Things I will not miss about lab.

Since yesterday was officially my last day of vacation/employment, this post is appropriately timed.  Let's have a light-hearted look back at a few things I am glad I will never have to do again.

• Make fly tea.

 This was for Saprolegnia (a water mold) to eat.  Mmmmm.

• Smell the environmental room for the last half of a semester while we have the heaviest fungal class.  

• Have my time and attention split between 2 bosses, 5 professors, 5 GSIs, 4 classrooms, and 650 cultures at once.

• Pour 600+ petri dishes of agar at once. 

This was from pouring 20 types of agar... prepping fungi for class gets pretty complex.   
My plate-pouring skillz bring all the spores to the yard.*

• Exposure to 400 different kinds of spores, considering that I'm allergic to mold.

• Find weird expired things hidden amongst the lab by the lady who was forced to retire for attacking us.  

This was purchased the year I was born.

• Sacrifice rats for a biology lab and try to remain conscious.

• Wake consecutively at 2am, 4am, and 6am to create perfect Puccinia malva basidiospores.  Those spores were lovely, though.

•  BART.  The smells, the sounds, the crowding. the weird people who grope my hair.  The smells.

•  And finally, Pisolithus arrhizus.  

Otherwise known as the Dog Turd Fungus.  Yes, really.   

Although, I did find this one in my yard, so I can't truly escape it.

Stay tuned for later this week, when I'll do a post on what I will miss.


*My apologies for such a lame joke.  I... I couldn't stop myself.