Here she comes, in her palanquin

Gregg and Nico managed to spill Gregg’s entire bottle of hexanes all over the floor. I heard Greg worriedly yelling. I was unaware, but hexanes are banned from industry. It’s highly toxic. Nico and Gregg were frantically trying to clean the spill with paper towels. The chemical evaporates quickly and vapors in the air would sit there for a while. I worked with phosphorus tribromide over the last few days as well. Wow. That’s a powerful one. I opened the “reacts violently with water” labeled bottle to a gray cloud of smoke. I took some up in a syringe and several drops fell in the transfer. When the drops hit my bench, it immediately smoked and turned brown. I showed Yunlong one of the drops and he grabbed some sodium hydroxide to quench it. It instantly smoked more, then stopped. Yunlong said “Whoa. I didn’t know it would do that.”

Yunlong was immensely stressed yesterday. He was writing his final project for his Masters. Why he’s not getting his PHD is beyond me. Nico asked him but he was such a horrible mental state on Friday he said “it’s a long story, when I’m not in a bad mood I’ll tell you.” He said it calmly and remarkably hid his stress. I hope he doesn’t stop chemistry. He is the best chemist I’ve personally seen. It’s a wonderful art. He has helped me vastly improve yields working on 50 milligram scales.

I found a trail of Cheerios on the walk back from lab today. I liked crunching them.

I AM going to see the Decemberists!! Spectacular writers!! Beyond musicians. Chris, my old Chemistry lab TA who does graduate research with Dr. Parquette, and Ian, an undergrad Parquette researcher, are going with me to get tickets Monday. I lent them the CDs several weeks ago. Their interest was sparked when they heard “Sixteen Military Wives” on the radio. The CD is MUCH better than that song. Sarah M. said she may go too. Once she gives them a listen. I definitely think she’ll like them. She told me she liked Bright Eyes and Interpol and I hadn’t obsessed over them in her presence! She did it on her own.

I’ve been pretty fatigued all summer. I think I have an easier time handling chemistry classes than literature/writing classes when paralleled with research. I had no trouble staying ahead last quarter. Maybe it’s the prospect of dutifully reading pages of novels when I return from work. It’s pretty daunting and consumptive.

I’m trying to figure out how to make grilled cheese and completely use this large vat of butter I bought.

I have to start my paper on House on Mango Street in a few. I’m in high spirits. My teacher likes my writing style and I received high marks on the first paper. I wasn't pleased with it upon turning it in. Then I’m going with Daniel to see a Wexner Center movie. I’ve liked the two I’ve seen so far.

I took a long nap yesterday and forgot to eat dinner. Then I watched a few season four Seinfelds. Seinfeld hit it's climax in season 4. The dialogue is amazing up until then. There are traces of that initially revolutionizing dialogue about nothing in later seasons. I think they perfected it in the beginning. Those everyday parts are the ones I like the most. I laugh at them the most as well. I also laugh when they insult each other. Jerry in particular. When I had watched Seinfeld years ago, I naively thought Jerry's character was square and could easily be removed from the show. I liked Kramer the best. I've changed now. It's close between Jerry and George on top. I may like George more based on his hapless situations he gets himself into. I do like when Kramer and Newman hang out. Together, they always make me laugh.

I played softball with the guys from my lab group on their intramural softball team. I think the league is between the different colleges at OSU. I did really well. I went 3/4 the first game and 2/2 the second. The first game we played Rob's brother Eric's team. He was the pitcher. We won that one. The second one we played a really tough team with strong guys. I think they had a special bat. My teammates knew the advantages of them using that double walled bat. But we lost. I played right center and no one hit a fly ball to me. I like catching fly balls, I only got some grounders that went past the infield. It was incredibly fun. I really enjoy softball. I'm also writing like a 3rd grader but I have to go! I have grilled cheese on the stove!