The devil is in the details

A new week, but nothing new

Ahhh, it has already been quite the day, and it's only 12:45...
I gave lab meeting this morning, which was interesting. I was really worked up about it, which was odd because lab meeting isn't necessarily that big of a deal. One issue was that I was such a slacker about it, and had to stay up really late last night (and realized that I forgot to put some data on my laptop, so I had to come in early today to finish making slides) to get it done in time. I had such good intentions of doing it ahead of time, but it didn't happen. Oh well, I'm giving another talk on the 29th, so I guess I've got another shot to get something done before 5 minutes pre-due date. As I thought about it this morning, I realized that I was also worked up about it because it was my first REAL lab meeting presentation about my project-the previous ones were either background or random data that I had generated but had no clue what it meant (show and tell, I guess.) This time I had data, and a model, and a whole story, which was nice, but also meant that there was much more of my own investment in the presentation, and was much more liable to be attacked. It is definitely one of those times that I hate being in a humungous (sp?) lab- 79 pairs of eyes staring at you, and a couple of junior faculty members who like to rip into you are not comforting thoughts.

It went okay. I only got 3 hours of sleep last night, so I was pretty tired. I was in the lab this morning earlier than I get up some mornings, but at least I had the talk as close to what I wanted as possible.

[Insert lunch and work break here. Okay, now I'm back]

Then there was the meeting itself. J. (who spoke before me) and I were excited to see that certain members of the lab who often tear up people's data were not there. J. spoke, and his talk was short and uneventful. I got up and gave my talk, which was also pretty short. For some reason, the boss decided to shoot rapid fire questions at me for about half an hour. It could have been a lot worse (I was able to at least propose an answer to all of them) but it wasn't fun, and whenever I thought it was done, he just kept going. Afterwards, I got lots of compliments on how well I answered questions, or how calm or patient I was or how great my talk was blah, blah, blah, whatever. (At the same time, I would be mad if no one said that, so I'll just shut up now.) I was kind of annoyed-it isn't like my boss never sees me and never gets to ask me about my data-why today in front of everyone instead of one of the other times I see him in a small group setting. The whole presentation thing is hard enough already-remembering to speak clearly (I was over-caffeinated and spoke WAY too fast today), remembering to look at the audience and not at the screen, remembering how to use the little remote control pointer thingy...it's tough. No need for "let's demonstrate our immunology knowledge" too. Oh well, I lived, and now it's over. Just have to give ANOTHER talk on the 29th (which means more work this weekend). No biggie.

I've been looking forward to post-talk today for a long time...I was trying to decide what fun thing that I have skipped during the past couple of weeks while I was busy I would do today. Now that I think about it-I have to run downtown and buy moisturizer and clean my apartment tonight. No fun for me. :( I went out to a special top-secret lunch today, which was AWESOME. I would elaborate, but I'm not entirely sure who is reading this, so I will not divulge the secret. (I know a secret! I know a secret! Yay!!!!! It's a good one!!!) Things are good. I'm not so into focusing this afternoon what with the day thus far and the lack of sleep...I'd like to leave but the rotation student is here needing attention, so I'm sill here.

Also-I got to fill out a survey today that was supposed to be a Harvard Graduate Student vote on the issues with Larry Summers that the faculty put to a no-confidence vote. I voted (it was sort of like an online quiz, and we all know how I feel about online quizzes.) , but I still can't figure out what the point is. No one cares what we think, we aren't really involved in the situation, and I can't see how my voting will change the number of women scientists or anything. How silly.

posted by Immunegirl @ 3:30 PM