy February!!

Well, mol bio midterm is done, and before I get my grade back I'll say that I feel pretty good about it while I still can. Unfortunately, now I have to start studying for bacteriology again, something I havent done since like 2nd week. And then there's that whole MCAT thing again, which I'm starting to get equally behind in.

And despite my weekends being ruined thanks to MCAT classes, practice MCATs, midterm reviews, and the like, this upcoming weekend looks pretty good. Mom's birthday dinner on saturday (bets on it being at Viejas?) and of course Superbowl, likely a pizza party with Vic. So I can actually look forward to this one, even with the med school application talk on Saturday and the MCAT classes and midterm review on Sunday (they scheduled a review on superbowl sunday?? What the nuts??)

Today was a good day :P