You have got to be kidding me

I was planning on taking images for a ManuBeast figure today, which meant a whole day's worth of prep. In between steps I was setting up for a second batch tomorrow. I just tried to image the first batch.The laser is fucking dead.Of course the fucking laser is fucking dead. How could it be otherwise on the weekend that AA forfeits for the sake of data collection (and because the scope is booked solid all week)?First I thought I fucked up - that I must have screwed something up in my protocol, but it's the fucking nuclear counterstain. There is no way to screw it up. Then someone told me that somebody else had the same fucking problem yesterday, but didn't say anything to the other users or to the person in charge of fixing shit. WTF!!!!!?!??!?!? Why would you not tell anyone that the fucking laser was dead on a weekday when someone could have fixed it!?!??!Sonofabitch!I could have spent my day making ice cream and peach pie. Instead I was here prepping 25 fucking samples for imaging that amounted to exactly zero. And I've started another 25 fucking samples for tomorrow that will also be a total waste. It's a good thing that nobody else is here today. There's a good chance I would be cracking their heads.For the love of all that is good and right in the universe, why can't I just get these last fucking pieces of data so that I can submit this godforsaken paper!?!?!?!?[UPDATE]: Came in on Sunday to finish samples that I started yesterday. Just for shits and giggles, fired up the scope. It is clear that someone's been at the scope since I was yesterday, though no one is signed up, and fix-it dude most certainly will not be in on the weekend. Hmmm. Strangely, I now get signal from my nuclear counterstain (HOORAY!)...but only on 1 out of 25 slides, and on the "positive control" slides that I did last week (WTF!). I checked all of these slides yesterday, no signal on ANY of them. So the good news is that the laser is not dead (today), but the bad news is that something is clearly wrong with my nuclear stain. None of these samples are going to give me publication-quality images now, so that's a total of 50 samples and three days down the drain. Now that I've got my immnuos working (no trouble with counterstain during that ordeal) I have to troubleshoot the nuclear counterstain??? You're joking right??? Why is it that this has all worked for me for the last 4 years and the sky starts falling in now, when I really need to just snap some pretty pictures and submit the fucking paper? Is the universe conspiring against me? Am I not supposed to graduate? Now I just feel like I'm losing it. I am totally convinced that the laser was dead yesterday, but it is working today. Am I crazy?? And what the hell with the nuclear stain?? I have not changed a damn thing with the protocol, and the slides I stained last week have beautiful nuclear signal...am I cursed?]

Labels: Kidding Me