Grrr-ness!

Well, I've officially renounced my crush. I found out that he's completely undependable and not worth my time. A few weeks ago I had introduced him to a lab down the hall who was looking for a new technician, and it just so happened that he was looking for a new lab. The lab loved his credentials and really seemed to like him - and after chatting with him about it, he seemed to really like their lab. All was well. A girl in that lab was so happy that she offered me dinner in repayment for setting them up with such a great candidate for the job! As it turns out, their lab was minutes from offering a job to someone else before I came into the room with Rob. So they had to put everything on hold in order to consider him. The only problem he forsaw was that the pay wasn't quite what he wanted (30,000, but he wanted 37). They were willing to work with the pay scale, but stated that money wasn't an issue in their lab - they just wanted someone with so much experience. Okay, so the next step they went to was to re-post the job offer online so that he could officially apply. They did this explicitly for him, and he was fully aware of this. Once the offer was up they started receiving applications from lots of people... But none from Rob. Fiinally, the listing had to close (due to equal opportunity policies with the university) and still he hadn't applied. I was cornered in the hall by the girl in their lab who was asking me what happened... I couldn't really answer either because I was shocked!

Earlier today, I spoke with the co-PI from that lab who expressed to me that he just happened to catch Rob in the hall downstairs. His excuse for not applying: the listed pay wasn't what he wanted. HELLO!!!?! They already talked about this, they can only list the salary that the university will allow, and if they want to negotiate they can. He knew this!! That isn't even the frustrating part about this whole story. What really gets to me is how he never even emailed or called them to ask about the posting or to just tell them he changed his mind. They went through so much trouble for him, and now they have more work on their hands because they have to go through all the new applications now! University policy mandates that they have to do all this leg-work for each applicant, even if they aren't hired. What's even more frustrating and annoying is that he's dragging my name through the mud because I was the one who vouched for him in the first place!! So here I am, running damage control for this guy who doesn't deserve the time of day from me and doesn't return my phone calls either!!! Grrrrr!!!!

Moreover, he just graduated with his bachelor's in biology. Good for him. Now he's demanding that they pay him $37,000 for a tech position. I'd be LUCKY to get that much as a POST-DOC, with a PHD!!!! That's the current salary rate for the NIH to pay its post-docs right now. He's sitting there bitching about how he only gets $30,000 now as a tech in his current lab to ME and I'm busting my ass off for less than $23,000!! Not cool, buddy. Not cool!

Why do I even try anymore!??!?!!

So far so good!

Had a chai date today with Rob. Went very well I think! Might be seeing him later tonight:) Woohoo!!

Getting there...

I'm proud to say that I finally finished the first draft of my manuscript for publication and gave it to Larry (to "rip" apart). It feels really good to say that it's done. For so long now I've been saying that I want/need to write this paper, and now it's actually done! The great part about this, too, is that I don't feel like there are any new experiments left to do before submitting the paper. We're waiting on some results from our collaborators, and I'm almost done sequencing a gene; and then we're all set! Yeah, yeah, it sounds like a lot to sequence a gene. You'd be surprised though, it really only takes me a few hours to prepare the sample before handing it over to the sequencing facility. They do the rest of the job and give me the results in a couple days... Ahhh, I love technology! So, by early next week we should have everything we need to put all the figures together and make sure the writing is in order. I'll be interested to see what Larry has to say about my writing. I know that the part dealing with our collaborators is weak, so I'll have to redo a lot of that, but overall I hope he thinks the jist of the paper is correct.

So... Now I'm sitting in lab, not really doing anything today. I'm waiting for a DNA amplification reaction to finish so I can send it off for sequencing, and then I don't know what else I want to do today. I guess the next step is to dive back into the developmental project I'm working on. Larry contacted another PI on campus to see if we could consult with him about some defects we see in the nasal septum of our mice. Looking over what has already been accomplished for this paper, I think that there are only a couple of minor experiments required before starting to write that paper as well. So exciting!!

On another, less science nerdy, note, I'm kinda crushing on someone right now. I've known him for quite some time now, though I only learned his name about a year ago. We've been going for chai and hot chocolate every once in a while for the past year or so, and he's asked me to have dinner at his place a few times but so far it had never been a good time for me. Either I was dating someone, not in the right mindframe to date anyone, or just plain busy every time he asked me. Recently, though, he asked me to play racquetball with him at his apartment's clubhouse. Turns out that we didn't actually play racquetball because we were more interested in swimming since it was a million degrees outside. So we went swimming. I had a really nice time, and he invited me back to grill out at his apartment. Again, very nice. As I got ready to leave, he walked me to my car and shyly "hmm'ed and hawed" before giving me a goodnight kiss. Turns out, it was the sweetest kiss I think I've ever had!! Now I'm crushing hard and wishing I could see him again soon. We're supposed to have chai again today if he's not busy, so cross your fingers for me!!