The last two weeks at the old job started today. Oh, Time, why art thou flying by thus quickly?
Just looking at all the folders, papers, microscope slides, folders and binders of student material and all the other crap that somehow has to be moved out of my office and into a happy storage place, makes me cringe. Planning farewell drinks with the coworkers, on the other hand, is a superfun activity.
But I will deal with the packing at some point, promise.
What I wanted to talk about today, though, was MY LAST EXPERIMENT in the old lab. It was just a side project/part of a collab, nothing major. Needed to measure the apoptosis levels in cells exposed to some chemicals. All in all, no more than a few hours of work. But I loved it, mostly because I've spent far too few hours in the lab lately and I really missed the action.
I don't really miss the 10+ hour experiments or spending 17 days in a row in that hood, but I did feel some withdrawal in the past 6 months, when most work days revolved around teaching and students.
There is still a flask of cells growing as backup, which will probably (very solemnly) meet their end tomorrow. RIP, human osteosarcoma cells.
Obviously, I went all nostalgic and dramatic at the end of today's experiment, saying goodbye to the centrifuge and hood, just to keep up with my "Drama queen" nature. And I went a bit crazy with the nitrile glove, because there's no proper lab send-off without some smiling blown-up gloves and some giant bubble wrap popping.
So long, my dear cells and multichannel pipette.
Besides office packing, I still have to wrap up some teaching-related stuff, but as far as labland action goes, nothing until New York.
I just hope my general crankiness and sleep deprivation (due to some self-inflicted issues in relation to certain people) decide to leave me alone so I can enjoy the last days at work.
Jules
P.S. Sincere apologies for the crappy photo quality. My very average phone has been the main photo-snapping technology I own since last September, when camera decided to die. Fingers crossed a more blogging-friendly solution will come in my possession soon
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