I really enjoy doing lab work. Even when things are not going quite as planned, and I'm dripping the diethyl ether with the solute I'm trying to recover in it all over my bench, it's still relaxing. I lucked out and have a bench all to myself for the organic chem lab, which means no more idiots who can't undrestand how the vaccum filtration system works. Also, organic chem labs are very...aromatic (in more ways than one, although only the chem/life science geeks reading will get that terrible pun). Ether in particular has a strange sticky-sweet smell to it. Acetone...well, acetone smells like acetone. It's nail polish remover, basically, although I think usually it's diluted there. Smells bad, but not as bad as ammonia.

I really, really need to find a lab to volunteer in in the fall. I've been trying really hard not to get too down about finding something for the summer, although it's difficult when every third sentence out of Yana's mouth starts with 'In my lab...' (another third is complaining about how badly she did this year, and the last third is everything else. Great person, but sometimes I want to tell her to either shut up, or get some hobbies or something). I'll probably start compiling a list now, although I don't have time to actually write up a ton of e-mails at the moment.