Metro riding fool!

This past week I spent more time on the metro in one week than I've EVER spent! My daughter had engineering camp so I was back and forth on the metro between her camp which was at one end of the line and my job which is at another. Now I usually enjoy the riding metro because I hate driving, but after last month's metro accident which resulted in the death of 9 people, I've been a little more cautious and concerned when riding. Especially since they have on going electrical "issues".

This was also the week which I had a challenge on my job which in my opinion reeked of sexism and of course, I knew it was coming eventually. One important fact of working in an academic environment, even one with a military flavor, is that you'll come across many foreign Physicians and Scientists and unfortunately, many of them bring views which goes against most of what America stands for. For example, it's a pretty well known fact among people who know me well that being a woman has been far more of an issue than being Black has ever been, especially in the fields of Science and Medicine. I won't go into specific details about what transpired, but suffice it to say that my integrity was called into question by a foreign PI and that by the end of the week he had egg on his face. Here's the thing about me, I've grown accustomed to folks thinking I'm un or under qualified for my job, my major, or whatever else people like to imagine so with time, I've learned to handle these issues like a champ. But when my integrity has been called into question, that's an issue that while I can maintain diplomacy, I always make it crystal clear that those types of accusations will be dealt with. And expeditiously! Fortunately for me, I've established the kind of rapour with my supervisor and her supervisor such that when this PI decided to go way over my head, I had support for which I'm extremely grateful because this hasn't always been the case as in the last job I had where I was wrongfully fired. And I admit I was very angry about it because people have the power to destroy a persons professional life over a situation that had I been a man, I'm certain it would have been handled completely differently.

So with all that said, on Friday I was informed that there's talk of making my position a Research Assistant Professorship, which is pretty amazing given that I started off as a 4 hour/week casual employee just over a month ago. In other words, if you're good at what you do and you carry yourself with professionalism and integrity, things will ALWAYS work out in the end!

Round and round we go!!

This week was pretty exhausting due to all the work I had to do, but at the same time I really enjoyed it. I work 4 days/week part-time so it's a good schedule for me given I'm still dealing with fatigue issues (think I may need to have my thyroid hormones evaluated). I also had my first "challenge" to my "credibility" by of course, a woman grad student!!!! So 2 weeks ago, she comes to the lab and says " Since you're new, I want to make sure your work is of the same quality as I got before, so I'm only going to give you 2 tissues to process, embed and make H&E slides from". I say cool!! Now have a very recent history of not getting along with women from small, midwestern towns and I've frequently found their "views" to be characteritic of 1920's rural Mississippi. So I complete the task but because I'm unable to give her the 3 sections/slide she requested (the tisseu is far too long), I decide not to stain them and I wait for her to get back to me on what she would like me to do. And I wait, and I wait, and I wait, and finally 1 week later she very snippily says to me by email "I thought we already agreed on what I wanted you to do", to which I reply, "Yes, because I was unable to do exactly what you requested, I emailed my results to you last week and asked you to come look at the slides before I proceeded with the H&E's". Now this young lady works for an Assist. prof which is rule #1 of who NOT to work for if you're trying to get a PhD because they are often "intense" due to their lack of tenure status. Obviously, miss snippy didn't get that memo, LOL!! So she finally consents to the work, and picked up the slides earlier this week but when I got an email from her yesterday which she copied her PI, that she wanted the three of us to meet to discuss the slides, I knew it wasn't a good situation. She was already peeved because she got her initial results late due to lack of email reading and because I wasn't able to do what the previous tech had done and that was put 3 sections on a slide. Of course the problem is that if she knew anything about science, she would have realized that inflammed tissues expand and that the size of the stomach tissue at week 1 would be significanlty different 7 weeks later given the protocol they were using. Not only that, there was significant necrosis which means that the sections weren't as "pretty" as the first ones she received. So they come to the lab to basically complain about the presence of wrinkles in the tissue. That was "my bad", this was one of the first cases I did and the water bath temp reads differently than it really is and of course, I had to learn that the hard way, LOL!! But the issue of the nuclei being "too dark" and that she couldn't distinguish them under the microscope was pure bullshit! I looked at the slides before making them available for pick up and while I did notice wrinkling, I also knew that any decent Pathologist could clearly see the process they were looking for. I mean hell, I'm not even doing research in their area currently but because I had done something similar in the past, I knew what they would be looking for. So I'm left with having to adjust my standard H&E protocol to appease them and that's cool by me, because they'll be charged accordingly!!! But the fact that they brought them back to me without having a Pathologist look at them first, teeed me off just a tad bit since I had taken time out of my limited schedule to basically talk to them about something that could have been handled by email!!! Bottom line is that you can't please all of the people all of the time, so don't even bother trying, and I say all that to say this. Many Scientists or Physicians have no real appreciation for just how critical a field Pathology is nor any real knowledge of it and that is a damn shame!

Movin' on, I recently learned that there is a new grad program director in charge of the PhD program I planned to do, so I decided to go speak with him. Well, it was a good new/bad news story. First, my informal meeting ended up being more like an real interview so recalling how I kinda blew it at the "informal" interview I had for the 5 year MD program, I was more than ready when he started shooting the probing questions my way. Turns out, he was the TA for a grad course I took in 1985 at the University of Florida and while he didn't remember me, I certainly remembered him because he was so attractive! So 10 minutes into the conversation he said "you really need to stay focused on getting into med school, followed by doing your residency at the NIH, and securing a position with a federal agency after that". Now there are some other details which I don't want to mention in the interest of privacy, but let's just say that this was absolutely NOT what I was expecting him to say AT ALL!! Then he said "I've revamped the PhD program here so if you're accepted, plan to spend at least 6 years here because I won't allow you to transfer anything in. You won't be allowed to keep your full-time lab position, so you may as well stick with your original plan". DAMN!!!!!!! Just was I was about to get comfortable with my Plan B, LOL!!!

Anyway, I just find it so funny that no matter how much and hard I try to run away from the idea of med school, it just keeps coming back up. Of course, sticking to my original plan is further enhanced by my position because no matter how well I read slides, I must always defer to a Pathologist for conformation of my findings. And while this is cool for now, I know sooner than later, this is going to really start to work my nerves.

So I've recommitted myself to med school, at least in my mind although I'm not sure sure about my time frame and I think matriculating sometime over the next 3-5 years may be much more realistic. However, my actions have never waned from studying for the MCAT which I plan to take next spring/summer!!!

All quiet on the Metro DC front

These days nothing special is going on except for regular "life" things. I'm looking at buying a new place and TON of things have to be considered especially in metro DC, like how far is the commute going to be. My preference is northern Va although not too Northern and NO yard! Which means either another condo or a townhouse. I prefer the townhouse option because there's typically more space/privacy and little yard work to be concerned with and quite frankly because it's fits my lifestyle of being VERY busy. However because of the economy, and of course depending on the location, you could easily get a home for the price you pay for a townhouse, at least the ones I'm looking at. Still, Va is a good option because the university where I hope to work as an adjunct Prof is in NoVa and I'm most always in NoVa during my spare time anyway with the shopping outlets being preferred locations, lol!!

In other news, the job is really going well with some of the new equipment starting to arrive. Building a lab space essentially from scratch is daunting but I can't pretend that I'm not enjoying it. The other day I met with a rep from a company that makes many of the machines used in Pathology labs and it's so funny to me to watch sales people with their quasi fake smiles and chipper attitude get you to spend tens of thousands of dollars on the latest and greatest equipment. Of course the small little problem I'm having is that for the most part I NEVER really paid attention to the equipment as far as who made it. In other words, it took me about a half-hour to realize that the main piece of equipment I'd used in previous work in Pathology was the one sold by the sales rep. OK, I can admit, I felt a bit like an idiot for not realizing it sooner (especially since I have a publication using this equipment and would have listed it in the manuscript I submitted), so instead of being embarrassed I didn't remember sooner, I just admitted it, I'd forgotten the name of the equipment I'd used until I saw the picture, LOL!! And I learned that sometimes being a little self-deprecating goes over real well too!.

As for my MCAT prep, I'm pretty much down to Sundays only which is OK. I should be able to get through the entire first year course by the end of the year since I tend to do so much work when I do study. Still, I think when I start to teach the class that's when I'll really see a "return" on what I've learned since there's no better way to learn material than to teach it as ironic as that sounds.

Another ironic/unplanned situation I'm dealing with is the fact that I've had to purchase an entire new wardrobe because of the weight I wasn't aware I'd lost in the months following my surgery. Then again, when my size "10's" started to become loose, that should have been a big clue but I tend not to wear clothes that are too fitted because I prefer to be on the modest side on the job and at school. But there's loose and there's clownish, and I was starting to look more clownish than anything. So to the consignment stores and outlet's I went in search of "new" clothes which was a bit of a chore because I don't like shopping all that much. I also have to admit that as I'm getting older I have a through understanding of how/why it's so difficult to maintain a certain weight. I've had to reprogram my metabolism which was a feat all in itself, but I look and feel better than I have in a few years so I'm going to do the best I can to maintain it.

I guess this just about wraps up my past weeks happenings!

Be careful what you ask for....................

I don't know who said the above, but truer words were NEVER spoken. So far things are going well with my new gig but in less than my first month, I've already had to practice the art of avoiding talking about people I don't know, side step some obvious politically motivated conversations, remind a student who removed items from he lab without my consent that there's a new sheriff in town. Unfortunately, the person I took over from was a disaster where political savvy is concerned, and I find myself putting out many of the fires he started. Overall though, I'm getting along great with my supervisor but then again, I can't think of a smart Pathologist I've never been able to get along with, LOL!!

Of course there's the responsibility for being in charge which on paper seems obvious until you realize just how much work being in charge really is. If I have a question, I must find my own answers. Duh!! Then there are the perks like free training and attendance at meetings! Gotta love travel on someone else's dime!

I also met with a student whom I designing experiments for and that meeting went pretty well. Turns out she's doing some work in apoptosis which was my area of research just before I left the NIH, so I'm enjoying the work because I'm so interested in it. I've also had to make tact my middle name as in the situation where the graduate student in his haste to get his slides, took it upon himself to enter the lab after hours, go through my office to the lab which has the hood where his slides were drying. Now for anyone reading my blog on a regular basis you're probably thinking I lit the poor guy up like a Christmas tree but I didn't. In professional settings I tend to almost always show much more discretion with my words that I do in cyberspace, plus there's not much that could happen on a job that would make me risk my professional reputation. But you can be sure I did let him know that what he did wasn't acceptable. I thought I was being nice letting him know a day early when his slides would be ready for pick up, but in the future I won't do that until I'm ready to send the material out of the door.

Health wise, I'm still on the slow road to getting back to 100% and I find myself still needing to either take a 2 hour nap everyday or retire early for the evening. Needless to say, since I started working more than the 10 hours/week I thought I was going to be working, there haven't been many home cooked meals. I'm hoping to catch upon that this weekend, or I may decide to just a long nap instead, LOL!!!

MCAT studying is still in progress and I've resolved myself to the fact that I'm going to take the remainder of the year to complete the 1 year chemistry course rather than trying to do it all this summer. Speaking of school, I'm also pretty sure that my graduation date will probably be May 2010 just to accommodate the increased hours I'll need to work and quite frankly, I don't wish to blow my straight "A" trend.

Overall, I can't complain about life these days and I remain continually thankful for all that God has blessed me with.