Things are getting better.  Slowly.

Chair and I met on Sunday; his wife has had some more medical problems so I essentially have written the whole thing.  He admits that he is in no shape to write, but can edit, so that’s what he’ll do. 

We talked a little about what happened:  I told him my husband said if he made me cry again husband would break his knees.  He laughed and said it’s not really grad school until you cry. 

However then we got to work, he saw everything I had done, and in response to a couple of things in email later that night said that I should book my tickets to the conference because I was definitely earning it now.  (I hate to break it to him, but I make more in my day job than he makes his; I was going regardless.  It was just a matter of whether it was to be a chance to look for a new mentor / program / career or not…)

I just sent the first full version of my conference paper to the
printer.  I think it’s not so bad.  If it were just me I would sit on
it for a day or so, then do one more pass and call it good.  However it
isn’t; i have to send it to chair tonight.  He will shred it tomorrow
and send it back to me.  *sigh*

On to other things….

I’m tired right now.  I was at 4 different sites in 2 different states since Monday AM – 2-3 hour drive between each one.  Of course, the meetings were great; very productive.  Plus I have to admit that anything that gets me out of downtown cube-farm h*ll makes my week better.  Hotels don’t, and especially not super8 level hotels in podunk towns where you can’t even get a decent pizza.  But it makes work more enjoyable to be out at the sites, and some of the drives were beautiful!!! 

Tomorrow is in the office (a good thing) and then friday I have a meeting about 2 hours away.  Day trip.  I’m a little worried, because every time I turn around someone else gets added to the invite list.  It was supposed to be just me and a software engineer whose brain I could pick about the database.  Now its me, the software engineer and 2 end users, one of which isn’t nearly as knowledgeable as I would like.  I’ll just apologize when I dive into things way over his head.

My treat for the week is a new ipod nano – my mini is at least 3 if not 4 years old and the battery life is somewhere on the order of 10 minutes unplugged.  Thing is, I listen to books on tape in my car and sometimes want to keep listening, say, over dinner.  Last night it didn’t even make it to the salad.  That just won’t do.  So I ordered a refurbished nano off the apple site; they will deliver it by the end of the week for less than it would have cost me to go to the apple store, and it has the same warranty as a new one.  That works for me.

I still don’t know what I’m going to do, other than the fact that I have to get through this conference.  After that, I can think about my future plans; I have to keep reminding myself that while I am really enjoying myself at my job right now that is partially due to the projects I have, and I wanted to get out of that business for a reason.  Then I have to think about what it is I REALLY want…..