*asks about job*
Anon you are my favorite.
Okay, so, I'm a laboratory and field technician in a soil and water science lab.
I love my job so goddamn much. I get to work with fancy machines like the gas chromatograph and spectrometer! (The spectrometer is actually really boring but shhh.) I get to go outside and watch birds while I collect water samples! I am getting paid for this! I get to learn data processing and engineering and wilderness safety precautions and how to explain complex science to people whose careers are Not This.
Also, research labs are chaos and I delight in it. Okay maybe not ALL research labs, I'm informed the chemistry department does not look like this. BUT this is an environmental science lab. It is full is bizarre, deeply nerdy, deeply passionate people. Who do things like eat baked potatoes like apples, improvise experimental setups with mason jars and duct tape, and nickname every instrument either a human name or a Pixar reference. I love them so much I have no words.
Crazy and fun things I've done for this job:
Freezer jenga followed by freezer tetris (had to take all the things out of a the freezer, put them in coolers to keep them cold, defrost the freezer, and put them back in except organized this time. I was delighted by this for no logical reason, my boss thought I was nuts).
Okay you know in scifi movies where they have some weird mystery substance and they put it in a box with gloves attatched so they can work with it without actually touching it? I've done that! Not because of hazardous substances, we just needed to put stuff in jars without exposing it to oxygen. But still! It was cool!
Shopping trip to get food for like half a dozen people for three days (I had weird dreams about being overwhelmed with tortilla chips afterwards, this doesn't sound that crazy but I promise you it felt like it).
Taped plastic tubing to 200+ funels until the boxes we were storing them in overflowed and there was no longer floorspace to walk (AFTER cutting the plastic tubing into 200+ equally sized pieces and stuffing it with ion exchange resin, which is like evil microplastic sand. Between all those things, this took WEEKS. It got really boring).
Dissolved like 10kg of KCl (KCl my behated, its very harmless but hell to get off glassware) in water to make 80 LITERS OF KCL SOLUTION (that's over 20 pounds of solid KCl and over 20 gallons of solution! My coworker and I were sort of laughing hysterically over this entire process because come on! 80 liters! For reference most lab protocols need like, a liter or less of whatever solution.) Fun fact about solid KCl, it tends to stick together into a giant brick. We were chiseling at it with scoops, spoons, whatever was on hand (i really wanted to attack it with a screwdriver but it would introduce dirt into the chemicals so i couldn't) and eventually we got so frustrated we went outside and dropped the thing off a second floor balcony. After wrapping it in like 3 layers of plastic bags because we knew at least one bag was gonna break. This did not actually help much but it was very cathartic.
There was a project once where we had to take sealed mason jars and replace all the air in them with nitrogen gas. Repeatedly. For over a hundred jars. My PI (principle invesitgator, means the scientist in charge of a project and usually a lab) is good at building things, so of course he assembled this manifold thing so we could pump nitrogen through a dozen jars at once. Which was great, except it involved two dozen needles, half of them attatched to flexible plastic tubing so they'd kinda bounce around when you pulled them out of the jars. It looked like a very stabby centipede-slash-octopus monster. Impressively, we only stabbed ourselves a couple times each with this thing (and changed the needles of course, we are aware of the risks of transmitting blood diseases).
Actually one of the craziest things about this job in my opinion is how many fucking needles we work with. You see, we study atmospheric gases. And to do that, we need to transfer gases between sealed containers, which means needles and septa (the rubber things they put on vials so you can poke needles through them). So. Many. Needles. Did you know you can only use a needle four times before it gets too dull? It's extremely noticeable as you're using them - not as they get dull, but when you discard an old needle and get out a new one it is a huge difference. I don't know why I find this so fascinating, but working with needles is honestly so fun. I feel like a mad scientist or something. Also, for the first couple months I kept poking myself on accident so I was just walking around with these pinpricks and papercut looking wounds. It felt a bit like a badge of honor, somehow, like a rite of passage for working in the gas lab. Another thing about needles, if you get scratched with one horizontally instead of stabbed, they look like papercuts. It's weird. Also weird is how good you get after a while at not stabbing yourself.
I think I like working with needles because they're something that used to make me nervous. Not horribly, but I have more than typical anxiety and I get nervous about everything. And yet I am now totally chill about needles, because I work with them all the time. It's... freeing I guess. Maybe empowering, even. I am scared of so many things, but I am not scared of this. Ditto large quantities of acid, once you've had to work with dozens of liters of the stuff you stop being scared of it - this was for the same project as the KCl and yes it was equally ridiculous. Dilute acid, thankfully, but to make dilute acid you have to mix the really concentrated stuff with water. It does not come as dilute acid, that would be too easy. So we spent multiple days in a row diluting acid and soaking things in it, there were plastic boxes full of the stuff on every available counter space with handmade warning labels, it was A Thing™️.
Anyways, I'm a person who's scared of everything, except weird stuff like hydrochloric acid, needles, and wasps. I can blame all three of those things on this job, which I love dearly. I love to learn new things, pretend I'm in a scifi movie, be surrounded by crazy people (affectionate), and apparently overcome my numerous fears. You absolutely did not sign up for this big puddle of feelings, anon, but thank you for inspiring it nevertheless.
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I was so weird about lesbian sex for a long time because when I was 14 I hooked up with an older girl at bible camp and suddenly got my period during it and I was so embarassed but she didn't care so we kept going and then I suddenly got a severe nosebleed for no reason while I was on top of her kissing her and you can imagine how that went so there was my blood everywhere all over both of us and this sounds like I'm making shit up but it was insane and k i was panicking but she was like all about it so we just kept going and like it was too late, there was already blood on both of us! Like all over us. and I thought it was kind of powerful. so I let myself get blood all over the cabin. we were feverish. At first I just let my nosebleed drip on the floor and we both laughed like fuck this place yeah lets get blood everywhere. And we did. This is just what makes us girls. We had this cabin entirely to ourselves too for 3 whole nights!! They didn't check on us in there even once!!! Not even the counselors wanted to be near us- we had wanted to be alone and not participate in the religious activities so we told everyone we were sick, however the absolutely insane family who single-handedly ran the camp (the mom was rarely seen of course but the dad was this freaky cult-leader type preacher named Greg, and they had ummmm I think 15 kids or something, most of whom were adults, so they had no issue running this camp on an acreage they owned with very little outsider involvement) genuinely thought we were just posessed by demons, and in response they gave us our own cabin in order to ensure that we were kept away from the other kids there. Major oversight on their part and also sounds illegal but I could tell they were scared shitless of me (weird hair I cut and dyed myself, 3 lip piercings, septum ring, mid kandi kid phase so I had rainbow bracelets up past my elbows) and the girl (who had a jugalette tattoo and was the only black girl at the camp, I think ever)... I ended up getting banned from bible camp for other reasons... lesbian sex blood rituals aside....... (a kid saw me smoking something in a pipe and snitched, and they thought it was weed but it was so obviously just mint tea...) yeah after that I was like "was god punishing me for being a lesbian by making me bleed everywhere during sex oh god I'm going to hell forever and ever waaah" because even though I didn't believe in that shit in any real way at all I still had raging paranoia about being punished for being gay... regardless I came to the conclusion that if all that bloodshed was the price of homosexuality then I'd just have to learn to enjoy it. And I was so right for that . But yeah when I did have sex again after that I was like Ok hellooooo God where is the blood are u there God...???
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I love a man in shorts - Oscar Piastri x Wolff!Reader
Masterlist
summary: when people start to notice Oscar only owns one outfit they start calling him out for being a dad and you can’t help but see it too.
f1updates
Austin, Texas
liked by y/n.wolff and 35‘567 others
f1updates Oscar has arrived in Austin Texas this morning. He was all smiles and giggles greeting the local Papaya fans.
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f1stansss I‘m convinced this man doesn’t own long pants
user355 right? he needs a stylist
f1god he is a simple man
piastriii Y/n is there toooo
user355 she should try to get him dressed better
f2starter the guy owns two outfits; mclaren gear and shorts and shirt
user37 right he gives off sich dad vibes
landonorris @y/n.wolff this is your man?
y/n.wolff @oscarpiastri you’re being attacked broooo
oscarpiastri shut up Lando
y/n.wolff
Austin
liked by lewishamilton and 456‘789 others
y/n.wolff dads :)
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lewishamilton ?
y/n.wolff the girls that get it, get it.
user345 hahaha not her confusing sir lewis hamilton
user221 the way lewis is sitting has me dead
oscarpiastri aha, getting the reference ;)
f1troll shorts and shirt king
f1lover oscar has me dead, he is truly such a dad
georgerussell63 lewis is looking horrid in those pants
lewishamilton you didn’t even make the slide show shut up
mclaren Oscar is truly dad material
landonorris more like daddy
y/n.wolff LANDO!
toto.wolff ??
landonorris
Austin
liked by pierregasly and 1‘257‘890 others
landonorris @mclaren, next time Oscar gets to bring his child I‘d like a warning
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mclaren loud and clear Lando
oscarpiastri wow, what a great picture really did me well
y/n.wolff i love it, especially the cup, thanks lan :)
oscarpiastri don‘t
user457 uhh daddy coming through
pierregasly was it bring your child to work day?
charles_leclerc someone tell Carlos he can finally bring his
y/n.wolff gasp
f1troll so the RUMOURS are true?
y/n.wolff
liked by toto.wolff and 345‘789 others
y/n.wolff texas had my heart, let‘s go halloween and mexicooo, thanks for the sippy cup lan :)
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landonorris stunning (the last picture)
toto.wolff the first picture is not very nice
lewishamilton don’t embarass her
y/n.wolff daaaaad
kellypiquet you look absolutely stunning
user456 y/n‘s so cute, oscar really won
f1update fav wag
user676 wag and dad
charlottesine miss you lots :(
y/n.wolff miss you too, see you soon though :)
mclaren
Mexico
liked by f1 and 2‘789‘890 others
mclaren dad off grid, daddy on grid
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y/n.wolff dead
mercedesamgf1 totos throwing his headphones again
user233 the second photo damn
f1troll hot right
f1 the famous stance though
piastrilovers my poor oscar is getting so much hate :(
landonorris nah he loves the attention
oscarpiastri thin ice lando
f1gossip
Mexico
liked by user566 and 68‘890 others
f1gossip Lewis when asked about his newly earned „dad“ title by teamboss daughter Y/n
„I personally don’t really get it. But people think it’s fun right. But I love Y/n, she’s a treat to have around.“
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user566 awww he‘s like a big brother
f1troll lewis and y/n are the real father daughter duo
f1fans crazy to think Lewis has watched her grow up
user456 yes he‘s always loved her so much
landonorris Oscars probably throwing his phone hehe
piastrifans ariana? what are you doing here?
user455 Lando is just as involved in gossip as we are
landonorris
Checos hometown
liked by charles_leclerc and 907‘799 others
landonorris mexico con papa 🍼 (y mama)
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oscarpiastri
Texas
liked by georgerussell63 and 1‘167‘890 others
oscarpiastri the only thing that makes me a dad is my „ipad kid“ girlfriend
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user345 wait this makes actual sense hahah
y/n.wolff wow horrid pictures
oscarpiastri you look as lovely as always
f1troll 1:1 Oscar
y/nstans she is truly an ipad kid
landonorris good one osc
y/n.wolff shut up Lando
mercedesamgf1 googles what an Ipad kid means
user355 the best couple on the grid
georgerussell63 couple of children right
lewishamilton y/n and a cow? she‘s scared of them?
y/n.wolff
Mexico
liked by mclaren and 678‘908 others
y/n.wolff mexico was a treat, i love you @oscarpiastri
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lewishamilton awww the first one
oscarpiastri move about two steps two the right and you‘re right where you belong
georgerussell63 you built the LEGO WITHOUT ME?
mercedesamgf1 its mclaren George?
user455 its mclaren georgie
toto.wolff too much orange but you look beautiful
mclaren parents
landonorris what a viewwwww damn
y/n.wolff talking bout yourself again huhhh?
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Hi Neil howdy
How do people commit to the career they thought of at the age of 9 im sitting here having a crisis a decade later 🙂🙂
Honestly sorry for the rant but i crave to build something big but i put zero efforts in any of my intrests even calling them a hobby would be embarassing because i dont pay attention to any of them i just know i like them because i like the idea of them i just scroll of social media half the time and im tired all the time 🙂🙂
I dont give time to anyone in my life i dont take care of myself or my family or my frienships or my career or my boyfriend and im a mess all the time i dont know how to gwt out of my depression and start acting like a normal huma being its infuriating 🙃
Sorry but idk how to handle myself rn 🥲
I know how you feel. I guess you do it one step at a time. Do the stuff that doesn't help less. Do the stuff that does help more. Make a checklist, with the basic stuff on it that keeps you going: sleep enough, eat regularly, shower, walk, and get that in.
Talk to someone with professional qualifications about how you feel and what's going on. If you don't feel happy about them, look for someone who fits your needs better.
If your hobbies and interests are not bringing you joy let them go and then find new ones. That may involve going places and trying things.
Do the stuff that helps.
Do less of the stuff that brings you down.
And take care of yourself.
(It's never too late to decide that 9 year old you didn't know what would make 19 year old you or 39 year old you happy, and change course.)
Good luck.
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