The good news? My Suzuki coupling, even with deadish (orange rather than yellow) catalyst, was 91.4% yield. I can’t remember the last time I did something with a yield that high. It makes me feel vaguely competent. NMR confirms that I did a good thing.

The bad news? We have no idea which oxidation conditions to use. Do you know how tedious it is to search the literature for methods of oxidizing aromatic methyls to carboxylic acids? Pretty darn tedious. And there are a lot of ridiculous methods out there.

So I have a long oxidation prep to look forward to. Ordinarily I really would be looking forward to the prospect of having something simmering away for hours, affording m the excuse of passive productivity. However, life does not always work that way, and this program insists on pulling me out of my research to go to a number of seminars: writing, communication, field trips to Argonne…

I dunno. I need an attitude check about things in the program that are not straight research.

I have actually finished my literature review. It is not as long or as complete as I might like it to be, but it is eight pages of MOF-y goodness and I am slowly picking my way through the rest of the articles that I downloaded to my “potentials for lit review” folder. I am developing an extensive folder system in the Northwestern sector of my documents.

If only real-life organization was as simple as digital organization. I would be set.

Last night we went out for coffee and dessert. Because we were a party of five and neglected to ask for separate checks, we were assigned a gratuity, which was actually pretty annoying. Serves me right for forgetting. Also, that was some EXPENSIVE coffee and dessert. Forget this, from now on it is ONE or the OTHER. That will teach me to be indulgent.

I have this fear, not that I’m gaining weight, exactly, but that I’m gaining pudge underneath my chin. Bahahaha it’s pretty ridiculous actually because I have always feared that particular portion of my body for no real discernable reason. I think I will skip going out for dinner tonight. I will have almonds and carrots and broccoli and milk and orange juice, and maybe a granola bar, and I will embrace my hunger pains and also the joy of not spending money.

I can’t wait for more catalyst to come in. It’s always very heartening to have a reaction that works as beautifully as this one did. Let’s do it again! AND PUMP IT UP. TWICE THE SCALE, BB. 20 TIMES THE SCALE OF THE ORIGINAL.

I could get used to bucket chemistry. The chemistry itself is less frustrating. The workup is an enormous pain, but you can’t win ‘em all. The REALLY wonderful news is that I can actually watch tv tonight because I finished my lit review. Gotta reward myself, and I’ve had altogether too much dessert lately, so I think I’mma cut back a little.

Anyway we’re having a mini peer review session tonight, coordinated by Vic. I think it’s a good idea. I also think it’s a LITTLE silly because if we have any control over who reviews our papers in the seminar tomorrow, we’re gonna be handing them to each other rather than to people we don’t know.

I’m ready to see some familiar faces this coming weekend. I mean, the faces here are familiar now, but every once in a while I just want to be by myself because this kind of intense enthusiasm for EVERYTHING (often faux, I’m afraid) is getting to me and sometimes I want to be alone but I don’t want to alienate myself. I just have to make it another five and a half weeks. It would be nice to make some MOFs before I leave. That’s all I really want; to complete the synthesis and leave behind a nice pile of that baby.

I need to repaint my toenails. And I need to do that BEFORE leaving because there is no way I’m getting my nail polish stuff home on the plane. I guess they’re not a big fan of acetone. Something about flammable and also bombs, I hear.

I’ll tell you what’s frustrating: what’s frustrating is that the internet connection in the dorm is perfect for everything I need except Skype, and for some reason when I’m on Skype the internet just does not want my Skype connection to be successful. Whateva.