Wise Guy, Aren't You...

Last Thursday I slaved away in lab with a piece of equipment that was not working, trying to get results for a Friday meeting. I finally got the equipment working at 11pm (still not sure what the problem was - I insist lab gremlins were the cause). I made parts from 11-2am, then measured the parts and collected data from 2-4am. I got up at 8:30 the next day, and analyzed and processed the data from 9-10am. I made pretty charts and result graphs from the data from 10-11am, tossed them in a PowerPoint and walked confidently into my meeting having completed everything I needed.

Boo-yah!

I think my advisor suspected I had stayed late the day before, but I doubt anyone knew what my schedule was like for the past 24hrs. It felt really good to come through in the clutch. The paper was due Monday, but I was going home Sunday and I had plans for Saturday, so it REALLY did need to be done by that Friday meeting. And it was!

So now I am sitting happily at home, resting with a cup of hot chocolate. Yesterday (the day the paper was due) I emailed to inquire if any additional figures were needed, or if I needed to make modifications (formatting, titles, legends, what-have-you) to the figures I had already sent. I got back a request for the original data files. "Even better!" I thought, "I suppose you can just make whatever figures you want from the data..."

And I heard no more after that.

I arise this morning, and what do I see - not a joke, my friends, not a joke - but this in my inbox:

Thank you, Miss Outlier.

We have an extension on the paper until Jan 11, any new results before then will be nice. [Other students] should have results by then as well.

[and, wait for it - wait for it! the kicker:]

When do you get back to World's Best School?

- Advisor

Ah yes. I did not mention this before, but [other students] did NOT have results before the Friday meeting. This extension will give them a chance to do their work, and apparently me a chance to do even more.

I don't have a bus ticket back to World's Best School yet, I hadn't decided when I was going back. But now, coincidentally, I'm planning on Jan 10th... :)