So, today was a morning that came too quickly. I could have gotten away with sleeping in I think, but for some reason I didn't…I should have. At work I continued in the series of nearly identical reactions, tweaking a different part of it. This particular reaction employs a particularly toxic chemical, which most are, but this one more so than most. Let's be clear, if I thought that I were too tired to perform my tasks, I would have gone home, but I felt pretty good, not drowsy at all. So I began the reaction then, and prepared all of the materials and had everything ready. I had the noxious chemical in the dropping funnel and everything, however the nut-like piece that holds the stopcock in place was not screwed in all the way. It should have been, but I didn't check it. This led to the substance leaking out through the side of the funnel, and making a terrible mess in the hood. This was bad; very bad. I'm not going to say specifics, about the chemical, but I got it away from my reaction apparatus and closed the hood quickly. We had to neutralize all of it, and wait for a bit for the hood to vent as much of it away as possible. That was a great start to the day. However, I got a big pickmeup from reading my e-mails this morning. I got a comment and e-mail from Mum, which I love to read. Basically anything anyone sends me is gold for me, even if it is just a short e-mail. And Cam sent me an e-mail, which just absolutely made my morning as well. Even though I had just screwed up pretty badly, I felt a lot better just from reading some e-mails. It's not the same as talking, but it is wonderful still. After I managed to get things cleaned up in my hood, I went for try number two, checking everything meticulously, and succeeded this time. I've decided to stop trying to deflect blame, even when it isn't my fault, something I picked up from someone I respect in Cincinnati a couple of years ago. It is not fun, but it builds character, and makes you focus more on your own actions and their consequences. Practically however, this meant cleaning up the container in which the container of the toxic chemical was housed after being berated for leaving it dirty (container within container). I was in no danger of course because I was careful and had all manner of appropriate protection; however the residue was the result of the last person who had used it. It wasn't my fault, but there is no benefit in passing blame on something that has already happened, one more intangible thing I've learned over here. After lunch then, things were going well, and I had set up my distillation apparatus for the umpteenth time and was about to commence the distillation until I realized that the stirrer was not on. I then turned the stirrer on, with the vacuum on, which apparently is not a good idea, because I then succeeded in blowing a good portion of my reaction mixture through the cooling column, for the second time since I have been here. Who knew that such an innocuous action would have such unfortunate consequences? Not this guy. At this point, I kind of wanted to go home, and just call it a day, but that wasn't really possible. I got it all taken care of eventually, and at the end of the day, Barbara cheered me up by telling me that in the next lab, they wrecked a stirrer today (difficult) and told me some stories of things that she had done epically wrong, or what some previous interns had done. I was glad to be able to laugh for a bit. I think today was just a bad day, because I didn't feel all that tired until the very end of the day (incidentally, I fixed that with an extra dark coffee/ espresso combo). I'll get some more sleep tonight, and hopefully that will help.
No comments:
Post a Comment