Submitted by WRETCHEDSORCERESS in lunch
three types of hot sauce on top!!! salsa valentina my beloved
big fan of the korean corn dog truck that sometimes sets up right outside my lab :)
it's an unseasonably warm november day and the horrors of this world are boundless and weigh on my mind. but little birds flit between the falling leaves and crowds of medical students chat happily waiting for their busses and bicyclists fly down the brick thoroughfares.
every now and again, a cold wind that cuts through my thin cardigan and reminds me that this is still autumn. poorly tagged graffiti on the bus stop says "FUCK THIS CITY AND EVERYONE WHO LIVES HERE." below my feet, underpaid grad students and research techs toil, butchering mice in hopes their PIs will be pleased with fates read in viscera.
next door there is a little coffee shop beneath the oncology research center. tired, scrubbed up nurses and techs sip coffee on short breaks. the baristas are chatting and laughing while they work, and business seems pretty slow.
now and again someone passes by in a too-loud pickup truck, revving foul engines as pedestrians hurry past in the only crosswalk for a half mile. so far I have not yelled profanities at any of these drivers.
soon i will walk back to the lab and return to my work, scanning in samples sent by people thousands of miles away in countries I have never been. every now and again they include a note thanking us for the work we do and thankful for the chance to help out. I hope they are doing well out there just as I hope you are too
have a good lunch today!!!