Just Pee in the Cup

Yet another step along the road to new employment
has been completed. I have completed both the drug
test and the physical. Hurray!

I was a little disturbed by how thorough the physical was.
I thankfully was not probed in any way, but it was everything
else. The good news in that I have great vision and great
"staying power" with my lungs, I guess that could come in
handy somehow. The bad news is that I might have high
blood pressure. Yeah, what a way to approach my 28th year,
actually signing up for old age.

In other awesome news I HAVE CURTAINS!! (Yeah, maybe I am
old.) Anyway, it's very exciting. I have been in my apartment
for over 6 months and just this past weekend I got curtains
for my bedroom and living room. It's like I have a whole new
apartment.

The weekend saw the Corey house cooling party, sadly they
are moving to DC this week. It was a great get together and may
have involved some drinking. Any rumors about whether or not
someone may have eaten some of Ranger's Beggin Strips are in
fact true. I had a great time and walked away with a Mary Baker
Eddy biography (Score!).

Classifieds:

Happy Birthday to Heidi, Bryan, and my Grandma
(hitting the big 87!).
Good luck to the Corey's with their move, I'll miss you guys!!

AA for Mac Addiction?

I am completely obsessed. I got a powerbook
about a year ago and I cannot see how I lived
without it. I actually bought the powerbook
as an acessory to my iPod. Yes, it's true.
I always used to carry at least 20 CDs with me
wherever I went, you never know what you will
feel like listening to. So I got the iPod, well
I got the powerbook first but only so I could
have something to hold the music to put on the
iPod. Somehow it didn't seem like bad logic at
the time.

Well the obsession has grown recently. I can't
explain why but when the new iPod shuffle came
out I HAD TO HAVE ONE. It's completely silly since
I already have a 15G one but it looked like such
a cool gadget. There was a huge demand for them
so I have been on a waitlist with the Apple store
for the past month, well I was until last night!
My reserved iPod shuffle came in and I picked it
up last night. I have been using it all day.
It's awesome! I don't know why it seems so much
better than the big one but it does. It's probably
just because it's a new toy. That's good enough
for me though.

Unfortunately waiting for it to be released and then
waiting to get it has resulted in a general Mac mania.
I check Mac rumor sites at least 4-5 times a day, I
look at the Apple site just to see if they are up to
anything, I search out neat applications that are
probably going to result in me screwing up my
powerbook....I have a problem. I have been swept
up into the Mac community's frenzy over when and if
Apple will release a powerbook G5....why? I already
have one, I don't need another computer. I think
that there must be subliminal messages that are
programmed into the iPods and computers. That or I
am really just a giant dork that needs to get out
more. NO! I know! It's the damn weather!

Yeah, that's it....the weather.




I want to say thanks to Jill and Bryan for hosting
a great superbowl party!

Really Happening!!

The huge news is I HAVE A NEW JOB!!!!
I will soon be a Scientist (that is my new
official title) at Novartis.

Holy crap. I cannot believe that it is actually
happening but it is. Just for background I have
been at my current job for almost six years.
Most people come through between college and
grad school, they work for two years tops. I still
talk to some of the lab alumni and they all think,
or thought, that I would be there forever.

I started at the lab right out of college down in
New York City. I worked there for a little over
two years and then the head of the lab got an
offer to come up to Boston. He asked me to come
up along with a few other people and I have
been there ever since. A lot of people have come
and gone but I have stuck around. Now I freely
admit that a big part of why I have stayed is that
I can't figure out where I want to end up. I don't
know what I want my career to be. Theoretically I was
supposed to figure that out but it just didn't happen
and my current job kept changing so there were
always new opportunities. Also I work with great
people that made it easy to stick around.

Even though it's a great place it is still time to move
on, there is nowhere for me to go. I am back to doing
the same work I've done for years and there are no
chances for any kind of advancement. So I asked a
friend of mine who used to work in the lab but moved
to Novartis a year ago, to let me know if he heard about
any opportunities over there. About two weeks ago he
called to let me know there was this great position in a
new group at the company. He had already talked to
the director and mentioned me. So I submitted my
resume to this job that almost literally fell into my lap,
they called me in for an interview, I went back for a
second and then on Tuesday THEY OFFERED ME THE JOB!!!!!
I couldn't believe it! I mean it happened so smoothly
(although not without some MAJOR stressing
on my part about silly things) that it didn't seem real.

I told my bosses today, I kind of have three, that I will be
leaving after some stressing over whether I should say
anything yet or not. I think I made the right choice.
They were pretty surprised and so was I, they were so nice
about it. I wasn't sure how they would react, I thought it
could be bad but it was the total opposite. The one actually
got a little teary-eyed when he was talking about me leaving.
He said that if I am there for a while and it just isn't working
out to give him a call and if there isn't anything in the lab
he knows a lot of people and could find me something.
How awesome is that? I mean I tell him I'm leaving and he
basically offers support if it doesn't work out. Wow.

The other result of today is that the whole thing is a lot
more real. I'm leaving...and getting a sweet new deal!!

I will now bask in the excitement (and not think about
how much is going to change).

Times they are a'changin

I have shown myself to be a big liar. I haven't
posted, oops.

Since any real posts were at least, well, a while
ago, I am going to use the bullet point method
of updating. Seems useful here.

(Several hours later...)

Okay, I can't find the damn bullet symbol so
scratch that idea.

Let's just say that November was crazy. I went
to yet another wedding that I really should have
written about due to the shear over-the-top
nature of the shindig. There was live entertainment
consisting partially of a set of Russian twins dressed
head to toe in matching teal sheer "suits" that may
have shown a little bit of boob. Okay, all the boob.
I have never seen such an amazing spread of food
including flaming roast duck. Yes it was on fire.

Thanksgiving was great, went home to the land of
the Amish and ate more food than I thought was
possible.

December kind of flew by. I had a great time at
Jon and Mindy's Hannukah party. I had some folks
over to my house for a late Christmas get together
(a first!). I saw another great Eddie from Ohio concert.
Then it was home for Christmas and back for a lovely
New Years with Jon.

January is always a sucky month. The holidays are
over, the winter is just getting going and it's friggin
dark. This year, all that changed, well those things
didn't but it hasn't really mattered. I don't know
how I ended up so lucky, things have just been great
with Jon. Despite me being a freakshow half of the
time he continues to amaze me.

There is some huge news, huge for me anyway that
I have to post about, but I think it will have to wait
for my next posting.