Gosh, this is why it's easy to fall off the diary train, lots of stuff happening and the urge to write is outweighed by the desire to do nothing. This week was moderately busy, work was boring and not great, but I need to constantly focus on the things which appeal to me, not the silly stuff I've been working on for a long time. I think my other boss should be back from Puerto Rico late this week, when he will make it into the lab is unknown. I emailed my big boss to try and schedule a meeting, but he has been insanely busy, so I have no idea when I'll hear from him.
In an amusing aside, I ran for a secretary position on the local American Chemical Society, mainly so I could put it on my resume. Guess what, I tied in the election with another woman from a different part of the state (Call the Supreme Court!). I wanted to turn it down, but in the end we emailed each other and we think we might share it as the job is a fairly light load.
I still haven't heard back from any of the faculty positions which is disconcerting, but perhaps not entirely unexpected. I composed some letters letting them know I'd be out of the country and when.
On Thursday Bonnie had a really good day as she had a professor offer to help her get nominated for “prelim's”. Prelim's are the entry exam to get into the full PhD program in the US. I'm learning a lot just by following her experience. She's starting to find good professors and get them on her side which is a good thing, but which takes time.
It's always depressing to read the local newspaper here and find the bigoted letters written by local people. Things like this would also never happen in Australia, where people are not necessarily any smarter or better, but are perhaps at least a little more laid back. It depresses me to think I might want to live here. *sigh*
I got an email from Peta B yesterday morning which was super cool! I miss her and Rachel back in Canberra very much. She filled me in on what had been happening in the interim, and congratulated me on the upcoming surgery. Speaking of which, I fly out 4 weeks from today, so eek! By the way, the surgeon's web site is here for anyone who might be interested. My Mum has been very kind in getting her passport renewed and taking some leave around the 25th February which is very kind of her.
I had the official check out for my apartment on Wednesday and spent much of the morning cleaning the oven, something I haven't had to do before. I have a feeling that the oven residue is mainly incompletely combusted carbon residue from food, cross-linked by low volatility fatty acids and other non water soluble components. The fat component would explain why the goo is so hard to clean with water, but oven cleaner (concentrated hydroxide i.e. lye) works so well (disrupting fatty acid linkages). Anyway, while I was cleaning I got a call from Judy who was flying to a different interview in Colorado Springs for an engineering job. In the end, she now has two offers, one in Alaska (close to her family), and one in Colorado Springs.
On Thursday I had my first therapy appointment for 2005, with the same woman I was seeing last year. It was ok, nothing special. I just don't have as much to talk about with her now. I know she wants to keep me on as a patient because I'm a pretty rare find. As it is, we'll only have about three more sessions before I fly out anyway.
On Friday, I got home about 6:30 pm, and not long after Brandon called. Ryan, John and himself were having dinner over at the bar just 20 meters from my place. I got my shoes back on and headed over. We sat around chatting, and after a while (we couldn't get Mike G. to come down) we dropped back by Ryan's place where Ryan and Brandon (who were supposed to be coming out on the town) went to play on their computers. In the end Brandon, John and I went down to Main Street, because I knew some friends of mine were playing in a band at a local coffee shop. They are the classic Indigo Girls “girls with guitars” type band, and I much prefer to listen to music in a mellow coffee shop than in a noisy, smoky bar. I hung out there for a while and then went to visit my friend Johnny W. who lives above one of the bars. Katie's family (the P. clan) were there, so I said hello to Cory and Katie's Mum, and then finally to Johnny. He was getting ready for a cocktail party, and then he mentioned that Lori P. was in the bathroom talking on the phone to her girlfriend Rachel. We managed to coax her out because it was her birthday and I wanted to say hi. I had some photos of her and Rachel from the last Q dance which I had been meaning to give to her, but I hadn't brought them. After a while Lori left and then I went in search of Brandon and John. They were at one of the bars which I wasn't a fan of, so I drove John's car back to Ryan's place to hang out there. Ron dropped by later and then Ryan dropped me off at home.
I had coffee the next morning, and I bumped into Dixie by accident. We chatted for a while before I picked up some milk and went home. A little later I got a call from Lori who wanted to do lunch/breakfast. We ended up at a Mexican restaurant and we spent a lot of time chatting and I gave her the photos which I'd promised her before Xmas. After that I went home and didn't do much the rest of the day. I have been trying to work on my taxes, I am expecting a small refund (~$250) from the state and federal governments which will be nice, since all extra money is welcome at the moment as my bank account is somewhat spent. I hope I will get my deposit back from my last apartment soon also.
I talked to my Mum and dad last night and they are both doing ok. Dad had eye surgery to replace the cornea in his eye with a new lens because of cataracts. He is doing ok, although I never seem to get to talk with him as much as I'd like.
I'm not really sure what I want to do today. I do need to do some laundry, and I have more unpacking to do to make my place properly liveable. I might put an experiment on, but I have to give some thought to what experiments to design for these undergrads who want to work in my laboratory.
In other possibly cool news, there is a conference in Fairbanks, Alaska this June which I am hoping to be able to get to. I'll have to talk with my bosses, but they usually are fairly cool about that. There is the same conference in Rhode Island in mid-July that I went to last year, and I hope to be able to go again this year as well. To finally round out the Summer, there is a big ACS conference in late August in Washington D.C. which I'd like to present at. If I don't get a job offer this year, then that would be very important to go to, to raise my profile somewhat.
I was talking to Bonnie about how someone would have sat down to me and explained how the PhD system really works. Here in the US, the most important thing seems to be who your PhD supervisor is, and who you know rather than the work you did. This makes it difficult to break into the “system” from outside. Also, coming from Montana and other perceived “hick” states, is a sure way to get noses turning up in your presence. I think the American ideal of egalitarianism is a lot more of an illusion than in Australia (where sadly it's becoming less and less also).