"Dropsy"

I drop things often these days. Sometimes I don't hold a thing firmly so it drops, sometimes I don't put a thing back on the table properly and it drops. I have dropped my book, my pencil, my notebook, my Eppendorf tubes, my fly vials...lots of things. Either the gravity forces in this lab has changed dramatically over the days so that my muscular system hasn't quite adapted to it yet, or my cerebellum has some difficulty communicating with my cerebrum. Maybe the fuse of one of my synapses got busted so that the brain keeps getting a "network failure" signal. It's like my internet connection breakdown a few days ago. To fix that I called the company and they sent a technician down here and fixed it a week later. But I can't just call some company and let them send me a technician to open up my skull and use some fancy eletronic meter to track down the bad neuron and replace it with a new one. It's not that simple. I am not a robot.

Maybe being a robot isn't all that bad, after all. At least troubleshooting is easier.

The good thing about my dropping tendency is, I haven't really broken anything yet. But the bad thing is, my boss has noticed it. Just yesterday alone, I dropped at least three different things at three different times right under his nose. He called me "Inspector Jacques Clouseau" from the "Pink Panther" movies.

So today when he walked out of his office and saw me busily working, he asked, jokingly:"Have you dropped anything today yet, Lei?"

I smiled reassuringly:"Oh, no, not yet. It's improving." Then I went to the freezer to get Buffer H for my enzyme digestion. But the tube was kinda glued to the buffer rack by ice so I pulled it with a little more strength. Maybe a little more strength too much. The rack unexpectedly jumped a little and fell back. A few tubes got loose and flew right out of the freezer. They hit the floor and jumped all over the place, making happy noises along their way.

I heard a giggle from my boss from behind:"What did you drop, Lei?"

I tried to sound innocent as I hurrily picked up the tubes on the floor:"Oh, nothing. I mean, just a few buffer tubes, not a big deal."

My boss giggled again and claimed:"Lei is 'dropsy'!"