Alcohol (that's right, I said alcohol)

I have to laugh at life's ironies sometimes. Case in point. I play softball with some friends from work, in a work league that consists of my company and our sister company (though it's mostly people from our sister company). The normal MO is to play a game, and then enjoy victory/drown-our-sorrows beverages. Said beverages usually include, but are not limited to, beer, some crazy alcoholic pick-me-up type drink, Gatorade, and bottled water. Needless to say, my choice is always Gatorade or water. My friends drink the other stuff. We had a game last night which was a rough one. We were up for nearly the entire game, and lost it at the end. Such is life, right? We cracked open the ice chest and re-hydrated at the bleachers as the next game started. I headed home to dinner.

When I got to work this morning, I had some cell culture to do. I cleaned our biohazard hood with ethanol, as usual. As I sometimes do, I read the warning label on the squirt bottle that holds the ethanol. To use said ethanol, the recommended personal protective equipment (PPE in lab jargon) is goggles or a face shield, a lab coat or apron, a fume hood, and the proper gloves. The list of target organs includes the eyes, skin, respiratory system, central nervous system, liver, gastrointestinal tract, kidneys and cardiovascular system.

So outside of work, my friends can drink whatever concentration of the stuff they want to, but when I get to work, I have to put on all sorts of PPE in order to just use it to clean the hood. Huh. I looked up the MSDS for ethanol out of curiosity. Below is the first aid section:

Eyes: Get medical aid. Gently lift eyelids and flush continuously with water.
Skin: Get medical aid. Wash clothing before reuse. Flush skin with plenty of soap and water.
Ingestion: Do not induce vomiting. If victim is conscious and alert, give 2-4 cupfuls of milk or water. Never give anything by mouth to an unconscious person. Get medical aid.
Inhalation: Remove from exposure and move to fresh air immediately. If not breathing, give artificial respiration. If breathing is difficult, give oxygen. Get medical aid. Do NOT use mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Notes to Physician: Treat symptomatically and supportively. Persons with skin or eye disorders or liver, kidney, chronic respiratory diseases, or central and peripheral nervous sytem diseases may be at increased risk from exposure to this substance.
Antidote: None reported.

Here is the link if you're curious about the rest of the information.

In which I admit how much of a nerd I am

I work in a lab. Most of you probably know this. We have chores that we take turns doing-things that affect all of us, but are inconvenient to do individually. One of these things is taking things to be sterilized in one of our autoclaves. This is my favorite job! While I admit it's just a pedestrian task, I for some reason find great joy in taking things down to be sterilized and returning them to the lab once they're done. I think part of it is that the office is usually cold, and everything that comes out of the autoclave is nice and warm. Another part is the autoclave gloves. We have a giant pair of orange gloves like the one pictured below. I can't help but think about the thing from Fantastic 4. I have been known, after making sure there's no one else around, to make a fist, look at it, and think "It's clobberin' time!" Don't ask why, but this is fun for me. I went to retrieve the autoclaving today, and much to my dismay, the orange gloves had been replaced with a pair like these:

Now I have nothing against blue, but I can't think of anything fun about a puffy pair of blue gloves. I had to take solace in the fact that I know where at least one of the orange gloves is, and I'll be sure to retrieve it before the next time I run a load in the autoclave. So now you know. Try not to tease me too much.

Sam was right!

One of my friends in Australia used to tell me that Aussies were "tougher" than Americans. Thinking of myself, I argued the point. I've been home for almost two years now, and I'm discovering it's true! I should preface this with the fact that our cooler is usually set around 75 degrees while we're home. It's the temperature that everyone could agree on. Currently, Texas has been having a cold snap. Personally, I've been enjoying the change. I open the windows in the house, grab a blanket and some hot cocoa, and happily enjoy the change from the sweltering heat that is the norm for south Texas. I stand in my closet in the morning and wonder which of my neglected sweaters I should wear.

Yesterday morning I got up, got ready, and spent some time downstairs baking cookies before the rest of the residents in my house were awake. When I wandered back upstairs and was talking to an un-named roommate, she was complaining about how cold it was! I told her it was 71 degrees in the house-a mere 3-4 degrees cooler than the preferred temperature. She didn't believe me, and persisted in complaining about the cold. I laughed and headed back downstairs. Have we grown so soft that we can't take a 4 degree temperature change without complaint? I've lived in houses with no heating and no air conditioning and am still around to tell the tale (mind you, this was not in Texas-I don't think I would make it in the heat and humidity without air con). So while I'm relishing in the cooler weather, and torturing my roommates by perpetually opening the windows in our house to let in the cool air, others in San Antonio are running around like this: Please make note-this picture was taken in New York in December. There is ice on the water, and it was literally freezing. I'd like also to note that the "cold snap" here in Texas means our high is in the 60's somewhere, and maybe ten degrees cooler at night. My friends in Utah have had highs in the 50's and lows in the 20's! So while I may be wearing a coat or sweater to protect against the "cold", I am well aware that it really isn't cold.

Happy Fall, everyone. 34 days until my birthday (not that I'm counting...actually I guess I just did).

The Messiah

About a month ago, one of my roommates and I noticed a poster that kept showing up at church, just outside the chapel. The West Stake here in San Antonio was planning a community production of Handel's "The Messiah". I've heard the music several times. I even attended a Messiah "sing-in" with my college roommates at the Salt Lake Tabernacle. The audience was the choir, and the orchestra and soloists were provided. The music was fun to sing, and my roommates and I skipped around singing different parts.

My roommate here (Teagan) and I decided we'd go to the first rehearsal and decide from there whether we really wanted to join the production. Rehearsal last week wasn't bad. There were certainly parts that I couldn't play just sight-reading, but I was confident, and so was Teagan. I went to rehearsal alone last night (Teagan is out of town). We worked on different pieces this week, and my view is changing slightly. While I'm sure that I can still play the part, I'm also beginning to wonder if I'll be having a life outside of practicing! If I'm going to do this, I want to be able to say I played well. Pages full of pieces in keys with 2-4 sharps (I like to play with 3 flats) and lots and lots of sixteenth notes are making me question my abilities. Practicing slowly here at home today has restored some of my confidence. The performance isn't until the first weekend in December-I think I can, I think I can...

Institute

For those of you who don't share my faith, Institute is what we call our weekly Bible study class. I don't know why. I've really enjoyed my class this semester. The New Testament is a great text, and I've enjoyed Brother Baillio's approach to teaching. I also find it nice to be in a smaller class. I'm getting to know my class mates better, and it makes the potential for baking treats for everyone something other than a daunting task.

I think my favorite part of class this semester is that each week Brother Baillio leaves us with a challenge-something to work on during the week to keep us thinking about what we have learned, and to help us become more Christ-like, and to have lives full of joy, peace and love. While I may not have had some big, amazing experiences, the small quite ones mean more to me anyhow.

Our first challenge was to show more gratitude. Try to recognize even the small things that are blessings and express gratitude for them. Be grateful to the people who make your life as good as it is, and even grateful for the people who are trying-they are helping with learning and growth probably more than those we get along with easily. As I recognized things I was grateful for, and expressed that gratitude, I found more to be grateful for-the cycle repeated itself often. Try to be anything but happy when you realize how well cared for you are!

The second challenge was forgiveness. Forgive people, forgive yourself, forgive life. Holding on to a grudge will only hurt one person-you. The people you're angry with rarely know of your feelings, and sometimes don't care about your feelings. Learning to let go frees you of the burden, even if the circumstance is still bad, it helps with perspective. Forgiving others allows you to be forgiven, which brings with it the peace of progress toward the person God wants you to be. I love the knowledge that I can be free of my burdens, and I have felt freed as I tried to recognize those instances in which I should forgive, and done so.

Love was our third assignment. I find it easy to love, especially after a week of thinking about forgiving, and two weeks of thinking about gratitude. I started seeing people a little differently, forgiving them more easily for being human, and finding reasons to love everyone.

To me, a natural outgrowth of loving people is finding ways to show that love through actions. I thought it appropriate that service was our next assignment. I had trouble finding big things to do, and wonder if anyone noticed the small things I did. Whether they were noticed or not, my view was changed by my actions. In a cycle like the one I observed with gratitude, the more I did for my friends, the more able I felt to love them, and the more I wanted to do for them.

Optimism is our assignment for this week. With a life full of love, peace and joy, how can one not be optimistic? Situations do make it difficult sometimes, but for me, that's where faith comes in. I hope that by focusing on optimism, I can also become more aware of God's plan for me, and develop more faith in the fact that He knows what is best, even when I think things are not going well. Ask me how it went next week:)