Thursday, November 6, 2008

A quick update

So Tuesday was fabulous.

A President who represents hope and not fear. Change and not stagnation. Dreams and not nightmares. And he has already gone to work. He has a lot of work to do.

A majority in both Houses.

Philly wasn't destroyed or even seriously damaged in the impromptu celebrations on Broad (as opposed to the celebrations for the Phillies).

It wasnt perfect.

We didnt get the magic 60 in the Senate, but what are the odds that all Dems would vote the same way anyway.

Prop 8 was passed.

Wednesday was my thesis committee meeting. Fabulous and perfect are pretty much opposites of how that went.

I will not be graduating in May. I might be able to graduate in August. Partly this means that the next few months will be hellish, but not as hellish as they could have been. It also means that if I need to be looking for a teaching job in the spring for the fall, I might not know by then that I could graduate in the fall. So I cant really look for a job in the spring. Which means I cant get a job for the fall. It also means that my hope for a June 2010 wedding is pretty much out the window. Which shouldnt even upset me since until September I wasnt planning on graduating until early 2010 anyway. But since September I have had this idea in my mind that I could be out of here in May. And I could have a summer "off" before starting the new part of my life. And I would be done with this. And I want to get married. I want to plan a wedding. Because I can honestly say that I dont want to be here anymore. Case in point to why I dont want to be here anymore. My meeting, this most important of meetings was Wednesday at 3. Last Thursday Nina informed me that the earliest she could meet with me to discuss it was Friday. At noon. After what we thought was a root canal but turned out to be a simple dental appointment. The problem being that the Phillies World Series parade was Friday. At noon. So I went to the parade and then walked back to work to meet with her. She came in and told me that due to Septa ridiculousness, she was going to leave and try to get a train. So instead of being able to work over the weekend on my presentation (the way that she wanted it) I made a presentation the way I wanted it. Knowing it would be changed. But at least it was a groundwork. Monday she came in and told me that she was too busy to meet with me but would meet with me Tuesday to discuss my slides and what we were going to say to the committee. Tuesday her door was closed when I arrived and the whole day until she left. At noon. Without telling anyone. Without coming to find me. Without even emailing me. I finally heard from her by email at 3:30 telling me she would meet me at 10 on Wednesday. Wednesday we met from 10:15-11:30. She changed every single one of my slides except the title slide. Which gave me 3 hours to completely change my entire fucking presentation. Not that a better presentation would have made then decide I could graduate. But I would have at least known what to say for each slide. I would have had time to relax and eat lunch before giving my talk. I would have in better control and I would have been able to answer questions better. And at least if it didnt go well I could say I did my best. I dont want to deal with this anymore. It is one thing that my experiments dont work and I dont know why. It is one thing that am alone and isolated in the lab and some days do not say a single word to anyone until I get home and see Matty. It is one thing that I have no help from anyone, no one to discuss problems or experiments or data with except my boss who is too busy to meet with me, or anyone else. We havent had a meeting the two of us to discuss my work in over a month and a half. We havent had an actual planned lab meeting since . . . . . . . . . May? Maybe March? But if at least my boss was supportive. If at least when it cames to things like that if she could not wait to change EVERYTHING until 5 hours before a meeting. At least it would be something.

Ok. Back to work.

My mom is coming this weekend. I can look forward to that at least.

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