12/16/99

When I woke up this morning, my back hurt and my head hurt. The former was a symptom of P.M.S. I have no idea where the latter came from.

Anyway, I woke up feeling crappy. Also, it was late--9 a.m. already. I haven't been setting my alarm lately, because it doesn't really matter when I get up.

I got up and took some ibuprofen and drank a lot of tea and sat around thinking about all the things I have to do in the next week. One of those things I have to do is give a presentation on Tuesday about all the stuff I've done in the lab this quarter. I feel like it hasn't really been much.

Anyway, I decided that I'd better at least get all my data organized--until today it was literally all over the place: some of it on my computer at home, some on the PC at work, some lying in piles in drawers in my desk at work, some lying in piles in my apartment and some in a folder being toted around in my backpack.

So, I went to the bookstore, bought a 2" 3-ring binder and some dividers, and went to work. Two hours later, the binder was completely full. Wow. While I still firmly believe that I didn't get much done during my tenure in the lab, the impressive heft of the binder at least gave the impression that I'd been quite the dynamo.

I brought it in to the lab and showed it to my P.I. "Look, this is all my data from this quarter!" I said proudly.

I could tell he was impressed. It's amazing how impressive a big stack of paper can be.