Don't sweat the small stuff and other things I need to do more

I read this book about 6 or 7 years ago and lately, have found myself referring to it often. IMHO, there are MANY applications of this book at every aspect of life from relationships to careers. And careers seems to be where I need the most work, LOL!!!

Last week, I did a lot of hands on work with my new research adviser, which was great! Maybe I should rephrase that, we would discuss what was to be done, she would then put the protocol on my bench, then tell me to let her know when I was done. Now trust me, I'm sooooo NOT complaining, I'm getting what I call the "post-Doc" treatment!!! But given that I haven't isolated plasmid DNA since 2007, a little more pre isolation discussion about it would have been nice. Then I remembered that I've gone from being treated like a scientific imbecile to a PostDoc in one month, so I'd better chill out and get to work!!!! But I was nervous as hell doing it because I hadn't yet made a mistake and given her personality, I wasn't sure how she would react if I screwed something up. So I get to the next to the last step and screw something up, kinda-sorta. I was supposed to wash my DNA pellet in EtOH NOT try to re suspend it which was a pretty big error given the fact that alcohols are used to precipitate DNA! DUH! And just as I realized my mistake, she walked in and asked me how things were going. I told her what I'd done and that I was in the process of spinning the solution down to isolate the pellet again. Then in the sweetest voice she said that I'd probably be unable to get the DNA back but that it was okay since I hadn't done it in a long time. And I almost passed out, I was so surprised! By the time I got over my shock, it was time for me to open the centrifuge to see what was left of my DNA and to my surprise, I had quite a bit left! So I resuspended it in TE as I was supposed to do the first time, and put it in the fridge for my adviser to quantify.

The picture above was taken midway through the process so I was pretty sure I hadn't totally destroyed all my hard work which began with receiving the plasmid in the mail, growing it up in E Coli, and finally doing the maxi-prep to isolate the DNA.
I'd also forgotten how bad the first step in the maxi-prep process smells too, but I got over that quick enough, LOL!!!

So here I am back in the place where I feel VERY comfortable, doing work which is meaningful to me (Lymphoma and Leukemia), and enjoying the people I work for and with!!!