Distractions at work

I need a break from thinking about all this baby crap for awhile so my blog may take a slight detour as I focus on other things in my life. Hope nobody minds.

I normally hate gowning up to go into a clean room at work, but I have to say it has been a nice distraction lately. We are entering the phase of our project where all of our design and ana.lysis for the last few years is being set into motion with the assem.bly and test.ing of hard.ware. Call me a nerd, but I get a little "high" knowing that I just touched something that will be on another p.lanet in a couple years.

I normally have a mini-panic attack before suiting up because I'm afraid my damn IC will flare (meaning I will have to pee at least every 30-60 minutes to ward off extreme pain) , but fortunately that part of my body has been behaving the last few days. Novel concept - a body working as it should for once. Here are the steps to suiting up to give rise to my apprehension:

• Clean shoes with electric shoe cleaner - looks like a couple of spinning dry car wash brushes
• Scan badge to enter gowning area
• Walk across sticky mat for more shoe cleaning
• Put on surgical face mask
• Put on surgical bouffant cap
• Put on clean room hood - snap in front and back
• Put on E S D (Electro.static Disch.arge) booties - place grounding strap inside your shoe
• Put on clean room "bunny" suit - zip and snap
• Put on clean room boots - clasp and snap. I'm the only one with pink boot straps so I'm easy to pick out. (pink=XS) LOL
• Put E S D strap on wrist and test
• Put on 1st pair of surgical gloves and tape around arms to bunny suit
• Clean cell phone or any approved equipment to be brought in with alcohol and clean room wipe and place in pass thru box
• Put on 2nd pair of surgical gloves
• Open door to air shower and get blasted with air from 2 directions for a minute
• Exit opposite door
• Pick up phone and equipment
• Scan badge for clean room
• Walk across another sticky mat
• Carefully enter the lab and try not to damage any equipment

Now imagine you have to pee and you get to un-do and re-do it all again. Royal pain in the ass, but a very cool experience. It's pretty funny going into the clean room with people you don't know because you only see their eyes all day. It's so hard to recognize them later unless they have very distinct eyes or bushy old-man eyebrows.
Here's a pic (total nerd, I know):