lessons.

Important lesson I learned this week: 2-propanol (aka isopropanol, which is like ethanol with an extra carbon and some hydrogens sticking off the side) eats through Teflon tape. I learned this while soaking my membrane tube in said 2-propanol, when the liquid started cascading out the bottom of my makeshift test tube (made from a teflon tape covered cork and some plastic tubing). Boy oh boy, that was fun to clean up.

It reminds me of a lesson I learned a few years ago: aluminum foil deteriorates at 600 C. It will ruin your catalysts when you calcine them. It turns into a thin papery substance that crumbles into little tiny bits when you touch it.

And another important lesson I need to learn? It’s about toxic people, toxic relationships. Honestly, perhaps we all need to learn it…

It has occurred to me that there are some people in my life who sometimes make me uncomfy, who sometimes exclude me, who sometimes seem to avoid talking to me—or at least who (intentionally or not) sometimes make me feel excluded and avoided. If they were my boyfriend, sometimes I think I’d dump their ass. But these people are my friends, and the rest of the time all is hunky dory. So that makes the situation trickier, methinks. What happened to being honest grown-ups, I ask? Or to at least pretending to be grown-ups? yeesh. Hopefully life will calm the eff down soon, and I can stop having stressful events long enough to let these chill pills I've been downing do their thing.

And then I’ve realized something else too…
I’ve a knack for introducing people, having them become friends, and then having them leave me out. Case(s) in point: my fourth grade best friends, Erin and Laura, who then became friends with just one another. Or in middle school, where I introduced Courtney to Melissa, and eventually they became the best of friends, and I was their third wheel. Or right when we got to high school, and Sterling and I together introduced our respective friends to one another’s, and they off and became the “cool” group, leaving us drama-loving-overachiever-smarties to ourselves. I don’t regret this last one though—I’m actually glad I wasn’t in the “cool” group. And maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it sure seems that way. But I digress.

And perhaps I'll just leave it at ouch. And maybe a why (not a why me, though--this isn't a pity party) and a what can I do to stop this? And in the meantime, what should I do? Yeesh.

On a much happier note, today is Friday, I’m going to see King Kong with my free movie passes, and my house is now full of groceries. Oh, how I love having groceries. And fresh produce. Gotta love it. I’m also going to try and go halvesies on a new pan with Otto since we jointly ruined it, and maybe buy a nylon wisk. And cook Chinese food—mmm mmm mmm I love fried rice. Plus, the directions I found crack me up, since they refer to cooking fried rice while in the buff. Ha!