Rat Lab, Take II

So, the rest of my weekend was fun. I was working with a different grad student, who expected me to jump right in on the injections and rat-running. Now, I don't mind injections and rat-running in theory. It's just that... well... it was my second day. And you have to pick them up by their tails, which is mean. And swing them. And then poke them. Without prior warning.

So, yeah, I was eventually able to give the rat an injection, but it was hard. Hard to make myself pick him up by the tail, which I know is painful. Hard (even though I'd accidentally stuck myself with the harmless peptide needle) to poke him in his tummy. Harder than I'd thought, and easier almost than it felt it had any right to be. The physical act was surprisingly simple and easy, it was the making myself do it that was difficult.

Which, I guess, is a good thing. Right? If it was easy for me to do this to an animal right off the bat, I don't think I should be allowed to do it. I do care about the animal's comfort and welfare, so I'm going to try and learn to do this quickly and well. I'd never injected anything before, and I wasn't very good at it - took me three goes to get just most of the peptide in, before the grad student took over. So, I can see the neccessity of the tail-swinging hold to keep him still, so that I only have to stick him once per shot. It's definitely a learning experience, and I hope it'll teach me more about myself as well as about laboratory conditions.

Here's hoping.




In knitting news, I've caved in several fronts. I ordered yarn for the Forest Path stole, for Claptois, and for Lady Eleanor. I know they're oft-seen in the knitting world, I know they're a dime a dozen in blogland. I don't care. They're pretty, they're simple, in the case of Eleanor they're a quick, chunky knit (comparatively, to laceweight). I need something easy and rewarding. I got the Rose & Olive colorway of both laceweight (my cardinal sin) and worsted from Handpaintedyarn.com, and also their 'little lovely' pink-and-ruby laceweight. I figure the worsted for Lady Eleanor, with a matching (in color, anyway) underscarf, and the pink for Claptois. Maybe this'll knock me out of my funk?