Terrible Morning for O-chem Lab

Gerr. I wish I was hiking right now. It's a really nice day outside. However, I need to my homework. I wanted to write in this blog before I got started. I think it's more important for me to keep on top of things for my O-chem lab. I had a horrible yesterday morning. I needed to get help from a TA because I didn't know how to do some problems for my lab write up. Then, I found out that I had to some spectroscopy work for that lab which I didn't know I had to do. After going through some of the spectroscopy questions, we all had to go the class. So, my TA couldn't answer my question of how to do a percent yield. I haven't done that since high school or when I was in Spokane Community College. After class, she showed me how to do it. It finally came back to me; but it's been a long time ago since I learned it.

After everyone left for class, I sat in the classroom and started crying because I was overwhelmed. So, I worked on the why questions that we just went over. When I was finished, my computer restarted on me. So, I went downstairs and tried to figure out how to print from Google document. I finally realized that I had to use Word instead of Google doc. To my ultimate dismay, I found that the printer was jammed. So, I went back upstairs and started crying again. When I was crying, I realized that I forgot that letter from the disability office saying I need more time in the lab. I just felt horrible because I didn't know how to get this first writeup done. So, I ran home, grabbed the letter, and ran back to school. I tried to calm myself down by saying that I'm still progressing and not failing. I hate it when I don't do well in school. I'm trying to get away from my black and white thinking.

When I finally came to class, I listened to the last five minutes of the lecture for lab. I gave that letter to my teacher. I'm not going to call him professor because he's a graduate student. He said that I can have ten more minutes of lab. I was so thankful when the end of lab rolled around because I didn't have to worry about leaving on time. If we don't leave on time, we will get docked points which sucks. During lab, John let me copy his spectroscopy homework. John was my TA for O-chem for winter semester. I'm so thankful that he's in the lab with me. For the past two labs, we've started together and finished separately. Each of us has to do our own lab work. We don't have partners. However, John helps me with my lab though. I'm very thankful that he's right next to me and is in the same class. I know that the lab would be harder without him. Plus, he can help me with our spectroscopy homework too. He's a TA for the second half of O-chem for this summer term. So, I'm planning on working with/getting help from him during his office hours.

Yesterday, I ran my IR and aquired my refractive index for my banana oil. That was the rest of what I had to do for the lab that was due yesterday. I didn't finish everything for yesterday's lab. I almost finished one lab and in the middle of another lab. I realized that I forgot to do one thing for another lab yesterday. That's OK though. I got behind because I didn't make enough product. I think most of it went down the sink. So, I had to borrow someone else's product to run the IR. I got enough product to do a melting point. I have to do that on Monday though because I ran out of time. At least, I'm almost done with that lab. Half the class had restart that lab because they grabbed to much of a reactant that destroyed their product. I heard from the TA that Monday's or Wednesday's lab is going to be pretty short.

It's pretty easy to break things in O-chem lab. Trevor said that he always broke something there. It cost him around 100 dollars to pay for everything he broke. On Wednesday, I broke a test tube. I was thankful it wasn't anything else because I don't have to pay for those. However, I broke a 5 ml vial at the start of lab yesterday. Thankfully, I didn't start crying. I did get upset, but not to the point of crying. After that point, my day started getting better. At the end of lab, my TA said that I can turn in my write up Monday morning since I still had to print some things off.

If anyone is interested in the banana oil that I made on Wednesday, look at this little article about Isopentyl Acetate in Wikipedia. It tells you how I made it too.