Monday, October 10, 2005

If Your Opportunity Alarm Clock is Ringing, Don't Hit the Snooze Button!

"Does the Pope have more than one hat? If the Pope tells a monk to do pushups, does the monk have to do it? When the Pope dies, what happens to his hat? Does the Pope have a mechanic whose only job is to service the Popemobile? When the Popemobile is worn out, can someone buy the old one? If the Pope wanted to sing karaoke, could he?

"My history teacher says Walmart is run by Satan!"

"I bet if Harriet Meiers gets to be a Supreme Court Justice, she probably won't get invited to all the cool Supreme Court parties, just the boring ones, probably because she won't know how to hold the gavel, so all the other Justices will make fun of her."

There was more, much more...

Gavin spent the day listening to a motivational speaker at school (because of his schedule, he had to listen to it TWICE), and when I got home he started off by telling me how bad the speaker was (see title example) and then giving me examples of how he could do it better, complete with hand motions, body language, inane examples, and special voice effects.

Then, once he'd got started talking, he couldn't stop; probably because he hasn't had much to say for awhile. Between his school-work and my work-work, we've been pretty quiet here for a few weeks.

I've been working on an IND for a new study that one of the docs wrote. An IND, or "Investigational New Drug" is what has to be approved by the FDA everytime a new drug (or a new use for an old drug) is studied.

When I do a pharmaceutical trial, all this is done by the pharma company. But when I do this for the doc, I get to do all that lovely (ugh) paperwork, which is written in government speak. I think I wound up with 150 pages, and my brain feels soggy. Plus now I have to make up some data capture forms and make sure the doc and the residents fill them out each time, because when an IND is done by a site, then the investigator is ultimately responsible for EVERYTHING connected with it. So I have to make sure all our ducks are in a row...and then there's another study (written by the same guy, if he ever leaves I won't have anything to do) that I have to see if I can get donations of 7 different products (enough for 100 people), write a questionnaire covering all the data the doc wants to know, write a budget (with things like 800 spray bottles), and I had to have it all done, along with applications to 3 different on-campus entities, at 5 o'clock today...I did it with 5 minutes to spare...

I've worked late every night for 3 weeks and I feel like my brain has run a marathon.

So tonight was a treat. And yeah, I hope the Pope DOES get to sing karaoke if he wants.

6 comments:

Running2Ks said...

Hmmm, having a motivational speaker around the house could be fun. Maybe he can call up the Pope and get him to do karoake.

What would he sing? Now my head hurts ;)

Wyrfu said...

What would they do if they elected a Pope and then he turned around and said, "Hah! Fooled ya - I don't really believe in God at all!"? Can they de-Pope a Pope? Or should that be "de-frock" (which sounds a lot more interesting, I must admit)?

Gavin's a genius and you, young lady, work far too hard. You should ask for a raise, at least.

Jodie said...

Yes, I am working too hard -- research is funny because it's either too much or too little (feast or famine), and right now it's a lot. But November and December are always slow -- no one wants to do anything over the holidays. :) I'll have been there a year in November, so that's when I'm going to hit them up...

I have to admit, Gavin's made me very curious about what rules the Pope has to follow (if any)!

Rhodester said...

From the looks of this new Pope you'd THINK he wouldn't be into Karaoke, but Dorian and I went out to one of them Karaoke bars last Saturday night, and THERE he was, standing at the microphone in his full Pope get up, singing "Ava Maria"- he wasn't half bad, either.

Anonymous said...

Hi Jodie!

I just wanted to let you know that I posted a little bit about your comment on my blog! Thank you so much for checking in, and I look forward to exploring your blog too . . . I love the Nurse Ratchett title.

Running2Ks said...

Hey, where have you been lately?