Working

I'm here at work today. Today is a holiday. So why am I at work?

Simple answer: I'm a grad student. Grad students do not have holidays.

Right now I'm waiting for some samples to dry in the oven before I continue with the slog that is lab work. I'm so close to being done with lab work, but yet so far away.

I can taste it, the freedom to simply write write write my thesis without being interrupted by beeping timers that insist I get off my computer and into the lab to attend to whatever it is that needed to be timed.

Hopefully by the end of tomorrow it will be done. That is the goal. Then there's just one machine to fix and one day to plow through and it will all be over. I'm okay with that.

I'm not a good writer when I have to write from scratch, and I'll sit all day in front of a blank word document desperately trying to pin down exactly what it is I have to talk about.

Even making a title is a big deal for me. I start by creating the file and making a title. Then I feel I have started. The document may sit for days with only a title, but hey, I've started!

Right now my thesis is a jumble of half finished sections and rough as rough can be drafts. The results section says things like "insert graph here" and "add stuff" and "more references". Usually I type these phrases in capital letters so that I see them when I proofread and the draft does not go off to my major professor as scientific writing interspersed with "ADD SHIT HERE".

The timer is going off again, so now I must attend to my samples in the oven. *Sigh*