Disaster zone- anyone have a shovel??

My life in lab is crazier than normal right now. We've got Vanderbilt's GI SPORE renewal grant due on Monday. These grants are 5 million dollars for 4 projects for 5 years, and Bob- my boss- is the head PI for Vandy.  In addition, my project is the basis for one of the projects. For those of you in-the-know, the whole grant is over 1,000 pages.... you can imagine what a pain in the neck it can be!

In addition, we got our reviews back on my paper from Cell a couple of weeks ago. (Suffice it to say that they were MUCH nicer than the ones from Nature!)  Our revised draft is due not much after the SPORE goes in and we are hoping for the best. Cross your fingers for me. That publication would get me a lot closer to getting my own transition-to-faculty funding!

Anyways, suffice it to say, I've been doing A LOT of writing and bench work lately and when things like this happen, my bench and work space become a constant homeostatic flow of random papers, sticky notes, experiments spread everywhere.  Many scientists would disapprove, I'm sure, but this is just the way it is for me until the dust clears.  My labmates will be happy when things are better soon, as well, since they already give me a hard time for having the biggest desk in the lab and still "bleeding" unto their territory!  What can I say?? I just have a lot of stuff!!