happychemist

Punch line first:

Supporting background info:

This project has taken me farther than I had ever imagined going. It had been assigned as an "oh, it'll only take you a day or two to make these measurements, C" but was in reality quite the Hydra: solve one problem and get another five scary butt-ugly things to do pop up in its place.

I cannot even tell where I am on the path anymore. Almost done? Still got another ten billion things? I can't help but feel that it's close...

Either way, I've turned a corner in the last few months. I've been forced to throw myself into learning a new laser system, get spiffed up on MATLAB, and as a result subjected myself and my friends to a healthy amount of self-loathing/arrogant twat vacillation. I don't think I've ever learned so much, hated/loved my work as much, burned out as many times as I have during this process.

You're getting me at one of the highs, I think, so maybe I'm just putting a foot in my mouth when I observe that I love this stuff and I can't believe that I'm so lucky to be studying it.

Other things to put this stuff in context:

I will say as much in my thesis acknowledgments, but really, now is a good moment to observe that my friends are awesome. And it's fantastic to live by a big city with lots of pretty things to see and do. This weekend was an excellent example.

We're in full swing of the Southwest Chamber Music's Summer Festival. Four different concerts over the span of 2 months or so, all at the Huntington Gardens, each available for the student rush price of $10 per concert. I went to the third concert on Saturday night, bringing my blanket and finding myself a spot on the lawn. The music was not as interesting this time, but it was still really relaxing to lie back on my blanket and just listen for a bit.

I went to Long Beach to spend time with

jennlynnfs and her family on Sunday. Isaac was all smiles and happy noises and so comforting to hold. I got to sneak Jenn out with me for lunch and we went out to Murakai to eat and browse. Jenn sent me on my happy way with a bunch of Us Weekly magazines to flip through and Palace to watch.

Monday was our lab group skip day, and we ended up at Huntington Beach, bopping about in the waves and recharging our batteries. In the evening,

kilroi came over and joined me for stir fry, My Big Fat Greek Wedding and blueberry crisp.

When life's like this, you really can't help but be happy, huh?

Anyway, all this has been keeping me calm while I've been going out of my mind dealing with a function that can't write itself, data that doesn't want to be easily resolved, and error messages up the wazoo.

And sure enough, yesterday, when I sat down and started typing away? Sure enough, I (eventually!) got it. :P

HA!