Late! Everything is late!

     Hmm, so I'm going to try to focus on this whole week as a learning experience. I obviously did NOT plan ahead well enough. Last week ended with my research mates, super busy with presentations and what not which I was kind of grateful for because that meant that they didn't need me. I've never voluntarily presented anything of an academic nature in front of anyone with an academic background in the field in my life. Dr Cotter assures me that this is coming. I have thoroughly freaked myself out about this eventuality, so perhaps when the time comes, my only embarrassment will be my lack of education and expertise and not my stunning awkwardness from nerves. Doubtful. I'm sure that I will be better with practice. I'm just not hopping up and down to jump into that. Anyway, then my son had all this stuff at school, then my alternator DIED (cars do not work without alternators much to my dismay), then I had two tests. Oh my goodness, I can't help but think that if I had planned ahead better that I wouldn't have stumbled through the whole mess so clumsily.
     I also managed to continue to collect some background research on the use of FTIR. I can't wait to take organic chemistry and start in on biochemistry. The last time we did SEM was a little disappointing because I had hoped to get more accomplished but there were all these delays because the machine was acting finicky because of one tiny freaking ring being a little out of place on the sample mount. Sigh. The pictures we got did seem to be really indicative of biodegradation. They were incredibly rough and cracked compared to the alcohol treated plastics. That was exciting at least.
     I finished my background paper, but it was late. I hate being late, but I really had a problem turning in something that I thought could have easily been better if I only put a few more hours into it, so I waited to finish it until I had the few hours. I'm still deciding if that was the best decision. I've heard that it's common for researchers to turn in papers that aren't their best because it's more important to them to meet the deadline, so I wonder if I'm being outside the norms of a field that I hope to participate in. I understand that it's a balance and that the paper didn't have to be perfect, but I just knew that it could have easily been better. This blog post is late as well.
     On the upside, I went to 2 of the 3 days of the Women of Color in STEM conference at the ASU Center for Gender Equity in Science and Technology. It was amazing and also daunting. I'll tell you all about it next week. :-P