Today really was something else. I knew I had to get up early this morning to have one last shot at this reaction. I was therefore awake at 5 am and in the lab before 6 am. I worked, slaved and toiled and got home at about 10 pm. The sample looks right, and I am 99% certain that it is right except for the NMR spectrum, and anyone who looks at this might accuse me of fudging the sample, a risk I cannot afford to take. Thankfully the boss was in a good mood, but through the morning I was slowly lapsing into an ever deeper pit of despair and frustration. I almost cried on the phone to Ally, but I had to reach out for some understanding in an otherwise harsh world. Fortunately this evening I am feeling somewhat better, the crisis is far from over since now I have to prepare for the Wednesday group meeting for which I have precious little to show.
This is being written up at home, I am expecting the realtor to come by with a prospective buyer around 5 pm, so I have to be here to let them in. As it was, I got up early this morning and went into work but was having stomach cramps the whole morning and so I came home about 1 pm. It was also a good chance to catch up on some sleep and I managed to find a whip at Hot Topic (the Goth equivalent of K-Mart) for Saturdays party. Near the Sunset Mall, Sunset Drive was cordoned off so that kids could do their safe trick or treating which was very cute. In good news I had grown some crystals and they are now on the diffractometer being analyzed.
My meeting yesterday at work went surprisingly well which was good and on Tuesday I had my visa renewed. The downside to this all is that my visa expires when I stop working (November 30th) and then I have 30 days to be out of the country which is just around Xmas/New Years, and I haven't yet figured out how I am going to work around that.
9:20 pm - Home again. I went back to work to check on the progress of the crystal and although it was not yet finished, it turned out to be something less interesting than what I had hoped for. I worked up two reactions and then about 7:30 pm I went back down to Sunset Mall. The age demographic had shifted upwards with a greater proportion of teenagers and adults being out and about. Unsurprisingly I saw quite a few cross-dressed guys, Halloween always being a good excuse to wear a cheerleaders outfit or whatever. I bumped into Geoff, a guy I know from Outland Station and we wandered over towards Sunset Tavern where a block party was yet to warm up. I said goodbye to him and then ran into Ed and his girlfriend heading to the same spot, so I chatted with them as we walked over. I left them there and headed home again via the supermarket where I bought some milk, beer and other essentials. Allison and a friend are going over to the big parade in West Hollywood and will take photos which should be fun. For me any excitement will be reserved for Saturday night as I have a presentation to give on Monday afternoon.