Thursday, October 21, 2010

Orbiting, but not paying attention

The excitement of the possible appication has worn off, as it has not been turned in yet. The husband is waiting on a publication, but his drag-ass adviser won't finish his end of the work.  It's always just over the rise, but now I'm not excited. A bit apathetic.

I did finally get it through my head that his job isn't dependent on the academic calendar as postdocs don't generally teach. So I don't have to get nervous that as the end of the semester approaches, it puts us back another semester. I'm still trying to rid my mind of the idea that we'll be gone by next semester. That's just foolishness.

I also got to stop fretting about how I never see any listings for postdocs in his specific field. I set up google alerts a year ago, and get several emails a day to sift through for the keywords I know. There are fields I have learned to hate, from the overabundance of jobs available. One day I will meet one of these scientists, and I will have to remind myself not to pinch them.  It's not their fault ________ is totally hot right now!

So, he's pretty sure that the job he'll find (the good one) will result from letters sent directly to people working in his field. And he hasn't done that yet because he's waiting until after his latest paper is published. I want to poke people, make this thing move along.  His adviser also went to Large Fancy College a week ago and talked to some potential bosses.  Weee!

The latest ohmygod thing that's happened in our house is our landlord giving us the tactless news that he's thinking about letting someone else live in our house. Yup, we're renters. It's not a "I hate you! You painted the bathroom blue! I want new tenants!" situation.  It's not even something he's sure of. But it lit a fire under our asses and we want to know where we are.  I'd hate to have to make a move in town, then immediately out of town. It's a ways off, and hopefully we'll be gone by then, but we had a few days of SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT.  The husband did see the silver lining: maybe he can use this to make his adviser move faster.

So far, not really happening.

In my own news, I have fallen off the yoga/sewing bandwagon. I feel pretty ashamed of myself for getting all hyped about sewing (my new future career!) and then quitting. I haven't quit, I just haven't had the time/space to do anything. And I think I need to take some time off from my lessons and do some independent study (saves money, too).  Now is the time of year to concentrate on a different craft: Halloween costumes. I've started mine, and it will take a while. As usual, I've offered to help everyone else with theirs.  It's my only real talent, not one that will help me in the wild, but makes me feel pretty good.  I wish I could post pictures!

The job is the same, but I'm doing a little better at standing up for myself.  I've had lots of opportunities to prove myself to be a good boss/supervisor, and some to prove I'm still a little immature.  I'm working on a manual of how to do my job, since the few procedures I inheirited aren't very fleshed out.  It's hilariously conversational, and I hope my successor actually gets it.  I wish I could leave a little "hang in there!" note. 

I've made friends with two other ladies that are in a similar position, marriage/career-wise, so it's good to see I"m not alone.  It's hard to talk about this stuff with people who aren't there (thus the blog, and my failing quest to find other like-minded bloggers) so being able to bounce ideas off of these ladies is so helpful. I'm not being pitied or misunderstood, and they don't look at me like I'm a whiner. At least not yet.  And even if it sounds terrible to say it's good to see people who are having the same problems, it is. It's good to know you're not alone, and to see how people are handling life.  Hopefully we'll all have something to teach each other.