Geez I'm tired. Forgive the rambling and incoherence, but this is what you get when I've only had 5 hours' sleep for each of the past two nights.

A quick run through:
-took andrea k to the oral surgeon at 7:30, slept, picked her back up at 9, drove her to rite aid, came back to the house, slept (intended to be only a quick nap, since I'd gotten back from lab around 3 AM the previous morning. seems like that's becoming an unfortunate pattern)
-woke up at 1:30 (umm.... oops.), immediately went into lab
-plated transformations worked!! Hooray!!! liquid cultures of those tonight, hope they work -crosses fingers-
-random in situ washes. tomorrow's the day of truth, when we find out what's going on with these probes. again, keep your fingers crossed
-riding in Davee's class - rode Colorado. very smooth and easy sitting trot, a touch difficult picking up canter, but on the whole a very enjoyable ride. drew compliments of "you were really good on him" from Davee -grins- which is praise indeed from her. more and more, I hope she begins teaching a thursday night class... I really want to keep taking her class during the year, but if I take animal physiology, that's not going to happen.
-finished reading Emma - perhaps that's why I'm feeling a little down. I've picked up on a pattern in Jane Austen's books - a secret engagement revealed after a controlling parent dies; a heroine with a fault that causes endless mischief; no matter how many mistakes the heroine makes, she always ends up with the kind, suitable fellow you didn't really take into consideration for some reason and everything else works out perfectly. a shame life isn't really like that...
-accidentally asked for the date at least once today, and received looks of shock and horror, even rebukes "How could you NOT know what day it is??". So I forgot it was september 11th... is this a bad thing? Should I be ashamed that I forgot about something so terrible? I'm sorry, I didn't feel like reliving the surreal shock of one year ago, when Dad woke me up in time to see the plane hit the second tower. Silence is an appropriate memorial; having every radio station harp on it and go back through the gory details is too much for me. I felt it deeply enough last year - it was one of the days I really, really wished I didn't empathize with others so much, there was so much raw emotion pouring out everywhere. I can't remember a single moment of that day, of the next several days, that I wasn't crying, grieving for everyone who'd lost family or friends and trying to come to grips with what had happened. A year later, I can only say: Let it go. LIVE. And hope it doesn't happen again.

But now, the anniversary of the tragedy is over. It's September 12th, which means... Happy 51st Birthday, Dad :) Wish you were here so I could hug you, but Mom, Kat, Red and the other dogs will have to do for now. Can't wait to see you in another 10 days.