Decision's made, apartment's *mostly* packed
It’s funny to me how efficient the human brain can be. I needed to let the decision as to where I want to go for my postdoc roll around my head for a while, and roll it does. In the back rooms it bounces around, unbeknownst to my conscious mind, and when it finds a point, it yells out to the front room “Did you ever think of this? Add this to the pro and/or con list!” and you bet I do. In the last week or so my brain has shouted out some very good points, out of the blue, as I’ve been packing my apartment and pretending to do work in the lab. Ooooooh, I’ve been slacking at work. Not good. I have no good excuse.
Anyway, it’s become clear to me that taking the job at the NCI/NIH is the better idea. The work is terribly interesting and relevant. The folks are good shits. They have plenty of money. They’ve trained postdocs before. They don’t have a hidden agenda of forcing me to go into academia, industry or government work. As long as I’m successful, they’re happy. If I find that bench-work just isn’t for me, they’ll help me find out what is for me. They did that for a previous employee who got really involved with one of the postdoc organizations who helped folks write their papers and/or grants. She liked that aspect so much better, so they helped her get a job she wanted and got her out of the lab. No hard feelings. How cool is that?
Now I’m not saying that the Mayo Clinic sucked. It’s a close second. It’s just not as great as NCI/NIH. I’m not officially cutting them lose until I have everything lined up with the NCI/NIH. I’m not going to be fooled twice! If things go horribly south with NCI/NIH, they’re my back up.
Of course this disappoints my mother to no end. “It would have been so nice to have you so close to home!” Yeah, well, maybe for you, but not for me. I really don’t need any more guilt trips and being too far away to run home for every family event/function/drama has its advantages. She tried to change my mind by bringing up the high cost of living in Bethesda and speculating that it would be hard for me to resurrect my hiking/backpacking hobby. Yep, she’s a wily, manipulative one! Not to worry. I got the quote on what my first year salary would be and I have been researching what the housing it like out there (1 bedroom apts are going for about $900-1500). After some rudimentary calculations, if I happened to get a more expensive apartment, at the end of the day I’d be bringing home about the same amount I do now post-rent payment. So my lifestyle wouldn’t really be changing if I got a more expensive apt. If I got a cheaper apt I could even start to save some money! Hooray! I can’t express to you how excited that makes me. Yeah, sad, I know, but don’t rain on my parade. Plus, I’m plenty close to places to hike and backpack as well as friends who hike and backpack. I’m set!
So, the professor at the NCI/NIH is on vacation this week, and will be back next week. I’m looking forward to talking to her more extensively and figuring out the details.
Funny side note: remember my flu? I got a call from a woman at the Public Health office in Rochester, MN. Turns out that they are investigating complaints of food-borne illness from the restaurant I ate at while on my interview! I had to answer all sorts of odd questions about what I ate and where from July 10-17. She wanted to know if I’d been to any parties. I told her that I hadn’t, but I did pass through 2 big airports (twice!) and fly on 4 airplanes to get to and from Rochester for my interview. Does that count? Why yes, yes it does. She also wanted to know how many times I vomited and had bowel movements during my illness. I don’t know about you, but when I’m that sick, I’m not counting how many times I do anything. I can barely keep track of what day it is. Apparently the cut-off number is 3. I could confidently say that I vomited more than 3 times, and my stomach was still trying well after that. I wonder if she’ll get back to me and let me know if it really was the restaurant.
Other than that, the only news is that I’m about 95% packed up and sorted and ready for moving day tomorrow. All I have left is some of the kitchen and all the stuff I’m currently using on a day-to-day basis. Today I have to go to the new apt to wait for the cable guy to come and hook me up. I’ll be bringing a few things over today since I’ve got the key early – might as well. I can provide safe passage for my plants and decrease some of the workload for tomorrow. The rest of the day I’ll finish packing the 5% that’s left. I hate packing, especially by myself. It takes so freaking long! Now, I like knowing that everything is packed to my liking, but the thrill and comfort of that only lasts so long.
I’m also looking forward to not needing to deal with the new people moving into my old apt. They’ve called me several times now. Seems they are quite nervous and preoccupied with the cable TV, and apparently it’s up to me to assuage their fears. Like I’ve said, I have my cable “stopping” today and “switching” to the new place. Apparently the cable company won’t let the new folks “switch” until Aug. 1. The new people were harassing me about not stopping my cable earlier so that they could start theirs earlier. I explained that I did, but that didn’t matter. So *I* had to call the cable company and ask about it. Turns out that my billing stops today, but not the actual service, because they can’t get someone to physically come to my apt today to fiddle in the box. But they can get someone out on Aug. 1, which is what they have scheduled. I had to explain to the new people that they’ll have cable the minute they move in, it just won’t be *their* cable, it’ll be *my* residual cable.
They are moving in on Sunday. I plan to clean the apt tomorrow night, after returning the truck, so that it’s relatively clean for them. Turns out that they want to come over that evening to “help” me clean. I’m not sure how that will go as I am already annoyed with them. I guess they didn’t think that I’d have time to clean before they moved in. Maybe I can clean as much as I want before they get there. Yeah, that sounds like the best idea to me.
Anyway, it’s become clear to me that taking the job at the NCI/NIH is the better idea. The work is terribly interesting and relevant. The folks are good shits. They have plenty of money. They’ve trained postdocs before. They don’t have a hidden agenda of forcing me to go into academia, industry or government work. As long as I’m successful, they’re happy. If I find that bench-work just isn’t for me, they’ll help me find out what is for me. They did that for a previous employee who got really involved with one of the postdoc organizations who helped folks write their papers and/or grants. She liked that aspect so much better, so they helped her get a job she wanted and got her out of the lab. No hard feelings. How cool is that?
Now I’m not saying that the Mayo Clinic sucked. It’s a close second. It’s just not as great as NCI/NIH. I’m not officially cutting them lose until I have everything lined up with the NCI/NIH. I’m not going to be fooled twice! If things go horribly south with NCI/NIH, they’re my back up.
Of course this disappoints my mother to no end. “It would have been so nice to have you so close to home!” Yeah, well, maybe for you, but not for me. I really don’t need any more guilt trips and being too far away to run home for every family event/function/drama has its advantages. She tried to change my mind by bringing up the high cost of living in Bethesda and speculating that it would be hard for me to resurrect my hiking/backpacking hobby. Yep, she’s a wily, manipulative one! Not to worry. I got the quote on what my first year salary would be and I have been researching what the housing it like out there (1 bedroom apts are going for about $900-1500). After some rudimentary calculations, if I happened to get a more expensive apartment, at the end of the day I’d be bringing home about the same amount I do now post-rent payment. So my lifestyle wouldn’t really be changing if I got a more expensive apt. If I got a cheaper apt I could even start to save some money! Hooray! I can’t express to you how excited that makes me. Yeah, sad, I know, but don’t rain on my parade. Plus, I’m plenty close to places to hike and backpack as well as friends who hike and backpack. I’m set!
So, the professor at the NCI/NIH is on vacation this week, and will be back next week. I’m looking forward to talking to her more extensively and figuring out the details.
Funny side note: remember my flu? I got a call from a woman at the Public Health office in Rochester, MN. Turns out that they are investigating complaints of food-borne illness from the restaurant I ate at while on my interview! I had to answer all sorts of odd questions about what I ate and where from July 10-17. She wanted to know if I’d been to any parties. I told her that I hadn’t, but I did pass through 2 big airports (twice!) and fly on 4 airplanes to get to and from Rochester for my interview. Does that count? Why yes, yes it does. She also wanted to know how many times I vomited and had bowel movements during my illness. I don’t know about you, but when I’m that sick, I’m not counting how many times I do anything. I can barely keep track of what day it is. Apparently the cut-off number is 3. I could confidently say that I vomited more than 3 times, and my stomach was still trying well after that. I wonder if she’ll get back to me and let me know if it really was the restaurant.
Other than that, the only news is that I’m about 95% packed up and sorted and ready for moving day tomorrow. All I have left is some of the kitchen and all the stuff I’m currently using on a day-to-day basis. Today I have to go to the new apt to wait for the cable guy to come and hook me up. I’ll be bringing a few things over today since I’ve got the key early – might as well. I can provide safe passage for my plants and decrease some of the workload for tomorrow. The rest of the day I’ll finish packing the 5% that’s left. I hate packing, especially by myself. It takes so freaking long! Now, I like knowing that everything is packed to my liking, but the thrill and comfort of that only lasts so long.
I’m also looking forward to not needing to deal with the new people moving into my old apt. They’ve called me several times now. Seems they are quite nervous and preoccupied with the cable TV, and apparently it’s up to me to assuage their fears. Like I’ve said, I have my cable “stopping” today and “switching” to the new place. Apparently the cable company won’t let the new folks “switch” until Aug. 1. The new people were harassing me about not stopping my cable earlier so that they could start theirs earlier. I explained that I did, but that didn’t matter. So *I* had to call the cable company and ask about it. Turns out that my billing stops today, but not the actual service, because they can’t get someone to physically come to my apt today to fiddle in the box. But they can get someone out on Aug. 1, which is what they have scheduled. I had to explain to the new people that they’ll have cable the minute they move in, it just won’t be *their* cable, it’ll be *my* residual cable.
They are moving in on Sunday. I plan to clean the apt tomorrow night, after returning the truck, so that it’s relatively clean for them. Turns out that they want to come over that evening to “help” me clean. I’m not sure how that will go as I am already annoyed with them. I guess they didn’t think that I’d have time to clean before they moved in. Maybe I can clean as much as I want before they get there. Yeah, that sounds like the best idea to me.
posted by Lil Kate at 7:06 AM
2 Comments:
"Good shits." Ha!
Sounds like the people moving into your old place are cra-zee. I'd give the apartment a quick once over and then bolt. They'll probably have to sterilize everything and then cleanse the aura of the place by waving dead chickens around or something. You don't need to see that.
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