Tomorrow is Canada day, so it’s a holiday! I’m happy to have a day off. I’m making lots of progress in my research project, I’ve gone through about 200 samples so far. What I do with them is extract the DNA from the mouthwash samples (this is really gross when you get bits of food or discoloured samples) then I amplify the gene I want to look at, then sequence it. The sequence pops up on our computer and I can easily spot mutations. I love my job and I’m pretty thrilled to be involved in research. However, working in a lab you are bound to encounter some interesting personalities. My colleagues and I joke that we could create a whole TV series based on the people in our lab. My biggest issue is unwanted attention from a certain fellow student (who hopefully doesn’t read random asthma blogs) Please, anybody have any tips on fending off boys you work in a small space with???

Breathing-wise, I’m good. I was paying for my bike ride yesterday but I’m over that today. I have a funny story about my bike ride. My sister and I rode a fair distance to procure ourselves some bubble tea. On our way back home, we were riding on a path through a park, it looked pretty deserted so my sister decided to do her infamous T-Rex imitation. She was making dino noises and had her hands in T-rex formation, all the while pedaling along. She gets really into it and it makes me lose it every time, I was killing myself laughing. All of a sudden her bike started to wobble seeing as she wasn’t holding on, and she exclaimed “Ah! I’m veering off the pathway!” And veer off the pathway she did, tumbling onto the grass… right at the feet of some poor lady sitting on a bench who had witnessed the whole debacle! Well when my sister realized this she hopped right back onto her bike and rode away, laughing very hard. I completely lost it at this point and tried to ride up to her but I was laughing too hard. I couldn’t breathe but I couldn’t stop laughing. Isn’t that the worst feeling ever? It brings back bad memories of being tickled to death by older cousins when I was a kid.  ”KJ…. stop…. being funny. Can’t… breathe!” That’s what I tried to say to her, and I could tell she felt bad but neither of us could stop laughing. Anyway, it was utterly silly. This is a perfect example of how you can cause your very own asthma attack by sheer tomfoolery. Thankfully I recovered after a short break on the grass and rode merrily on home. I still had fun : )

The weather is stormy outside but I hope that the it behaves tomorrow because I have a full day planned in the SUN. Look for my (educational) Canada day post tomorrow morning before I head out!