Monday was fairly quiet, I spent most of it trying to get back into the routine of doing lab work since I'd been writing, attending and presenting seminars for most of the previous week.
Tuesday was busier, in the morning we had a three way meeting between our research group, some people from the Physics department and a group of engineers from a company in town. This three way discussion was fairly productive, and if our materials turn out to be suitable, it could be very profitable all round. Later that afternoon just before I was about to leave work, I got a call from my senior boss who said that it might be possible to get a $30 - 40 K supplement to our grant. He needed a suggested proposal extension and a budget breakdown of costs, and of course he needed that by tomorrow. I worked fairly late putting that together and then came home and was up even later talking to Allison on the phone, the end product was me being very tired.
I spent much of Wednesday in a semi-daze from my exertions of the night before. I finished up my proposal extension and handed that off to my boss and tried to do some experiments in the afternoon without much success. The Physics people came around with their new Montana Apprenticeship Program (MAP) student. She's a Native-American (Northern Cherokee I believe) who is here for 6 weeks before heading off to Dartmouth College in New Hampshire for University. I gave them a quick run through of what we are doing, and how that might mesh with something for her to do. Helena also dropped by the lab, she'd love to work here over the summer, rather than waitress in a diner as she currently does.
Just behind the Chemistry Department is a small park where they were setting up for “Shakespeare in the Park”. This is a touring troupe of actors who travel through Montana in the Summer putting on Shakespearian plays which people would never ordinarily see (this being the backwoods and all). The first performance was that evening under the stars, but I was too tired to go. I think I came home and crashed out late in the evening, amazing at how old age catches up with you. ;)
Thursday was better as I'd had more sleep. The experiments I put on seemed to work which was a start to making samples for the physicists to measure. In the afternoon I had an appointment with the dentist. He had pointed out some cavities in my molars when I went in for a check up week or two ago. I was naturally sceptical as I've never had any cavities or fillings before, but dentistry is not my speciality, and it's better to catch this while it's not a problem and I have really great insurance. The appointment was for 3 pm, so I cycled over and he got to work. The cavities were not through to the pulp or anything, so it was a fairly simple operation except for the fact he wanted to fill 5 of them. He filled my gums up with anaesthetic which took a few minutes to kick in, by which point I couldn't feel any part of my mouth, tongue or throat. He ground out the decay, and I could smell the abraded enamel in the air, then he filled them with a composite filling (no amalgam thankfully) and used a UV laser to set this. In all it took about an hour to get them done and I paid about $800 for the privilege, fortunately my insurance picked up most of that.
I've never had an oral anaesthetic before, and it really was quite amusing. I rang up Allison to let her know that “I wuv you” and we both had a good laugh at that. When I finally got back to the lab, the visiting high school teacher had some questions, and I guess you can really claim to know your stuff if you can give a detailed description of the Peierls Distortion when you can't move your tongue and are close to drooling. I came home after that, passing the “Shakespeare in the Park” again hoping that one day fate would conspire to allow me to attend. I cycled to the supermarket in the hope of getting some yoghurt, but I eventually left with everything but that. Ben called from Miami and we talked for a little while about my impending visit over 4th July weekend and then I got a call from Tiffany. She wanted to know whether I'd be attending the Van's Warped tour which was in town on Friday. I told her about my dental experience and that I'd let her know on Friday morning once I'd had a chance to get some rest.
By about 7 pm the anaesthetic had mostly worn off and my teeth were starting to ache from the treatment they'd received. I still managed to talk to my parents for a while and then made it to bed hoping I'd feel better by the morning.
By Friday I was feeling much better, I still had an odd taste in my mouth, but at least my jaw didn't hurt so much. Tiffany called me after 9 am and I gave her the thumbs up to going with her and her brother to the concert. I was racing around work trying to get my day's work done in the little time I had. I dropped off a bundle of literature with the Physics people, grabbed my ticket from the campus ticketing office and spoke briefly to my boss about how the work was progressing. I'd never been to a big outdoor concert like this ever before, so I was really excited. The full story of that however will have to wait for the next diary entry.