Birchie, I am so sorry. I recall your posts: You'd been doing a lot of care and helping to organize family members' lives. Probably his health and state of mind has been worrying you for some time now. I hope this gave him some peace.
I haven't been posting here as I should be. But that is going to change. I've been mulling over the changes I need to make and I'm setting myself up for what I need to do.
1) I've ordered a large stability ball. I have a medium sized one and it just isn't big enough for what I want to start.
2) I've found a really cool set of workouts to tone my arms (a 6-week arm toning workout using weights and the stability ball)
3) I've been looking closer at my diet and know I need to make some changes and will fine-tune that today
4) I've been naturally waking up at 4 AM, but staying in bed unneccisarily until 4:45. I'm not going to do that any longer--I'll get up when I wake up (and go do my exercises).
I'm going to use this thread to do my daily accounting.
Alison, it will be great to see your accounting posts.
I had a great week of lows and was feeling really on track, only to have my wt go up again this week. Feeling a little discouraged but not going anywhere. Some of it is probably residual water retention from my period. Additional carbs and fat have been sneaking in though, so it's probably some of both.
Hi all,
I'm starting to spiral into destructive stress again. This is what happened last fall when I gained the 10 lbs that I'm now trying to lose. And I knew this would be coming, so I've been busting my butt trying to keep up so that I don't fall too far behind.
But then the bottom dropped out yesterday... my one research lab tech told me she's leaving at the end of June. It's a disaster. I've got a new research intern coming tomorrow who will need heavy training and supervision all summer; my tech was going to take that off my back. It will take at least all summer for me to hire and train a new tech as well. And the core lab I direct is horribly short-staffed; we're trying to hire there also but meanwhile we're all putting in too many hours. I've got two hour-long presentations (that I've written about 25% of) to give to hundreds of people in Indiana in a few weeks, plus lectures throughout spring quarter; manuscripts to finish and to revise; and another conference to present at in a month.
It's the worst possible time to lose my most valuable employee. I have a strong suspicion that this will be the death of the one-week vacation my husband and I planned and have been looking forward to all spring. I won't cancel the reservations yet, but realistically there's little chance of it now.
JayZee Seems like it might be time for a new job, unrealistic and flippant as that sounds. You have worked very hard to get to where you are but it sounds like it's destroying any life outside work.
Thank you all very much indeed for your condolences. This is a busy time but in a small town so I am walking everywhere. It's a good way to work off stress and strain, I find. Things are beginning to even out a bit but there have been some tricky moments. It was hard yesterday when I wasn't sure where my uncle's body was, for example. I am hoping that it will become smoother as everyone understands that I am in charge of proceedings. In every tragedy there is a comic turn and I think we have two. Frankly, I could do without these jokers.
Bought my mum a small pudding thing from the shops yesterday, at her request, but didn't buy one for me. Credit!
JayZeeJay, I'm sorry to hear you've got so much on your plate again and don't have proper support. Would even an experienced lab tech need a lot of training?
Oh Silverbirch, that's rough. Hang in there.
In answer to your question, I can't afford a high-level or even mid-level tech position, so I will have to do the same thing I did before: bring in a young person with a small amount of bench skill and teach them everything.
Dagmar, that's really the only answer left. I check the job boards daily. We're at the point now where I may try to get a job elsewhere since there are none here, and my husband and I will live apart for a while until his startup matures.
JZJ - I read your post yesterday and then got caught up in my own stress and never made it back. I'm so sorry about everything going on for you at work. I am very single tracked in my job, so I worry every day about the one other person who helps me out leaving. I'd never be able to take vacation again. I hope you still get your time off - everyone needs a break, and sounds like you need it a lot right now.
JZJ, do I remember correctly that you are at Stanford? If so, aren't there at least 4 other universities within commuting distance of you? And what about biotech/pharma? Aren't there companies in your area that want bench scientists in ***?
Have done my exercises and eaten breakfast (muesli with a chopped apple and semi-skimmed milk). It's a busy day ahead, as you can imagine.
Using diplomacy, in different directions, I have managed to neutralise one of the jokers. Phew. The second one is more difficult but she is in my sights.
Just counted a very large pile of cash. It doesn't add up to the figure I was told when it was handed over. Something else for the day. Rock on.
Silverbirch, best of luck getting through today. And the rest.
Andrea, yes - I've been watching all of the local pharma jobs and applying for a few, with no luck. The competition for research-only jobs is so intense here... my friends at G*** tell me that applicants have at minimum two to three postdoctoral positions when they apply, and some have been faculty researchers. I don't have a lot of experience in the hottest bench techniques that they seem to want, like structural protein work, CyTOF, etc. My best chances are in my clinical work as a vet pathologist, but there's nothing locally available in the diagnostic labs.
On the plus side, for some reason this latest bout of stress seems to be reducing my appetite instead of increasing it. Also, my summer research intern just arrived and he's a kick in the pants - he showed up in a button-down short sleeved shirt and a bowtie. Adorable.
I've decided my new favorite dish is this: 1/2 an onion chopped, 2-3 jalapeņos seeded and chopped, 1 red pepper seeded and chopped--saute in a little olive oil. Then add two cans (or three) of fire roasted diced tomatoes. Heat it all up and then poach an egg or two inside. The tomato stuff is way low in calories and high in flavor (and veggies!) and will save in the fridge to do this meal at least three times (for both DH and myself). When I fix it for our dinner, I serve it on a tortilla with some refried beans (huevos rancheros) and 1/2 an avocado, but leftovers are just the tomato mixture and the egg. Yum.
I saw 150 on the scale today. We'll see if it sticks for my "official" weigh-in tomorrow. I feel like TOM is imminent so it's likely to go up instead, but we shall see. (Also, with TOM imminent, I really want to eat chocolate, so...)
JZJ, I don't know any details about the kind of work you do but I saw "CyTOF" and "core lab" which are both things that I am somewhat familiar with. I work for a medical device/scientific instrumentation company, and I know we have research scientists who work for us on developing assays and things like that. Maybe it's a job area that you could move into?
Seems like it might be time for a new job, unrealistic and flippant as that sounds. You have worked very hard to get to where you are but it sounds like it's destroying any life outside work.
Rock on.
