Spiders!

Wow, I just had my first taste of my new job and it is way cooler than I thought it would be. So feed and moisten tarantulas, spiders, centipedes, and black widows... No biggie there, doesn't take much time and isn't too thrilling. After he showed me how to do that all I could think was ok.... so what is supposed to take up the rest of the time oyu have me scheduled.

Well, apparently golden silk spiders are finicy eaters in the lab. In captivity, they don't spin very good webs and therefore would starve with no way to catch food if we simply put the crickets in there. You have to hand feed them. This involves positioning the crickets on tweezers so that they can't kick the spider (or simply removing the kicking legs) and pinching their chilarae(sp?=pointy things on butt) so that drops of hemolymph appear. Then you have to rub this hemolymph between the spider's fangs without touching its web or scaring them. Once the spider starts to move its fangs, you have to place the crickets abdomen right in front of them and then wait till the spider has a good hold on it before letting go.

It's a pretty delicate manuever and a little intimidating. So much gets in the way, you have to weave around any silk that is near the spiders mouth. If the spider in positioned wrong there is little to no chance of not scaring them. And then even when you do it right, they aren't always interested. Or then there are the ones that are so aggressive that they bite and hold the damn tweezers. =) But it was a really great feeling when I finally caught the hang of it.

And I still can't quite figure out how to read Dr. B.... He is very quiet, not much of a conversationalist and isn't much for specific instructions. So I hope I am giving a good impression but it is difficult to know if I am doing things right when I'm not even quite sure what exactly he expects. So this should be interesting... Next Tuesday I get to learn how to silk them.

Zombies!

They are roaming the Student Union!

No seriously, they are zombies in the student union! They are staggering around as if disjointed from reality. They have horrible rotting wounds and and they are looking for... money?

lol what a cool way to promote a play. Zombies wearing signs. I love zombies!

Huggles!

Test Taken...

Test bombed... Damnit, I feel like such a freaking idiot. How can I study so much and still feel so unprepared?! Sure, a few of the questions I knew right away, but then the rest of the exam I simply stared at blankly with no clue how to even go about it. I hate that feeling, it makes me want to gouge my eyes out.

Sigh... I can't wait today to be over...

By the way, did you know that giraffes only sleep 2 hours a day? They spend the majority of the night taking turns watching for predators. Giraffes do a pretty damn good job at making themselves practically impossible to eat if you ask me.

And did you know that ducks can put half their brain to sleep at a time? The ducks on the perimeter of a flock when they are resting at night will close the eye to the inside of the circle and that corresponding side of the brain shuts down, after a little while they get up and turn around so that the other side can get a break too.

Scientists are now thinking that the reason for sleep is to conserve energy. Our brain is very high maintenance and it is simply inefficient to have it running all the time, so it is simply logical to shut it off while the rest of the body is performing maintenance. Makes sense to me... Though perhaps if I never slept then I would use up the stored resources I have strapped around my belly faster. Hmmm...

Ignorance Would Truly be Bliss Tonight.

I find myself chronically distracted this evening. I simply cannot concentrate on the priority at hand. I have an amazingly important organic chemistry exam tomorrow that will basically determine my grade and I NEED TO STUDY...

However, I am stuck in the Student Union until 8pm and currently there is:

A large group of screaming girls behind me. I hate screaming girls.

A group a people playing DnD next to me that I find myself compulsively drawn towards. It has been forever since I have played... And I find it slightly strange how similar most of the people who play are... I keep listening and hearing them say things that makes me whip my head around thinking they are my friends.

And then Drew is professing his love to me as always. I am highly flattered and I definitely like him, but we live to far apart for me to even consider going through the stress of it right now.

And then... Lanth is falling apart about Scroll dieing and I'm trying to comfort her over im... But I just feel so numb to the subject at the moment. I am in pretty good terms with the balance of life and death currently so while it does make me sad that he is gone, it doesn't throw the whole world out of sync... And besides, I can't let myself fall apart right now because I HAVE to do well on this test... Once I turn it in then I can fall to pieces, but only until 1 because then I have to start my new job.

I need to up my level in my ignore skill because it feels like my brain is being pulled in a dozen different directions... I really just want to curl up in someone's arms and cry.

Wow... its like almost 8 now, guess I gotta pack up and go home... and continue studying... sigh.

My Fun Box ;)

I am currently typing on a laptop, on a wireless connection, on campus. One would ask, so what is the big deal about this? You do that all the time Hannah! And I would reply, ah hah! But did I mention that it is my very own laptop that I am typing on?! I love this thing already! It has already made this day so much easier.

On a much more somber note, an old friend of mine passed away last weekend... He was a passionate person who wrote amazing words of poetry and song. It is an especially hard shock because he seemed so determined that he was to beat this cancer... and all it took was a little thing like pneumonia and it was over in a heartbeat. The world has lost a strong and beautiful soul this week. Perhaps once I am over the shock of his passing, I may write a poem that could honor him. A silent thought of hope that this valiant warrior has passed to a better plane of existence.

Huggles...

Turning Point?

Today looked like it wass to be yet another terrible occurence. My comparative vertebrate morphology exam was much harder then I had hoped... I do not understand why professors feel they must test on the most miniscule details of their lecture when obviously the most important thing is the broad picture. But the grumblings of my peers echoe the same sentiment which means hopefully there will be a good curve.

I have been fretting over the research assisstant position for the past week and a half, assuming that I had not gotten the job since I had heard nothing. I went to talk to Dr. B this morning but he wasn't there to confirm it. What was there however, was a note from someone about taking care of the spiders this morning. I took this to mean that someone else had gotten the job and I spent the rest of the day with tears on the edges of my eyes. I simply abhore potential employers that don't inform applicants that they didn't get the job. Like when Ken wasn't going to tell me about the animal care internship and practically fucked up my whole last summer. So... I was so annoyed that I decided to confront Dr. B about it. I went to his office (secretly hoping he wouldnt be there), but as he was... I asked if he had filled the position. And he looked down at the desk and said that he had just sent me an email... And that I got the job! =) It was quite a pleasant surprise! I'll be working about 5-10 hours a week mostly on tuesday mornings and friday afternoons. 7 dollars an hour. I start friday. I can't even begin to express how delighted this makes me. It won't be tons of money but it will ease things a little as well as give me great experience and a template for my senior honors project. Woohoo! Just call me Spider Woman!

My laptop should be here tomorrow too! =)

Sunshine and huggles! This is the brightest I have felt in quite a while.

ps... I lost my necklace today sometime after German... Part of me wonders if its absence and my good luck is coincidence or not? Perhaps it wass harboring too much negative energy. I'll have to remember to cleanse my jewelry in the future.