In Limbo

that's kind of how i feel, anyway. like i'm waiting for something to happen without an inkling of what it could be or the slightest desire to get off my ass and make something happen.

no, that's not exactly true. there is one thing that i would kill to make happen right about now - i'd like to get someone over here to SHUT THE FREAKIN ICE MACHINE UP ALREADY. if i could figure out where it's plugged in, i'd do it myself (despite the fear that the stupid thing would explode in my face when i leaned over behind it), but i looked, and i'm not sure how it's hooked up.

see, i'm at the lab, and the ice machine is broken. that in itself causes me problems, but i brought some ice with me today, so that's really no biggie. only they moved the ice machine into the room i have to walk through to get to the prep room with the HPLC (where i practically live these days), and it is making the most god-awful noise. even with the door between the two rooms securely shut, this racket is making me crazy. i noticed the noise (which sounds like a chainsaw. a LOUD chainsaw. cutting through steel.) when i was leaving yesterday, so i stopped in anne's office and told her that not only was there no ice but the machine sounds like it's trying to murder the autoclave (a big huge machine sitting right next to the ice machine's new home) by hacking it to bits with a saw, only really slowly to make sure it suffers. she called the department secretary to get the maintenance guys back over here to fix it yesterday, but when i came in this morning, i was once again greeted by that god awful sound that refuses to be drowned out no matter how ear-shatteringly loud i play my ipod.

so i called and left anne a voice mail (i could have walked downstairs to see if she was in her office, but i'm wearing some cute wedge espadrilles that aren't the most stair-friendly shoes ever made, and there's a phone in the next room), but no one has been up to check on the ice machine yet. i wish i could just figure out how turn it off, but every time i go in there, it growls at me, and i start thinking that there is a very real possibility that something jagged and sharp will come flying out of the motor and straight into my jugular. but at least then that sound would stop.