Quick, email me some energy


I have to go teach in 15 minutes, and I’m barely conscious. I’m chugging coffee, but it isn’t doing the trick, and I’m afraid I might fall asleep in my own lecture. I have a seminar after that, a lab this afternoon, and another seminar at 5, and it’s going to be tough getting through this day.

I hate Tuesdays. They’re worse than Mondays.


OK, I made it through the first class of the day — the magical lightning bolts from hither and yon helped a lot. Sorry, trolls, I know you think you’re zapping me with hatred, but it’s all fuel for the machine. I managed to do a lightning-quick summary of both mitosis and meiosis for the first year students — next I’ve got to give them a bunch of homework to make sure it sticks.

I have a short break before the senior seminar on NKX-2.5, homeobox proteins involved in cardiac devalopment always keep me awake. Before that, though, it’s time to tend to my spiders for a bit.


I made it through the whole day! Fortunately, the student seminars were both very good, and the lab was painless. I still need a nap.

Comments

  1. wzrd1 says

    Ginseng has worked well on days where I’ve felt foggy. Can’t risk it today, due to my blood pressure. A stimulant when one’s blood pressure is 190/110 isn’t really a grand idea, but we don’t need that commie health care…
    Occasional physical activity helps to stimulate as well and you’ll sleep well tonight – whether you want to or not.

  2. says

    The cat has been so lonely with no humans in the house all day long that now she goes into spasms of frantic running when I get home, exhausts herself, and then passes out on the bed with me all night long.

  3. says

    I am not going to add a drug addiction to the heart medications I’m already on.

    Also, I’ve been cutting way back on caffeine, which may be part of my problem.

  4. stroppy says

    I’ve cut back on my caffeine and am actually feeling a little better.

    I use watered down instant equivalent to two regular cups, i.e., four (sometimes five) large cups, each with with carefully measured half teaspoons. Pipe it into my system over the day until about 2:00pm. After that, zero.

  5. Kaintukee Bob says

    I saw a documentary a while back that included some interesting effects of spider venom when injected into someone in a science lab. I mean, you’ve already GOT the spiders and the lab, so what’s the harm in coaxing one of them to give your hand a nibble?

    How do you look in spandex? Have any of your coworkers (especially ones you have less than pleasant personal relationships with) been seeming more…maniacal than normal lately?

  6. brightmoon says

    I felt like that recently as I’m getting up there. Great granddaughter is being born in August Decided I wasn’t getting any exercise, was feeling my age and everything hurt. So I decided to start ballet again . Did 15 minutes of very basic ballet moves at the bus stop before the bus came every day. Nothing hurts . I lost 35 lbs and I’m dancing to “Hey Look Ma I Made It.”

  7. nomdeplume says

    Falling asleep in your own lecture would equate to a zero in student evaluations would it not?

  8. blf says

    The mildly deranged penguin points out that the traditional treatment for a “lack” of energy is to be attacked by pea (e.g., by trying to eat one). The effort — and shear terror — in trying to fend off a snarling green blob typically does the trick. However, in these “more enlightened” times, two peas are considered fair, so as to give the buggers a better-than-certain chance…

  9. royhilbinger says

    wzrd1@1 – Are you serious about that 190/110? The last time I had a reading that high I got whisked off to the nearest hospital and pumped full of drugs in a desperate drive to bring my bp down! I sincerely hope that was just a humorous exaggeration.

  10. nomdeplume says

    @14 Yes, close to 200 systolic and over 100 diastolic are very dangerous levels.