Exposure to infants

Yesterday I got to hold a baby! More precisely, I got to hold Wendy's baby since we left the lab at around the same time and her husband came to pick her up and the baby was in the car. (And they are of the opinion that I'm of the age where I should have handled a baby at least once, or something.) He was very warm, and probably would be cuddly if he weren't moving around so much. I spent the first few moments torn between the terror of accidentally dropping the baby (the horror the horror) and the terror of accidentally breaking the baby, given that I wasn't entirely sure where / how hard I should grip to prevent the baby from escaping while he was flailing around. (Babies are fragile, and therefore terrifying.)

Then there's the bit where he was making faces and noises at me and I was trying very hard to figure out if the scrunched up face meant that he was uncomfortable or sleepy or about to spit on me or what (currently: still uncertain to the best of my knowlege). He's at the pre-teething chewing stage though, and made me very glad that I washed my hands before leaving lab because -- potential lab chemical -- baby-- no.

In conclusion: terrifying, confusing, very squirmy. (But cute. He's definitely at the cute stage now.)


[edit 9:16am]
Saw this over at Annie's LJ. To quote / summarize:

I want to do my part not only for the “It’s Get Better” initiative, but to bring to light that bullying in any form is despicable and sickening, especially against those teens who are trying to come to terms with their sexual orientation in some places where being gay, unique and wonderfully eccentric is frowned upon and thought evil.

For every comment left here, I will donate a dollar a comment up to $500.

Dear God

I was visited by bible teachers this morning, who tried to teach me the scripture despite of the fact that I informed them right off the bat that I am a graduate student of the discipline of biology and that yes, I believe in evolution. They even read from their book a quote to prove that the scripture is actually very Scientific (I can't help but picture the capitalized letter when every time they said the word). In return I decided that trying to teach them evolutionary biology is fair play, and I'm game for as long as they are.

They only ever got to read one quote.

It was interesting, since the two people were a lady and her husband, and they supposedly had background in Science. At one point we were talking about the idea that the world was round and referencing Copernicus and Hypatia, while at another point we were talking about the Dead Sea Scrolls and Book of Ezra (or was it Ezriel? There were a lot of Greek pseudepigrapha around). P-values and Lucy the Australopithecus were involved too. By the time that I was explaining that Latin grammar has no articles and how some things can be interpreted different ways, depending on the translator, I was wishing that Annie was here, because then I'd actually have someone who knows all the different main scriptures and the more detailed information about Homo erectus &c. and the discussion / debate could be really fun.

Or Kate, possibly, because she's much better with historical figures and dates than I am, though possibly the lady-teacher's comments might offend her at some point, cause an explosion of sarcasm, and then it'll be carnage. (I suspect that amongst my friends I'm the least adept at figuring out what AD, BC, CE, BCE all are relative to each other, but at least in biology we all reference things to events like the formation of the Pangea, so I'm not entirely hopeless.)

(Does Greek have articles in its syntax? Either the classic or modern form. According to these people, it doesn't.)

Then the lady said she had a class she had to get to or something and left, and her husband followed shortly afterward. I was amused and wondered how much of I've explained about random mutations in genes leading to embryonic lethal phenotypes in animals they would remember, especially as pertaining to intelligent design. (They insisted they wanted to continue the discussion on intelligent design after I hold them I work in genetics, so fair is fair.) Admittedly the lady claimed that what I have said was useful information to them, though it could be that she was just being polite at that point. (We were all very polite this morning.)

...

I still have a cold.

I have drank a cup of herbal stuff, a cup of hot chocolate, and a juice box today. (The scripture / genetics lesson occurred between the hot chocolate and the juice box.) At least the runny nose part (my second least favorite thing about being sick, because it never fails to amaze me with how utterly disgusting it is) has gotten better, for which I'm deeply thankful if only because my nose bleeds when I blow it too often.