Into the Lab I go...

Yesterday was the orientation session for the graduate school. I now have school e-mail (close friends, an e-mail with the address with be arriving shortly). I have library access. I can sign on to school computers. I have a student ID (and it says PharmD on it...that's awesome!). I have a parking pass (and it's bloody expensive...but I've gotta park...oh, sis-in-law, your I mean my budget needs some adjusting now).

Today, I met with a professor about doing my first lab rotation (yeah, after a year of pharmacy rotations, I have more...slightly different, but still rotations). Basically, he said sure, and walked me through my lab project (lipid mapping: culture cells, add ATP, take samples after x minutes, add a standard, purify, then run through mass spectometry...actually run through MS/MS/MS, then interpret the results and develop a new hypothesis...and create a new experiment). Don't worry, I wasn't positive I understood all of it, but he was really nice and understanding of my complete lack of laboratory skills. In fact, he is going to have me shadow a couple of his researchers to let me get my feet wet and learn techniques. It's exciting and a bit nervous at the same time. I start tomorrow morning.

Class starts on Monday, so things are about to get real. I guess I'm officially a graduate student, huh? I must be nuts...have a goodnight.