Friday Haze.

I realise this is trivial compared to what some people experience, but!:

I've spent the last 3 weeks stuck on the same reaction. I tried something new today, and it looked like it worked! Isolation showed the presence of a new clean new molecule I hadn't seen before. All excited, I showed my boss, who straight away identified it as di-n-butyl phthalate, or plasticizer: the stuff you find in rubber septums or pipette heads.

A mere common contaminant.

Luckily, it was more hilarious than crushing. At least I can isolate stuff...