The first week of work: a review

So I had my very first week of work as a post-doc and it was pretty awesome. I think I am really going to enjoy this job, not that I didn't enjoy the last one but this will be pretty special. On my first day I had orientation in the morning, which is pretty awesome since I work at a medical center I learned lots about how to be good to your patients (I will not have any, I have vowed to be nice to the service people when I call for help and to be good to the sales reps when they come by). The remainder of the week was spent reading science articles and sitting around and trying to observe experiments and not get in the way.

Several years ago, we had a post-doc join our group in the StL. I remember being supper annoyed that he would follow me around and ask a million questions. I just wanted to get my stuff done and for him to leave me alone, clearly I was just being a toad. In light of this I have tried to be courteous to my lab mates and not get in their way and always ask if I can observe prior to watching them do work. I get it, it sucks to have someone hover over you while you are trying to work. Sorry about dude, I didn't know what I was doing back then...

Next week I hope to do several different types of experiments. I am going to do some work for one of the grad students, a little genetic cloning to get my feet wet. And I think I am going to start patch clamping!!! I am actually pretty excited about this, I hope that I am good at it. I know there is a huge learning curve and that this is going to be pretty hard to master but I am really looking forward to getting to it. I will be sure to keep you updated on my success and failures on that front.

Here are a few of the things that I absolutely love about my new job:
-I am one of the first to arrive when I get there at 9.
-There is a lab manager to takes care of everything I could need and keeps everyone else in line, this is going to be clutch here in a few weeks when I do experiments. I won't have to figure out what to order just tell her. She is amazing.
-Most days I am able to leave around 5 maybe a little before or a little after. I finally have a pseudo real job, with holidays!
-I am off for memorial day, never happened before I have always had to work.
-The girls seem really nice, I think I will like them.
-I can wear nice clothes, but I can still wear jeans if I want (which I do).
-I get a desk and a bench all to myself, I of course will be happy to share if I need to but this is a glorious feeling.
-My boss has tenure, there is no super mad drive to publish everything (I would however really like it if old boss got tenure)

I am sure that this could go on forever but I have things to do since it is saturday and I don't have to go to work!!! OMG I am going to have a real life, one with friends and things to do. I might even have a hobby... bring it on adult hood!