Interesting bus ride this morning. As it is the day before Thanksgiving, apparently classes are either canceled or potentially very empty today. On the bus, there were the Chinese, the Indians, ...and Dan and me. Yup. Grad students to the core.
In an attempt to feel more normal (despite the fact that no one else in their right mind is going to school today) I decided to make small talk with Dan:

"What's on your agenda for today?" I asked.

"Well, I have to inject some tumors, run a blot, and hopefully--this is being a bit optimistic, but if I can get some weaning in I would be pretty happy."

So much for my attempts at feeling normal. Not that my day of mixing dirt and fungi is a whole lot better, but whatever. I'm not quite sure why I even try these days to feel 'normal.' I gave up normalcy a long time ago...not sure when, but it was sometime between our first conversation ever (regarding hyaluronic acid and Bradyrhizobium nodules), deciding to serve our wedding party favors in 50 mL conical vials (Falcon brand, blue caps), and unconsciously using words like "aliquot", "constitutive", and "synergistically" in sentences regarding daily life. E.g., "Could you aliquot the ground beef in the freezer?" "It's not like it hurts constitutively, just when I throw a softball from third to first.", "They definitely have a synergistic relationship."

There is definitely a double standard here--if you're a science major and use these words, you're a nerd, you're an elitist, you're snobby. However, if you are a non-science major, you could probably earn a little respect if you use them. It's just not fair.