Another day at the lab

So... let's have a chat about organic lab. When you get into the upper level labs in, well say... COLLEGE, they (being the vague and yet ever-superior wizards of Chemistry Oz that make decisions about science-y things) begin to trust poor helpless chemistry students with things that they should not be trusted with.

Case in point.

Somewhere between 9th grade biology lab and 2nd semester organic chemistry one learns that-- why yes! indeed! water, despite its conventional uses and ubiquitous presence in everyday life, is ACTUALLY a chemical compound! like all the others!

and it reacts with stuff! like all the others!

I think you might see where this is going, but just in case you don't, I will kindly continue with the sad saga that is my kindasortalikealittle/ABSOLUTE LOATHING relationship with chem lab at UNC.

So let's say you have a sink at your lab bench. Out of this sink tap flows water. This water flows into a basin that is constantly wet from water. Are we clear? Now let's say some silly lab instructor decides that he/she/it/its mother wants the poor helpless students to convert a carboxylic acid to an amide which (OF COURSE) requires our one and only homeboy favorite reagent--- THIONYL CHLORIDE.

Well I, playing the part of the unsuspecting (and really quite dumb and consistently unprepared) lab student, got a beaker full of said Thionyl Chloride. Then I realized we only needed 1 mL. I have two choices.

1. Use a pipet to get 1 mL of the solution out of the full beaker, use it in the reaction, and offer my thionyl chloride-a-plenty to other students in the class--- delightfully logical!!
or...
2. Defying all human mental capacity for sound and responsible behavior, decide it is easier to start over and go back and get 1 mL of the solution- and in the meantime THROW ON THE SINK WATER JET AND TOSS THE ENTIRE BEAKER OF THIONYL CHLORIDE INTO A WET AND MIST-FILLED BASIN OF SWEET SWEET WATERY GOODNESS.

I'm going to go ahead and assume that you know which one I chose.

And I am not even going to begin to tell you how difficult it is to conceal gushing spouts of white smoke and obnoxiously loud poofing/hissing noises from your TA, all while spazzing out into a grotesquely embarassing "what-the-hell-happened" dance- which involved a lot of limb flailing and gasping for clean air as one of the strongest and foulest odors I have ever smelled literally BURNED into every uncovered pore of my body.

In every sense of the word irony, I spent the next 5 minutes or so of my life rinsing my throat, nose, and hands with every ounce of sweet, sweet water I could find. And then...

TA: Did something just happen at your lab bench?
Me: Oh yeah, some leftover stuff in the sink musta reacted
TA: Oh, okay.

Anticlimactic- but hey, I kept allllllll of my precious lab performance points :)