first in, last out

last weekend was labor day. a long weekend. just what i needed.

jon and i attended northwest passage dance camp, held near mt hood. the weather was just about perfect for camping, and the music and dancing were very high level and quite fun. and at the same time, it was a very different crowd than what i'm used to at contra camp. of course, this one had a very distinct mix of contra and english country dance, which was definitely part of the reason for the difference. i enjoyed spending time with the people, but it was by no means thrilling or really life changing unlike other camps where i've gone and felt like i never wanted to leave because i was having so much fun. though, i was given a dress to wear by someone who makes/alters dresses and, well, the dress was a hit. people were impressed and said things like, "wow" and "you look adorable" and "you really do look fantastic". so, a little confidence boost for me, despite the fact that i was unsure if i actually breathed the whole night, as the seams on the dress were rigid and somewhat tight. at one point i said, "how did people ever wear corsets?!"

on my way home tuesday morning - well, i say home, but i really mean on my way back to work - i was listening to the radio (since both my books on cd were a little too heavy for light, leisurely morning listening) and one of the first songs that came on was dave matthews band "satellite". i knew then that i was going to have a good music day, if nothing else. and i did (you can read about it in this post.)

but what this post is really about is being the first in and last out of work.

(for reference, the terms "first in, last out" and "last in, first out" come from labels my dad puts on the boxes christmas decorations. we keep them in the attic, which is long and narrow, and you can't get to all the boxes at once. they go into storage in a straight line. some boxes of decorations are for the house, which can go up before ones for the tree, and the last box out is the stockings since we only use them for christmas day. that's the one for which this post is named.)

at least 2 days a week, i get to work around 8am. since it's summer, there are very few people that are at work at that hour, and forget about students. the bike parking rack is nearly empty, and the same 7 bikes that are there every night when i leave are still there in the morning. i suspect 6 of them are abandoned due to the spiderwebs accumulating on them. i digress. i get to work and there's no one here, not even cars in the parking lot.

i go about my business of setting up my experiment for the day. some days it's getting the samples out of the oven to cool, getting ice for the coolers, cutting parafilm strips, cleaning out the hood, getting the nitration solution and samples from the downstairs lab and bringing them upstairs. sometimes it's getting the samples out of the dessicator and adding acetone. then the procedure begins. and then i have to wait for 4 hours while the reaction happens. or else i have to vortex the samples in 45 minute intervals until it's time to centrifuge them.

in this time i go about other tasks, like washing dishes and getting filters and things ready for the afternoon. i fill flasks with rinse water, separate filter papers, other lab type chores. sometimes i see some people, and sometimes i walk in the stairwell where i can see that there are a lot more cars in the parking lot by 10am. i then eat lunch, usually between 12-1. then, after 1pm, make a run to chem stores to pick up ~20lb of dry ice and bring it back to the lab. or, once the samples are done centrifuging, i bring them to the hood and allow them to evaporate, which takes about an hour. and then i get to do the most fun part of my job which is precipitate the samples, which sometimes works better than others.

by 130 i'm filtering samples. some are very, very slow. the hours creep by. i've done one filtration on 16 samples and it's taken between 3-4 hours.

on precipitation days, some samples do not need filtering. these are great samples and i praise them highly. thank you chemistry gods that made the reaction work so well. the ones that do need filtering usually take anywhere from 1-2 hours EACH to filter. this process is HIGHLY boring, and in the end, not very satisfying.

by now it's 5pm and i take a little walk around the building. it's so quiet. i look out into the parking lot. not many cars out there, but it's not empty. many people have already gone home for dinner. second filtration sometimes goes a little faster, and then it's 730-8pm.

i stop at some point and have some dinner. i think about things like how i wish i could make time to go to the gym on these days. or how some people are home right now. as i walk back to the lab, i look outside again and realize that everyone has gone home, leave a few straggling grad students who are on the computers in the lab or someone who stayed home with the kids and came in late to work on a few things.

my last filtration usually goes the fastest, and sometimes i'm done by 930 or 10. of course, it's usually later because i have to take breaks between each filtration set because my back is usually very sore. i have to stretch, sit down, or just get off my feet. so the first set goes from 130-430, take a break till 530, next set goes till 830, take a break till 9, next set goes till 1030 or 11, then i scrape the samples into tubes and put the tubes into the dessicator with the dry ice.

usually during my down time, if i'm not stretching or doing dishes, i do some email, catch up with people, do my alumni emails or other dance p.r. things, and usually have a snack. i knew things were getting dire when i went to my emergency food bag yesterday and found that it was down to 1 handful of roasted salted almonds, 2 handfuls of dried cranberries, 3 packets of instant oatmeal, and 1 can of amy's low sodium chunky tomato bisque soup. i mean, it's not the end of the world, but it certainly isn't anything i find to be 'thrilling'.

many nights i don't leave until 12am. sometimes later. and when i go back out to the bike rack, i see that the parking lot is empty, except for the state vehicles that are there all the time. and i realize all the bikes from this morning are still there. no one has come to claim them. i tell them, "good night" and head for home.