the things i did today.

1. i froze my ass off scooting to school before 8 am this morning.
2. i made delicious coffee (i'm now a happy addict).
3. i reworked my retrosynthetic scheme, and it looks much more feasible and reasonable now.
4. i attended the intro organic lecture i'm required to attend.
5. i assigned the fucking gnarly stereocenters for my molecule.
6. i talked about my diels-alder reaction for about 2 hours and felt my brain melt out of my ears.
7. i could think from 5:15-5:45 pm.

now, i'm thinking of going home and trying to study more. try to think about the synthesis of my diene and dienophile. i will work on chemistry at home. i will sop up my brains and wring them back into my head where they belong.

wish me luck.

check out my bangin' new tattoo

science for life!
Originally uploaded by kellypeach

if this doesn't make me a science geek for life i don't know what will. this is my artistic tribute to all the studying and researching i've been doing for the last 8 years of my life. it's got an organic chemistry focus, which is what i'll be getting my ph.d. in. the glassware is a dual neck, pear shaped flask, and there is a spatula and pasteur pipette dropper crisscrossed behind the flask. these tools are all things i tend to use on a daily basis. i love that the flask looks a bit like a heart. i designed the tattoo, and my friend justa helped turn it into something i was prepared to get put on my body permanently. the tattoo artist did a great job! i hope you guys love it. i know i do.

here comes fall.

here comes fall.
Originally uploaded by kellypeach

today i was chilly from the second i woke up, until the moment when i reached into the dark depths of my closet, past all the tank tops and leggings, to the place where scarves, fuzzy hats, and gloves spend most of the year down here in sunny santa cruz.

i'm about to start preparing for my final set of exams. it's a two hour oral exam in front of four brilliant professors who have free reign to tear my total synthesis proposal to pieces. i am very nervous, but excited as well. if i pass this exam i will transition from a graduate student to a ph.d. candidate. it means i may actually be seeing this thing through.

so, i'm back to weekends spent in coffee shops pouring over pages of mechanisms. i'm back to feeling lonely and annoyed with school. back to questioning what the fuck i'm doing here. back to not taking good enough care of myself because i'm preoccupied. back to teaching.

wish there were more interesting things to say. i haven't been my normal passionate self lately. i seem to be attracted to damaged boys lately, that have temporarily lost their capacity to love. no pop-ups. no mail art. no romance. kind of a bummer. but, it's a good lull right? more time to focus on SCIENCE.

yay...