Wow, grad school really stinks emotionally. I've been up and down on a daily basis the last few days, and kind of crippled by how hopeless my situation feels. I think alot of the drama is coming from the uncertainty that lies ahead of me - another move to a new place, a whole new set of people to get to know and work with - and I knew I would be anxious about it, but just had forgotten what this feels like. And on top of the stress-to-get-finished, it's getting the better of me.
I finished counting all the cells I needed to for Project #3, and made up tables, and wrote the Methods section of the manuscript for it. But when I looked at my numbers, one of my cases stood out as having really low numbers. I think it's because I lost a section or two from the LDT, where the greatest concentration of these cells are. So, at the least, I have to run more immuno on this project, and count a whole nother* set of cells (rrggghhhh, I thought I was done!). At the most, I may end up having to do more surgery anyway. And then more immuno, and then more counting.
Meanwhile, the other project I have has completely imploded, one of the antibodies isn't working right at all, and the microscope I need is broken. So, zero progress on that one.
I think I've gotten better at dealing with these kinds of frustrations, but at this point, I'm just wondering when it's going to end. I mean, it has to at some point, right? But I just can't imagine what that will be like.
So, I'll keep working at it, I will greatly enjoy the few days off I'm taking in April, and, hopefully I will graduate sometime before the end of the fall.
* why isn't this grammatically correct?
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
New efforts
I don't make resolutions. I think the only New Year's resolution I've ever made is to quit smoking, but that never generally even gets out of the gate. I might have once resolved to stop gossiping; unfortunately, progress on that one has been slow as well.
But I think I still manage to challenge myself in a lot of ways. I always joke at work that science was my worst subject in school, but it's actually true. I'm not really of fan of academic pursuit, yet continue in that path because I feel the training is necessary. I bought a house that has turned out to be a constant challenge (administrative and constructive), and it is probably beyond my actual abilities to renovate (but we'll get there anyway, it'll just cost more than we were prepared for in the beginning). I've studied two foreign languages (and am trying to pick up my third), moved to new and completely unfamiliar places, and pretty consistently picked the hardest options I could find, school/career-wise. There are times when I really wonder what is wrong with me when I look back upon the choices that have led me to where I am in life, but secretly, I am pretty pleased with things. I obviously don't make horrible life choices, but the benefits from them can be difficult to point out.
My newest venture has been a return to knitting. I received some bamboo needles as a gift a few months ago, and I dropped into Michael's** on a whim a couple of weeks back. I picked up a book of sweater patterns, and some yarn, plus some extra yarn that I liked & that had a hat pattern on the back of the label. All the patterns seemed pretty simple, and since I've only ever previously knitted rectangular things, I figured they would be a good next step.
I started a simple sweater last week, and immediately discovered that my casting-on technique is not actually right. Also, I didn't remember how to purl correctly. And I never learned how to read knitting patterns. Thankfully, the internet is here. So, I've had remedial knitting learning, and learned to increase stitches across a row. Here's what I have so far:
It's the back section, and once it's 15.5" long, I have to start doing something else, "binding off" maybe? In the end, it should look like this:
At the very least, I should have a new sweater in about two years :)
**Incidentally, that place has now been added to my mental list of dangerous stores (e.g. Target, Ikea) that always end up costing multiples of the amount you thought you were going to spend. On the plus side, I picked up some Nephew gifts that I think are pretty cool, and my "Christmas box" now is packed full of stuff that can be given when I can't think of anything in December.
But I think I still manage to challenge myself in a lot of ways. I always joke at work that science was my worst subject in school, but it's actually true. I'm not really of fan of academic pursuit, yet continue in that path because I feel the training is necessary. I bought a house that has turned out to be a constant challenge (administrative and constructive), and it is probably beyond my actual abilities to renovate (but we'll get there anyway, it'll just cost more than we were prepared for in the beginning). I've studied two foreign languages (and am trying to pick up my third), moved to new and completely unfamiliar places, and pretty consistently picked the hardest options I could find, school/career-wise. There are times when I really wonder what is wrong with me when I look back upon the choices that have led me to where I am in life, but secretly, I am pretty pleased with things. I obviously don't make horrible life choices, but the benefits from them can be difficult to point out.
My newest venture has been a return to knitting. I received some bamboo needles as a gift a few months ago, and I dropped into Michael's** on a whim a couple of weeks back. I picked up a book of sweater patterns, and some yarn, plus some extra yarn that I liked & that had a hat pattern on the back of the label. All the patterns seemed pretty simple, and since I've only ever previously knitted rectangular things, I figured they would be a good next step.
I started a simple sweater last week, and immediately discovered that my casting-on technique is not actually right. Also, I didn't remember how to purl correctly. And I never learned how to read knitting patterns. Thankfully, the internet is here. So, I've had remedial knitting learning, and learned to increase stitches across a row. Here's what I have so far:
It's the back section, and once it's 15.5" long, I have to start doing something else, "binding off" maybe? In the end, it should look like this:
At the very least, I should have a new sweater in about two years :)
**Incidentally, that place has now been added to my mental list of dangerous stores (e.g. Target, Ikea) that always end up costing multiples of the amount you thought you were going to spend. On the plus side, I picked up some Nephew gifts that I think are pretty cool, and my "Christmas box" now is packed full of stuff that can be given when I can't think of anything in December.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
A new Nissan
So, my friend Kate defended her thesis on Thursday, after two cancellations, and is now a Dr. She's on her way to Chicago, IL even as we speak, to move into a new apartment before starting her new job at Northwestern. I'm so proud of her (she's been like a sister to me here in Pgh), but pretty bummed out that she's no longer next door to my lab :(
However, she wanted to unload her car before moving to a bigger, more expensive, and better served by mass transit city. She has (had) a '95 200SX, standard, with ~80k miles on it. So, since our Nissan is a '91 with 268,000 miles, I figured it would be worth the upgrade (and I think we're trading the old one to our electrician for some work). Plus, Nashville seems like a drive-everywhere kind of city, so I will eventually need a car.
Friday, Kate and I took a trip to Motor Square Garden, an old train station that now houses a AAA service center, and a branch of the DMV. We transferred the title, and I got it registered at the same time. It's still a beater kind of car, but it looks better from the outside, and the things wrong with are different than the ones in our current car (and in both cases, the engine is great & reliable).
In other good news, our roommate has finally moved out. There was some unpleasantness over some utility bills, and I'm pretty ashamed to admit I lost my temper (and ended up not getting anything for the utilities), but it is so nice to have my kitchen back to myself that the money seems insignificant in comparison. Of course, he left a bunch of crap here too, but the main thing is that I will never again have to stand with a forced smile and listen to him explain how he's much smarter than everyone else, to clean his filth-encrusted dishes, to see, hear or smell him ... ever again. I am mainly struggling to let go of the anger I feel at having our generosity taken advantage of, and the confusion I feel over whether I overreacted or not.
A large part of my reaction was simply exasperation with dealing with him. (This is the guy who made a point of telling me that he couldn't find "his" dental floss - when there's 5 different ones in the bathroom, and each cost like 89 cents. Simply suppressing the eye rolls on a daily basis required a lot of mental effort.) But at the same time, he had told me plenty of stories demonstrating how he put one over on other people (so to speak), and there've been several problems with getting the rent check from him (lost in the mail, "my finger slipped and that's why it wasn't the right amount, just plain late), so needless to say, I don't have much faith in his good intentions. But everything was just co-incidental enough to support a more innocuous interpretation, and let me think I was being unfair. I certainly have the tendency to overreact, and am a bit overly sensitive to getting screwed over. So, a lot of back and forth in my own mind over how and why I react the way that I do. Hopefully, I will learn something from this, if only how much I am really over the whole roommate thing. Who knows, maybe he'll become a little more considerate of other people because of it too.
However, she wanted to unload her car before moving to a bigger, more expensive, and better served by mass transit city. She has (had) a '95 200SX, standard, with ~80k miles on it. So, since our Nissan is a '91 with 268,000 miles, I figured it would be worth the upgrade (and I think we're trading the old one to our electrician for some work). Plus, Nashville seems like a drive-everywhere kind of city, so I will eventually need a car.
Friday, Kate and I took a trip to Motor Square Garden, an old train station that now houses a AAA service center, and a branch of the DMV. We transferred the title, and I got it registered at the same time. It's still a beater kind of car, but it looks better from the outside, and the things wrong with are different than the ones in our current car (and in both cases, the engine is great & reliable).
In other good news, our roommate has finally moved out. There was some unpleasantness over some utility bills, and I'm pretty ashamed to admit I lost my temper (and ended up not getting anything for the utilities), but it is so nice to have my kitchen back to myself that the money seems insignificant in comparison. Of course, he left a bunch of crap here too, but the main thing is that I will never again have to stand with a forced smile and listen to him explain how he's much smarter than everyone else, to clean his filth-encrusted dishes, to see, hear or smell him ... ever again. I am mainly struggling to let go of the anger I feel at having our generosity taken advantage of, and the confusion I feel over whether I overreacted or not.
A large part of my reaction was simply exasperation with dealing with him. (This is the guy who made a point of telling me that he couldn't find "his" dental floss - when there's 5 different ones in the bathroom, and each cost like 89 cents. Simply suppressing the eye rolls on a daily basis required a lot of mental effort.) But at the same time, he had told me plenty of stories demonstrating how he put one over on other people (so to speak), and there've been several problems with getting the rent check from him (lost in the mail, "my finger slipped and that's why it wasn't the right amount, just plain late), so needless to say, I don't have much faith in his good intentions. But everything was just co-incidental enough to support a more innocuous interpretation, and let me think I was being unfair. I certainly have the tendency to overreact, and am a bit overly sensitive to getting screwed over. So, a lot of back and forth in my own mind over how and why I react the way that I do. Hopefully, I will learn something from this, if only how much I am really over the whole roommate thing. Who knows, maybe he'll become a little more considerate of other people because of it too.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Offer Letter
Greetings from lovely State of Emergency Pittsburgh!
We got pounded on Friday night through Saturday afternoon with 21-ish inches of snow. It was amazing how fast it was coming down on Friday night, and I was lucky enough to get home at 6:45 pm, and decided not to go out again, even though I had plans to go to a good-bye/send-off party for a scientist friend who is taking a job with a pharmaceutical company. I was sad to miss the party, but we live pretty far away from most of the other science-crew, and there is the formidable hill that we live on, a large bridge over a very large river, and a lot of less-formidable hills in between our house & all the East End destinations. Though we have brand new tires on the Nissan, it is, as D would call it, "one-wheel drive", and I have no interest in getting stranded or in any kind of accident. So we stayed put, and watched it come down :)
Saturday morning, I started suiting up to get ahead of the shoveling. It was still snowing just as hard. D thought I was crazy, & tried to argue that no-one else would be shoveling. Thankfully, one of my neighbors was out doing his steps, so I used this as counter-argument. The stairs and walkway weren't bad, but I quickly ran out of room to place snow in. And there was still the car to contend with.
I had no plans to drive anytime soon, but I remembered what happened a couple of winters ago, when snow was not removed from the car, everything melted a little bit, and then it snap froze again in the evening. The car was encased in ice for days, and we eventually just had to chip it off. It took hours.
Plus, the plows that cleared Arlington (thank you Mt. Oliver!) left a huge plow roll between the parked cars and the street. I am honestly not complaining about this, as we were very lucky to get the street cleared at all - the city of Pittsburgh maintained roads are awful, and the city is pretty crippled right now - but shoveling enough of that out of the way so that we will be able to get the car out took 3 separate sessions, over the whole day. There are mountains of snow & road sludge both in front of and behind the car, with just enough of the sides shaved off that its still possible to parallel park. It was a nice day though, and there were families walking up and down the street to get supplies at the corner store, and I chatted with quite a few neighbors on my frequent breaks. Once it stopped snowing, it was bright and sunny, and it was nice to be out in the fresh air.
I did take the car out Sunday, and discovered the condition of the Pittsburgh roads. Strangely enough, the windy road down the formidable hill was fine, a little slushy, but not slippery, and most people were driving sensibly (not all, but most). Then I hit the South Side flats. They had not been plowed at all. The snow/ice/dirt/slush was packed 6 inches thick, except in places where it plunged into a pothole. I was driving ~ 5 mph in first gear, and the car was still starting to slide a little. Twice my tires spun after a full stop, so I kept to backroads and only came to a full stop if there were other cars or people at the intersection. I'm glad I managed to get food (especially since I made stew & soup today), but I skipped the wine store in favor of getting home before it got any colder, and everything froze. I got home fine though, and am not taking the car out again until all this stuff melts.
My university was closed today, since bus service is not fully operational yet, and the roads are a nightmare. So, I made the aforementioned beef stew, and chicken soup (D's request), and then met my friend Spryte for some snow-day fun (she spent 2 hours trying to get to work, then trying to get home once she gave up). Walking up and down the hill was actually pretty okay, not to slippery & didn't take too long, but I really wish I owned some waterproof boots. I'm going to trek into work tomorrow (with dry shoes & socks to change into in my bag), even though they're officially still closed. I've run out of stuff to do at home, and want to take some more pictures, and coverslip some new sections.
In other news, I received my official offer letter via e-mail on Saturday. Well, it was sent Saturday, I didn't check e-mail until this evening (oops!). It's for more than I thought it was - which is a nice surprise. Also, I'm really nervous that I'm not going to live up to expectations. *sigh
We got pounded on Friday night through Saturday afternoon with 21-ish inches of snow. It was amazing how fast it was coming down on Friday night, and I was lucky enough to get home at 6:45 pm, and decided not to go out again, even though I had plans to go to a good-bye/send-off party for a scientist friend who is taking a job with a pharmaceutical company. I was sad to miss the party, but we live pretty far away from most of the other science-crew, and there is the formidable hill that we live on, a large bridge over a very large river, and a lot of less-formidable hills in between our house & all the East End destinations. Though we have brand new tires on the Nissan, it is, as D would call it, "one-wheel drive", and I have no interest in getting stranded or in any kind of accident. So we stayed put, and watched it come down :)
Saturday morning, I started suiting up to get ahead of the shoveling. It was still snowing just as hard. D thought I was crazy, & tried to argue that no-one else would be shoveling. Thankfully, one of my neighbors was out doing his steps, so I used this as counter-argument. The stairs and walkway weren't bad, but I quickly ran out of room to place snow in. And there was still the car to contend with.
I had no plans to drive anytime soon, but I remembered what happened a couple of winters ago, when snow was not removed from the car, everything melted a little bit, and then it snap froze again in the evening. The car was encased in ice for days, and we eventually just had to chip it off. It took hours.
Plus, the plows that cleared Arlington (thank you Mt. Oliver!) left a huge plow roll between the parked cars and the street. I am honestly not complaining about this, as we were very lucky to get the street cleared at all - the city of Pittsburgh maintained roads are awful, and the city is pretty crippled right now - but shoveling enough of that out of the way so that we will be able to get the car out took 3 separate sessions, over the whole day. There are mountains of snow & road sludge both in front of and behind the car, with just enough of the sides shaved off that its still possible to parallel park. It was a nice day though, and there were families walking up and down the street to get supplies at the corner store, and I chatted with quite a few neighbors on my frequent breaks. Once it stopped snowing, it was bright and sunny, and it was nice to be out in the fresh air.
I did take the car out Sunday, and discovered the condition of the Pittsburgh roads. Strangely enough, the windy road down the formidable hill was fine, a little slushy, but not slippery, and most people were driving sensibly (not all, but most). Then I hit the South Side flats. They had not been plowed at all. The snow/ice/dirt/slush was packed 6 inches thick, except in places where it plunged into a pothole. I was driving ~ 5 mph in first gear, and the car was still starting to slide a little. Twice my tires spun after a full stop, so I kept to backroads and only came to a full stop if there were other cars or people at the intersection. I'm glad I managed to get food (especially since I made stew & soup today), but I skipped the wine store in favor of getting home before it got any colder, and everything froze. I got home fine though, and am not taking the car out again until all this stuff melts.
My university was closed today, since bus service is not fully operational yet, and the roads are a nightmare. So, I made the aforementioned beef stew, and chicken soup (D's request), and then met my friend Spryte for some snow-day fun (she spent 2 hours trying to get to work, then trying to get home once she gave up). Walking up and down the hill was actually pretty okay, not to slippery & didn't take too long, but I really wish I owned some waterproof boots. I'm going to trek into work tomorrow (with dry shoes & socks to change into in my bag), even though they're officially still closed. I've run out of stuff to do at home, and want to take some more pictures, and coverslip some new sections.
In other news, I received my official offer letter via e-mail on Saturday. Well, it was sent Saturday, I didn't check e-mail until this evening (oops!). It's for more than I thought it was - which is a nice surprise. Also, I'm really nervous that I'm not going to live up to expectations. *sigh
Monday, February 1, 2010
I do wonder...
how it happens that I am expected/required to work all of my own experiments out, yet also required to do the initial legwork for other grad students (who are getting paid more than me through certain fellowships), and also explain an entirely new technique (that, although I've received excellent help from another faculty member with whom I orchestrated the interaction independently, I am not completely familiar with yet, although I have worked out how I'm going to analyze the data) to an undergraduate student who only has 3 months left in the lab.
It was a slightly irritating day, although I managed to get a few things accomplished, and decide on a plan of action for my dual fluorescence project. The staining for this worked great back when I prepared the slides in June, but the thing about fluorescence is that brain slices have a property called autofluorescence. And the fluorophore-conjugated antibodies eventually lose some of their signal. So, by the time I got done analyzing pilot data, those slides that looks so pretty in June were just messy. I tried imaging them back in December, and while one brain area looks analyzable, the second was just awful. So, I ordered more secondary antibodies, and ran my tissue again. This time the primary antibody didn't work. Today, I ordered more primary, and I'll give it another trial run at the end of this week. (Also, our fridge broke down sometime last week, and I and a post-doc had to deal with all of that. I'm now suspicious of my secondaries again. The ones I just bought last week. RRRggghhh.)
If I can get that going again, I'll be fine. Hopefully finish my data collection/analysis by the end of April, write my thesis in May + June, defend in July, clean up my lab notebooks, etc for the rest of July, and take August off. Because I get paid monthly, and lag behind a month, I should be able to take the time. I hope I can take the time, work on the house, work in the garden a little bit, just relax, before making the move to Nashville.
You all are probably lost, or stopped reading from boredom awhile ago. I need to start posting some pictures and/or slides so it's not just text-based science.
Well, hope you all have a good night. And I will try to post more later - but my calendar is full of work, chores, and social events for friends who are graduating/leaving town. Those of you who met Kate, she is defending on 2/10, and moving to Chicago the weekend after. Boo for me, but Yay!!! for her. I'm so proud of her, and can't wait to visit (and host her in Nashville once I move).
It was a slightly irritating day, although I managed to get a few things accomplished, and decide on a plan of action for my dual fluorescence project. The staining for this worked great back when I prepared the slides in June, but the thing about fluorescence is that brain slices have a property called autofluorescence. And the fluorophore-conjugated antibodies eventually lose some of their signal. So, by the time I got done analyzing pilot data, those slides that looks so pretty in June were just messy. I tried imaging them back in December, and while one brain area looks analyzable, the second was just awful. So, I ordered more secondary antibodies, and ran my tissue again. This time the primary antibody didn't work. Today, I ordered more primary, and I'll give it another trial run at the end of this week. (Also, our fridge broke down sometime last week, and I and a post-doc had to deal with all of that. I'm now suspicious of my secondaries again. The ones I just bought last week. RRRggghhh.)
If I can get that going again, I'll be fine. Hopefully finish my data collection/analysis by the end of April, write my thesis in May + June, defend in July, clean up my lab notebooks, etc for the rest of July, and take August off. Because I get paid monthly, and lag behind a month, I should be able to take the time. I hope I can take the time, work on the house, work in the garden a little bit, just relax, before making the move to Nashville.
You all are probably lost, or stopped reading from boredom awhile ago. I need to start posting some pictures and/or slides so it's not just text-based science.
Well, hope you all have a good night. And I will try to post more later - but my calendar is full of work, chores, and social events for friends who are graduating/leaving town. Those of you who met Kate, she is defending on 2/10, and moving to Chicago the weekend after. Boo for me, but Yay!!! for her. I'm so proud of her, and can't wait to visit (and host her in Nashville once I move).
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Vanderbilt
I know I promised to finish the Thanksgiving trek story next, but this is more fresh in my memory. Also, geesh, when am I going to cook something? It's been nothing but pizza and fend-for-yourself for quite awhile in these here parts. :)
Actually I'm enjoying some blackened catfish (good, but salty), white corn polenta with parmesan, and kale sauteed with onions even as we speak. But, back to my 2nd interview tale.
Back in October, when I attended the SFN conference in Chicago, I finally worked up the nerve to ask one of our collaborators about post-doc positions. I've had a lot of reservations about the whole post-doc thing, and I'm still not thrilled about the pay level, given how much education is required prior to this, but the non-academic job market has changed in the recent past. Many positions (of what's left; not too many people are actually hiring) now require 3-5 years of postdoctoral research, so it looks like I'm headed in that direction anyway. The thing is, this guy is a big deal in my field of research (and a few others as well), uses the techniques I think will be most helpful (and that address experimental questions I come up with), and has trained a lot of people who've gone on to become successful.
So I headed down there a couple of weekends ago, and got to see some of Nashville before the marathon interview. I got in on Saturday, visited with some friends from Pittsburgh (who moved down there last year for work), spent Sunday working & purchasing some last minute necessities to look put together on Monday for my talk, returned my rental car to the airport (needed it on Saturday), and got ready for dinner with the research group I would be working with.
At 5:40 pm, the interview started. 7 of us had dinner at a pretty good Thai restaurant, and I actually had a great time. The people were friendly, funny, and gave me the pros and cons of Nashville (most are explants from other areas) and Vanderbilt. I got back to the hotel around 9:30, and went back to work on my talk. This is the same talk I gave at NYU, but I had updated some of the data, and had to rework a few things for a different audience. I think I went to sleep around 12/12:30, and got up with plenty of time to spare.
Which is a good thing, b/c while I was in the shower, the head guy called to see if he could pick me up 15 minutes earlier. He managed to reach me after leaving me a message, and I agreed. So he picked me up at 8:15, we went to breakfast at a cool diner near campus, and then he gave me a quick walking tour on the way to the labs. Showed me around the various labs, then went to get set up for my talk at 10.
I got that out of the way (ugh, I don't like my own work, though I wasn't as nervous as last time, and since this will also end up being my thesis talk, I need the practice), and started meeting with people. Two senior lab techs/lab managers, four graduate students @ lunch, three post-docs, two junior lab techs and another grad student later, the head guy picked me up & took me to a hockey game (with a few other people from the lab). We talked a lot of science, but man, was that a long day (8 am till 10 pm straight).
Tuesday, I packed up my stuff, checked out of the hotel, and the head guy picked me up again for a few more meetings. We checked out a new microscope that Olympus was demonstrating that day (very cool, I wish I had one now; it would make my data collection much much quicker), then I met with the Postdoc affairs lady, another grad student, and had a meeting with the head guy before he drove me to the airport.
We left it open, with a soft deadline for me to accept or pass of by the end of February.
It's a great opportunity, but Nashville is certainly not somewhere I had on my radar. It is definitely in the South, financially about the same as Pittsburgh (okay, a little more expensive, but not much), and I heard several comments about church, so that would be a little different. I didn't state my beliefs outright, so I hope that doesn't become an issue. But it's also warm (yay!) and the research environment seems like a step in the right direction from where I am now.
D seems on board, even though it might be tough for him job-wise. I'm subtly suggesting he should go work at a vineyard, and learn how to make wine - but that's my daydream, I suppose. I do worry that this might not be the right step for us, but I think he wants me to go after what I need for my career. I also worry that I'll be a disappointing post-doc, but I don't think there's anything I can do about that unless it starts actually happening.
So it looks like I'll be moving to Tennessee, come September, assuming my thesis gets wrapped up without any further major snags.
Actually I'm enjoying some blackened catfish (good, but salty), white corn polenta with parmesan, and kale sauteed with onions even as we speak. But, back to my 2nd interview tale.
Back in October, when I attended the SFN conference in Chicago, I finally worked up the nerve to ask one of our collaborators about post-doc positions. I've had a lot of reservations about the whole post-doc thing, and I'm still not thrilled about the pay level, given how much education is required prior to this, but the non-academic job market has changed in the recent past. Many positions (of what's left; not too many people are actually hiring) now require 3-5 years of postdoctoral research, so it looks like I'm headed in that direction anyway. The thing is, this guy is a big deal in my field of research (and a few others as well), uses the techniques I think will be most helpful (and that address experimental questions I come up with), and has trained a lot of people who've gone on to become successful.
So I headed down there a couple of weekends ago, and got to see some of Nashville before the marathon interview. I got in on Saturday, visited with some friends from Pittsburgh (who moved down there last year for work), spent Sunday working & purchasing some last minute necessities to look put together on Monday for my talk, returned my rental car to the airport (needed it on Saturday), and got ready for dinner with the research group I would be working with.
At 5:40 pm, the interview started. 7 of us had dinner at a pretty good Thai restaurant, and I actually had a great time. The people were friendly, funny, and gave me the pros and cons of Nashville (most are explants from other areas) and Vanderbilt. I got back to the hotel around 9:30, and went back to work on my talk. This is the same talk I gave at NYU, but I had updated some of the data, and had to rework a few things for a different audience. I think I went to sleep around 12/12:30, and got up with plenty of time to spare.
Which is a good thing, b/c while I was in the shower, the head guy called to see if he could pick me up 15 minutes earlier. He managed to reach me after leaving me a message, and I agreed. So he picked me up at 8:15, we went to breakfast at a cool diner near campus, and then he gave me a quick walking tour on the way to the labs. Showed me around the various labs, then went to get set up for my talk at 10.
I got that out of the way (ugh, I don't like my own work, though I wasn't as nervous as last time, and since this will also end up being my thesis talk, I need the practice), and started meeting with people. Two senior lab techs/lab managers, four graduate students @ lunch, three post-docs, two junior lab techs and another grad student later, the head guy picked me up & took me to a hockey game (with a few other people from the lab). We talked a lot of science, but man, was that a long day (8 am till 10 pm straight).
Tuesday, I packed up my stuff, checked out of the hotel, and the head guy picked me up again for a few more meetings. We checked out a new microscope that Olympus was demonstrating that day (very cool, I wish I had one now; it would make my data collection much much quicker), then I met with the Postdoc affairs lady, another grad student, and had a meeting with the head guy before he drove me to the airport.
We left it open, with a soft deadline for me to accept or pass of by the end of February.
It's a great opportunity, but Nashville is certainly not somewhere I had on my radar. It is definitely in the South, financially about the same as Pittsburgh (okay, a little more expensive, but not much), and I heard several comments about church, so that would be a little different. I didn't state my beliefs outright, so I hope that doesn't become an issue. But it's also warm (yay!) and the research environment seems like a step in the right direction from where I am now.
D seems on board, even though it might be tough for him job-wise. I'm subtly suggesting he should go work at a vineyard, and learn how to make wine - but that's my daydream, I suppose. I do worry that this might not be the right step for us, but I think he wants me to go after what I need for my career. I also worry that I'll be a disappointing post-doc, but I don't think there's anything I can do about that unless it starts actually happening.
So it looks like I'll be moving to Tennessee, come September, assuming my thesis gets wrapped up without any further major snags.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Long Overdue Post on NY
So, what you all don't see is that my Drafts folder is full of half-started posts, none of which I ever returned to for purposes of, y'know, finishing them. What's even sadder is how often this could also be said of my actual work-work, my fiction writing (lifelong problem there), work on the house, etc. etc.
I seem to have a problem finishing alot of things that I start.
In any case, I believe I promised some comments on the New York visit, and have another job interview experience to describe as well. No pictures (of course!), but mostly I just sat in hotel rooms working on slides when I wasn't actually talking with other people.
First up is NYU. I missed my intended bus into Oakland that morning, and had to run into work anyway to check a couple of last minute things on the computer there/print out extra CVs. I realized as I was waiting for the Airport Shuttle that I was going to be cutting it too close at the airport, and managed to snag myself a cab instead at the Holiday Inn on campus. Some other time, I will explain what a feat this is in Pittsburgh, and the general dismal state of transportation-for-hire here in the Steel City.
I made it to the airport with plenty of time, and got all checked in. Then I found the special laptop charging bank of seats near the terminal and sat down to do some work. As usual, I had bitten off more than I could chew in terms of planning my talk, and was running a little behind on finishing up a few different things. I couldn't really do anything substantive at the airport, but I had to alter some superficial details of one set of graphs (combining datasets, changing fonts & symbol colors & size), and this was sufficiently mindless that I could do it even in my state of heightened anxiety, brought on by the impending interview.
When I got to Manhattan, my host greeted me at the nearby residence hotel, and loaned me her MoMA membership card. She also suggested I walk through Grand Central Station to view the famed ceiling. It sounded nice, but I was also anxious to get some work done & explained that my talk still needed work. At which point, I was told that I pretty much had the job if I wanted it, and the talk was just formality. I still wanted to do a good job, but I accepted the pass & decided to head uptown on foot for awhile, as my room wouldn't be ready for a couple of hours anyway.
I browsed the gift shop a little bit, since it was getting toward Christmastime, but the place was also mobbed with people, so I didn't end up buying anything. I did have a nice walk, and grabbed something to eat, but the experience left me a little flat. NYC used to be very exciting, if overwhelming, for me, but this time all I could notice was how little sky was visible. All of those buildings seem to crowd in overhead, and the sheer number of people just made me feel existentially lonely. If I'd thought about it, I might have decided right then that I couldn't live in NY, but I was still excited about the possibility I guess. In any case, there was a Dunkin Donuts 1/2 block from the hotel, so I was pretty happy regardless of what happened.
My host picked my up again for a fantastic dinner (fondue = yum!), thought the restaurant was little loud for the purposes of discussing science. Her postdoc was also very nice, but we realized at dinner that we had had some miscommunication. I was being considered for a fellowship that had a required start date of June 1, 2010, but my anticipated graduation had been shifted back since our last conversation, so we weren't sure whether I would make it in time.
We still proceeded the next day, but I certainly felt bad that I hadn't been clear enough in our e-mails. In any case, my host picked me up and took me to breakfast in the morning (after I was up until ~2 working on slides after dinner), my talk went okay, I met with a lot of scientists, and had a fun day talking science. At the very end (6:30 pm or so), and then I was put in a cab back to LaGuardia.
I just have to interject here that apparently cab drivers in New York have never heard of the law that they're supposed to take the way that you specify to get to the airport, so I never saw the inside of the Queens Tunnel, despite asking two different drivers to take that way. The second cab was a little scary, as the guy was yelling into his cellphone alot, and I had no idea where we were going for awhile, even while watching our progress on the GPS map in the back of the cab. But, he got me to the airport on time, for less than I was told it would cost via the tunnel, so I guess I can't complain.
And then my plane was delayed like 4.5 hours. RRgggh. LaGuardia is not a good airport to be stuck in. Though they do have a Dunkin Donuts cart, and I got to read Wicked, which was interesting.
I seem to have a problem finishing alot of things that I start.
In any case, I believe I promised some comments on the New York visit, and have another job interview experience to describe as well. No pictures (of course!), but mostly I just sat in hotel rooms working on slides when I wasn't actually talking with other people.
First up is NYU. I missed my intended bus into Oakland that morning, and had to run into work anyway to check a couple of last minute things on the computer there/print out extra CVs. I realized as I was waiting for the Airport Shuttle that I was going to be cutting it too close at the airport, and managed to snag myself a cab instead at the Holiday Inn on campus. Some other time, I will explain what a feat this is in Pittsburgh, and the general dismal state of transportation-for-hire here in the Steel City.
I made it to the airport with plenty of time, and got all checked in. Then I found the special laptop charging bank of seats near the terminal and sat down to do some work. As usual, I had bitten off more than I could chew in terms of planning my talk, and was running a little behind on finishing up a few different things. I couldn't really do anything substantive at the airport, but I had to alter some superficial details of one set of graphs (combining datasets, changing fonts & symbol colors & size), and this was sufficiently mindless that I could do it even in my state of heightened anxiety, brought on by the impending interview.
When I got to Manhattan, my host greeted me at the nearby residence hotel, and loaned me her MoMA membership card. She also suggested I walk through Grand Central Station to view the famed ceiling. It sounded nice, but I was also anxious to get some work done & explained that my talk still needed work. At which point, I was told that I pretty much had the job if I wanted it, and the talk was just formality. I still wanted to do a good job, but I accepted the pass & decided to head uptown on foot for awhile, as my room wouldn't be ready for a couple of hours anyway.
I browsed the gift shop a little bit, since it was getting toward Christmastime, but the place was also mobbed with people, so I didn't end up buying anything. I did have a nice walk, and grabbed something to eat, but the experience left me a little flat. NYC used to be very exciting, if overwhelming, for me, but this time all I could notice was how little sky was visible. All of those buildings seem to crowd in overhead, and the sheer number of people just made me feel existentially lonely. If I'd thought about it, I might have decided right then that I couldn't live in NY, but I was still excited about the possibility I guess. In any case, there was a Dunkin Donuts 1/2 block from the hotel, so I was pretty happy regardless of what happened.
My host picked my up again for a fantastic dinner (fondue = yum!), thought the restaurant was little loud for the purposes of discussing science. Her postdoc was also very nice, but we realized at dinner that we had had some miscommunication. I was being considered for a fellowship that had a required start date of June 1, 2010, but my anticipated graduation had been shifted back since our last conversation, so we weren't sure whether I would make it in time.
We still proceeded the next day, but I certainly felt bad that I hadn't been clear enough in our e-mails. In any case, my host picked me up and took me to breakfast in the morning (after I was up until ~2 working on slides after dinner), my talk went okay, I met with a lot of scientists, and had a fun day talking science. At the very end (6:30 pm or so), and then I was put in a cab back to LaGuardia.
I just have to interject here that apparently cab drivers in New York have never heard of the law that they're supposed to take the way that you specify to get to the airport, so I never saw the inside of the Queens Tunnel, despite asking two different drivers to take that way. The second cab was a little scary, as the guy was yelling into his cellphone alot, and I had no idea where we were going for awhile, even while watching our progress on the GPS map in the back of the cab. But, he got me to the airport on time, for less than I was told it would cost via the tunnel, so I guess I can't complain.
And then my plane was delayed like 4.5 hours. RRgggh. LaGuardia is not a good airport to be stuck in. Though they do have a Dunkin Donuts cart, and I got to read Wicked, which was interesting.
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