Stinky lab hands

I'm taking a 2 week molecular biology lab intensive course that keeps me in laxtex gloves for about 6-7 hours a day.  It's only the second day of classes and my hands have a fowl laxtex smell that I just can't get rid of.  Soaps, lotions, detergents, sanitizers, nothing will kill this smell.  I don't know how people working in labs everyday can stand it!  It reminds me of the dentist and make me feel ill.  Bleh.

Finding inspiration in an eppendorf tube

I finally feel like I did more than just go through the motions today.  In the end I even feel a little inspired.  I spent all my free time between and after classes re-learning how to run a PCR and subsequently running a few this evening.  

In the past I've always thought of the molecular work as a slightly amusing but extremely informative part of my research, but that all the fun stuff happens in the greenhouse and fieldwork.  But today I found the little joy and motivation in the molecular work that I had been seeking all week in the greenhouse.  

I've been thinking that the rhythmic lab work can be somehow soothing and regenerative.  Sort of like the rhythm of rocking in a rocking-chair. Changing pipet tips, drawing-up buffers, dispensing to tubes, and repeating the process.  It must be true that it's the little things in life that bring you joy.