Drama

There are so many movies and TV shows about lawyers that one would think lawyers had a monopoly on drama. Believe me, they don't. Maybe lawyers by nature have big mouths and love to talk lending the the concept of law being so dramatic and eventful. I'm just a law student, so I really don't know what the real world will offer in the legal world as far as emotions and drama.

Looking back, there were quite a few incidents in mine and my coworkers careers starting in grad school and leading into industry. Below are a few highlights of what I've seen or heard from others.

(I'm not even going to list some of the annoying 'Office Space' stuff like the guy who would shit in the second floor men's bathroom everyday, fill the toilet bowl with toilet paper, but never flush. That was one nasty son-of-a-bitch.)

• A post-doc tried to kill a grad student with a 5lb hammer (his labmates constrained him before he found her, but he did vocalize the threat and have the weapon in his hand.)

• A grad student had an affair with another grad student resulting in a divorce.

• An advisor allegedly had an affair with one of his students. Interestingly, she obtained her PhD in the fastest time in that guy's group.

• Another professor allegedly dated his students which held up his tenure a year or two.

• A guy 'playing a joke' on his supervisor by waiving a toy gun to him in the parking lot after work. He was fired.

• A post-doc making crystal meth, getting busted, and the cops were amazed at the drug's purity.(It sounds like a scene from Breaking Bad, but this happened a decade before that show started.)

• Another guy was making X at work. He was busted , charged and convicted of a felony. He quietly and quickly left work. His name was never to be mentioned except in hushed tones in dark corners of the lab.

• A guy surfing porn at work. Supervisors knew. The guy's excuse was 'I can't do this at home in or else my family may catch me.'

• A dude didn't show up for work for 3 days. It turns out he had died of a heart attack at home, and his remains were lying undiscovered for a while. (I'm afraid that will happen to me, but even worse, my pets would eat my body.)

• A famous chemist at another school was 'mugged.' I say 'mugged' because even though the muggers beat the crap out of the guy, the muggers didn't take any of the guy's belongings.

• Explosions in the lab.

• Chinese student in 'Daisy Dukes.' That was funny!

• A grad student taking all of the dry ice the morning after a hurricane hit. Resourceful but theft nonetheless.

• Three undergrads not in the chemistry dept. asking me if I had an extra catalog 'for chemicals' for me to give them.

• TA's dating their own students.

• There was one student who had cancer. I'd love to see an Irwin Test or a gene tox test results on the compounds she was making in grad school. The school gave her an instructor position when she obtained a PhD. It makes me wonder if a suit was brought forth and if any settlements were made.