Science robot
When I was doing the last set of experiments for my PhD, I often found myself alone in the lab at night. Often, these experiments required the use of a refrigerated (4 degrees) room. Since I'd done several of these, I'd taken to bringing along a beanie to keep my head warm, and since the lab was empty, I could get away with listening to my mp3 player (normally banned for safety reasons).

Anyway, the cold room, being built long before OH&S was an issue, had a concrete floor which got quite slippery. Combine this with the need to stay warm, repeated one-minute waits for a centrifuge, and some Grandmaster Flash playing on my iPod, and I was quite often to be found attempting to dance the electric boogaloo or the robot in (apparent) silence while wearing a lab coat, latex gloves and a beanie. Of course, since I'm fat and middle-class white, my "hip-hop dance" more closely resembled an epileptic walrus in the throes of a grand mal seizure.

Not a problem when the lab is empty, however. The problem came about when I got complacent, and started doing the same during the day when everyone was around. I lost count of the number of times the door suddenly opened and I had to hurriedly stop my awful attempts at popping and locking and pretend I was reaching for something on the shelf.
(oball needs Satan more than he needs me, Sun 30 Jan 2011, 22:36, 2 replies)

so familiar...
Though in my world the end of the story is someone unexpected turning up late in the evening or early on a weekend only to be greeted by the horror that is me singing as loud as possible.
(xanthine, Mon 31 Jan 2011, 11:23, closed)

Working late in the 'states once
Me and a colleague were the only ones left in the building, so we cranked up the filthy dirty techno. We'd failed to consider the cleaning staff, however, and actually had one dona latina running away, desperately muttering prayers to ward off the evil spirits being summoned by these "devil noises"!
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Mon 31 Jan 2011, 16:24, closed)