I guess it's been a while since I last posted and as expected I'm pretty busy these days. My presentation went very well, so well that 2 days afterwards, I'm still getting good feedback about it. Of course, the one prof I was sure would try to grill me as he had done other students, did so, and I was more than ready giving him that "next question" look after I answered each of his questions.
I so much wish to reveal more details about my school, and my PI, but to do so would be to say who I am. Not that I'm overly concerned about that, it's simply knowing the ways of the world and knowing that you never know who is reading your blog, who they know and are related to, one has to be careful. Of course, after a heated debate over baby car seats followed by having been slyly threatened by a Mom/MD who graduated from a school I had planned to apply to, probably shapes my decision to be more anonymous on the web. So basically, she threatened to contact the director of the program I planned to apply to and say what I imagined, I disagree with paying over $200 for a baby car seat? The thing is this man could be her father or uncle for all I know, and I'm not one of those "lie down and let you kick me" kinda folks. I'm a sue your ass for slander kinda person which would obviously be a distraction from school. But I digress, once I have my official MD/PhD letter of admittance in hand, I'll reveal more about who I am and what I'm doing.
Speaking of that, I had yet another disconcerting interaction with a middle aged black woman and as a middle aged black woman, I'm perplexed. Now I imagine some of you are wondering why in the world I'm spending so much time focusing on these kinds of trivial issues. And I guess the reason is because I feel that so many black folks have that Willie Lynch/slave mentality and I'd like my young readers to be aware of just how prevalent it is among so called black professionals. In this case, I was greeted with the warm and fuzzy, "who are you and what are YOU doing here, while waiting in a common area for the post doc who is training me. Now 20 years ago, I may have been inclined to ask the woman to step outside for further conversation (it's best in these situations to have NO witnesses to things you may say). But now I just laugh to myself and wonder when was the last time the person had some, how shall we say, male interactions. As much as I hate to admit it, I so get why black women have the "reputations" they do, as unfriendly and hell raisers. But lets be real here, black women in the past had a LOT to be angry about. But what the hell are "we" so angry about now I ask again? Well in this particular case, we have a woman that I'm sure if she were any other race, would have her PhD 5X over because she's tight just like that. Strangely, just before she greeted me "warmly", I overheard her calling a young PhD stupid. Ummmm.......yeah.......O-Tay. That wouldn't suit, but I know that a lot about relationships are based on respect and what I've learned the hard way courtesy of the University of Florida, is that once you allow someone to disrespect you, they will continue to do so. So when I got up to introduce myself formally to her I made sure my eye contact could melt ice and that my handshake was strong. Gotta let people know without getting a 'tude that you are NOT to be played with.
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