Presentations AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!

 Hello everybody! Sorry this is a day later than usual. I was just a little busy on Saturday so I didn’t get to this then.  So let’s get started, yeah?

Monday was actually fairly stressful. I had two “presentations” this last week, a formal and an informal one. The informal one was on Monday, but it was less a presentation, more like I was in charge of the lab meeting that week. It was pretty present in my mind, so even though all the usual stuff happened, like Allie giving me a ride, office hours and the TA meeting, I was always thinking about it. The paper itself wasn’t too bad. It was about serotonin, and it was very dense and had a lot of figures. Sara was actually impressed that I grabbed this one though, so it was nice to hear the praise. I was a mess after the presentation, so I took it easy for the rest of the day—taking a shower and eating some ice cream for celebration. The only other “main” thing that happened that day was a small meeting I had with Sara when we switched out the paraformaldehyde for 30% sucrose solution on two of our brains, which needed to sink.

Tuesday was a little worse anxiety wise, though not a whole lot happened. I was mostly just anxious and worked up about the second presentation that was happening on Wednesday. I couldn’t do much more than look over my slides and fiddle with them (or practice but I did that on Monday) which was anxiety inducing. Animal molecular biology was alright. We only have two more labs for that class which is great, but we didn’t do much more than talk about Western Blots (yep, more blots people) and how the labs would work. When I went to go and check on the brains on that day, they weren’t done before my TA-ing period, but they were done afterwards, which was great and meant I could do some more slicing on Wednesday instead of early on Friday. The lab teaching itself was very easy and chill, which was really nice because of all the stress this week. The student were just doing stations to sense cranial nerves. After that, I came home and chilled again.

Wednesday was a bit of a nightmare. Of course the day that I had to do my presentation had a massive spike in windy weather and we even got snow. It was a nightmare to get to the Nutrition building, though I made sure to leave an hour early because of the weather. I was an anxious wreck the entire trip there, though, which sucked. I got to meet some of my classmates, which was nice. The presentation itself went okay I think? I mean, I felt like I was talking a little fast, but I was within the time limit, so who knows. After it was all said and done, though, I went to go and slice brains, which only took four hours, which is very impressive for two brains, might I point out. By the time I came home, I was done for the day, feeling all wiped out, so all of us roommates put together a carry-out order from Morty’s for the night and planned on watching Beauty and the Beast (one of the best Disney movies ever—especially for live action—and no one can say otherwise). My mom also surprised me with an order of Crumbl cookies, which were absolutely delicious and totally only lasted a few days. Overall, it was a great night.

Thursday was definitely the crash day of the week. I nose-dived hard after all the stress and woke up with a nasty migraine. Animal Molecular Lab was also a total drag that day, since it went over time, number one, and was just a lot of waiting. I didn’t not appreciate it, especially since our gels didn’t even come out great which was super frustrating. Teaching was fine though, and I officially turned in the gradebook for the semester so everything else is out of my hands grade-wise which is a major relief. By the time I got home, I was ready for an early bed time—super lethargic. I couldn’t even really read before bed like I wanted to before I was conking out.

Friday was my most “adulting” productive day of the week. With all the stress of Wednesday, I didn’t get any shopping done like I usually do, so I did it on Friday instead. I also had a haircut that day, which took a lot of social energy, but, hey, at least my hair is back to a more manageable state, right? I also cooked a decent meal for myself and got some cleaning done as well. Very adult-like (XD). Maren was gone for most of the afternoon with her boyfriend (fiancé??? Who knows) while they were out ring window-shopping and going out for a double date. Emily and I, however, hung out and watched baking shows, which sounds ten times better than shopping.

Saturday was (really hard to spell for some reason, I had to re-write that word five times holy cow) both chill and busy. I relaxed for the first part of the day and played Sky with Maren before cracking down and working on my paper and some of my homework for next week that was due a little earlier than usual. I have most of the paper done now, I just need to piece all the parts together into something more cohesive, which will probably happen on Monday all things considering. I also played a little bit of Phasmaphobia when Sam came over and it was pretty fun. I acted as bait for the ghost, and it was really bad at hunting me. Pretty ironic really. I did die eventually in the game though, which was funny (Maren took pictures and my corpse was really weirdly phased through a wall).

And that just leaves today. Today was stake-conference, which meant everything was over zoom. There were a few good talks, one of which made fun of that fact that the guy speaking had a missing finger and how it was a good thing (very positive guy). Maren, Emily and I played Sky again for a while after that and have mostly been chilling around. I also made a dessert (not stress baking I swear), which was nice. So yeah. That was my week. Next week will be a lot more relaxed even with the paper that I still need to write and a full week of IHC. I also just barely remembered that I have my committee meeting next week, oh boy. Maybe it won’t be as relaxed as I think it will be, but maybe it will. Here’s to hoping. See you next week!