Can you just come pick this up?

I just got off the phone with The Doktah, and she gave me a great new story for the blog. The Doktah graduated last December and is currently doing a postdoc two hours south of our grad school. Like me, The Doktah is still working on getting the final papers on her grad work published. Last night, The P.I. was talking to The Doktah on the phone about submitting the paper, and he said he had made a few more edits. “But I made the changes by hand, on a printout of the manuscript,” The P.I. said, and then he paused. He appeared to think that The Doktah could drive up there and pick it up. Sometimes The P.I. is very absent-minded-professor-y.

“Um, can you fax it to me?” The Doktah asked.

“I’m really busy right now,” replied The P.I.

The Doktah managed to avoid driving for four hours to pick up a paper that The P.I. was too busy to fax by recruiting Wacky Hair Guy. Wacky Hair Guy is currently a second year student in The P.I.’s lab, and he is still learning his ways. He helped The Doktah out by deciphering The P.I.’s chicken scratches and reading them to the Doktah over the phone.

This behavior may strike you as odd, but about five months ago, a paper of mine was accepted by the Journal of Cell Science. Once a paper is accepted, the final copy must be submitted to the journal as a hard copy, and the figures have to be print quality. When I told The P.I. that I would send it to the journal as soon as I got a chance get to Kinko’s, he suggested that I come down to the lab and use The Doktah’s printer. The lab is a six hour drive from my new home. Each way. “Um, that’s OK. I’ll just go to Kinko’s,” I said.