and the reality is that in less than a month, I will be delivered from the bowels of employment hell!!!!!
You know, I have NEVER in my entire career been so happy to leave a situation before but I'm still thinking through what I'm going to do next. Maybe I should rephrase that, I'm still on the bioinformatics track school wise and I'm still studying for the MCAT< but what my next job is going to involve I have NO idea. In a lot of ways I feel like I'm having a Forest Gump moment, where my career right now is like a box of chocolates, because I have NO IDEA what I'm gonna get next. But having a lot of varied employment experiences, I'm fairly confident no change that, I'm supremely blessed in the sense that God has never, ever let me down in this regard. So I'm actually excited to see what happens next between now and my maritculation into med school.
As for the MCAT, I'm a little stuck right now studying acids and bases, but I'm sure that's in part because I'm just a tad bit distracted and didn;t study as much as I should have last week. But one thing that's clear in all I'm dealing with is that success in med school is going to be predicated on my ability to stay focused even in those rare moments when all hell is breaking out around me. And this is what I think my life right now is all about, staying focused, getting the job done, when I find myself surrounded by BS. I mean let's think about it for a minute, who would want to be operated on by a surgeon who is thinking about the argument she had with her husband the night before? I know I sure as hell wouldn't, but I often wonder how Docs manage to tune out personal stuff and get the job done, or maybe when mistakes are made they don't?
At any rate, I look forward to having a blessed, successful, productive week and hope you do too! :)
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Who quits a well paying job in a recession?
A person who realizes that life is too damn short!!!!
So I resigned from my position about 4 hours after having yet another meeting where the path I worked with resorts to yelling at others when she feels her opinions aren't being accepted. But the reality is that there's was a LOT more to it than that. Truthfully speaking, that wasn't what "broke the camel's back" for me as far as this job was concerned. It was a conversation I had earlier in the week with my kid where she basically says that I've been hell to live with for about the last 7 months, which doesn't ironically coincide with the day I started this gig. Add to that the fact that I helped a close friend check their Mom in a nursing home late night on the Thursday before last, only to see the mother pass way 4 days later, and it would be an understatement to say that I've had a hellified past 3 weeks.
But the other last straw for me occurred when my Supv not only defended the path's right to yell at me during the meeting (which was so loud that SHE was told to be quiet by another PI on the floor), she basically said in was my fault the last terrorist I worked with quit in front of the entire group. Now I think I've mentioned a few times now that my department of 4 people has had almost 10 people working there in the last 3 years, and between March of last year and this March, 4 people will have left. Yeah, that ALL sounds like my fault, especially those folks who worked there before I did!!
Now my take on my Supv is that she's a management ass kissing punk, having quit her job in the midwest to move here last May so the stakes for her a VERY high as it relates to a job. But why someone would relocate their life for a temp job with a gov't contractor I guess is a reflection of the times we live in, but I certainly can't imagine EVER doing something like that myself. Whatever, DH and kid are glad I quit and in fact not one person I've talked to who knows me well thinks it was a bad idea. The fact is that this was the most stressful job I've ever had and that's just my work as both a manager and scientist. Throw in that other asinine BS I was dealing with and now you have what I call a kettle full of hot molten bull$hit, LOL!!!! And to paraphrase Hancock from the movie with the same name, when asked by Ray, why he was almost buck naked stealing ice from an ice cream truck, "my ass got to be just a little too hot", ROTFLMBAO!!!!
Moving on, I now have all the time I need plus some to prepare for the MCAT, physician shadow in the Path dept at a local med school and also at a local nursing home, and complete my computer programming/bioinformatics course until my next gig is lined up. Speaking of gigs, I think I'm going to focus on teaching at a local CC which I've said before, but now I actually have some good leads to follow up on. However, my management days are over until I find myself in a field dominated by men and luckily for me, Bioinformatics may be just the ticket!
So now, I'm off to celebrate the end of my nightmare with my family on this long weekend! :)
So I resigned from my position about 4 hours after having yet another meeting where the path I worked with resorts to yelling at others when she feels her opinions aren't being accepted. But the reality is that there's was a LOT more to it than that. Truthfully speaking, that wasn't what "broke the camel's back" for me as far as this job was concerned. It was a conversation I had earlier in the week with my kid where she basically says that I've been hell to live with for about the last 7 months, which doesn't ironically coincide with the day I started this gig. Add to that the fact that I helped a close friend check their Mom in a nursing home late night on the Thursday before last, only to see the mother pass way 4 days later, and it would be an understatement to say that I've had a hellified past 3 weeks.
But the other last straw for me occurred when my Supv not only defended the path's right to yell at me during the meeting (which was so loud that SHE was told to be quiet by another PI on the floor), she basically said in was my fault the last terrorist I worked with quit in front of the entire group. Now I think I've mentioned a few times now that my department of 4 people has had almost 10 people working there in the last 3 years, and between March of last year and this March, 4 people will have left. Yeah, that ALL sounds like my fault, especially those folks who worked there before I did!!
Now my take on my Supv is that she's a management ass kissing punk, having quit her job in the midwest to move here last May so the stakes for her a VERY high as it relates to a job. But why someone would relocate their life for a temp job with a gov't contractor I guess is a reflection of the times we live in, but I certainly can't imagine EVER doing something like that myself. Whatever, DH and kid are glad I quit and in fact not one person I've talked to who knows me well thinks it was a bad idea. The fact is that this was the most stressful job I've ever had and that's just my work as both a manager and scientist. Throw in that other asinine BS I was dealing with and now you have what I call a kettle full of hot molten bull$hit, LOL!!!! And to paraphrase Hancock from the movie with the same name, when asked by Ray, why he was almost buck naked stealing ice from an ice cream truck, "my ass got to be just a little too hot", ROTFLMBAO!!!!
Moving on, I now have all the time I need plus some to prepare for the MCAT, physician shadow in the Path dept at a local med school and also at a local nursing home, and complete my computer programming/bioinformatics course until my next gig is lined up. Speaking of gigs, I think I'm going to focus on teaching at a local CC which I've said before, but now I actually have some good leads to follow up on. However, my management days are over until I find myself in a field dominated by men and luckily for me, Bioinformatics may be just the ticket!
So now, I'm off to celebrate the end of my nightmare with my family on this long weekend! :)
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Calgon, take me away!!!
I imagine some of my readers aren't old enough to remember the Calgon commercials. Calgon was a bath salt advertised in the 80's (maybe late 70's) that used to show a working woman taking a bath after a long day. But I guess these days a commercial like this may bring to mind bath salts use as a drug of choice (and the idea of smoking or snorting or whatever it is they do, bath salts seems VERY strange to a person who grew up at the beginning of the crack epidemic).
At any rate, my plan was to go away for the day today, do some shopping, stay in a fancy hotel, then come back tomorrow, but I'm so tired from this past week that I don't think I could turn the key of the ignition in my car. And what a week it was, my job is beyond stressing me the hell out and I was ready to give my speech and bounce when I decided to visit my mentor again. I gotta say it was so good to see him since we communicate on a fairly regular basis but I hadn't actually seen him in years. And once again, I was reminded not to get off track and do something crazy (his words) like quit my job without having another one in place. Of course in this economy I get it, but I spent the night before dealing with the transport of an elderly, terminally ill woman to a nursing home facility, so I got up Friday morning VERY short on patience in dealing with stupid a$$ female coworkers! Getting back to my visit, I left his place inspired to remain in the muck and mire of immaturity and unprofessionalism that is my job yet another day until I could apply to med school, so decided for the hell of it to take an MCAT exam in Chemistry on my lunch break. I got a 13 so needless to say, I was hyped when I finally did return to the lab and quickly back to being my cheerful, you can kiss my a$$ self!!!
At any rate, my plan was to go away for the day today, do some shopping, stay in a fancy hotel, then come back tomorrow, but I'm so tired from this past week that I don't think I could turn the key of the ignition in my car. And what a week it was, my job is beyond stressing me the hell out and I was ready to give my speech and bounce when I decided to visit my mentor again. I gotta say it was so good to see him since we communicate on a fairly regular basis but I hadn't actually seen him in years. And once again, I was reminded not to get off track and do something crazy (his words) like quit my job without having another one in place. Of course in this economy I get it, but I spent the night before dealing with the transport of an elderly, terminally ill woman to a nursing home facility, so I got up Friday morning VERY short on patience in dealing with stupid a$$ female coworkers! Getting back to my visit, I left his place inspired to remain in the muck and mire of immaturity and unprofessionalism that is my job yet another day until I could apply to med school, so decided for the hell of it to take an MCAT exam in Chemistry on my lunch break. I got a 13 so needless to say, I was hyped when I finally did return to the lab and quickly back to being my cheerful, you can kiss my a$$ self!!!
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Black "tiger mom" meets unruly teenager!
Most days I throughly enjoy being the Mom to a teenager, but this past week was the most trying ever (and unfortunately, I'm still in the middle of it as I write this)!
There was an article a few weeks back by a Yale Law professor who calls herself "Tiger Mom" that many American mothers took offense to. I didn't because while I did think that a few of her parenting methods were abusive (like not allowing a kid to use the bathroom or eat until they played a piece of music perfectly), I also understand minority parents doing everything they can to make sure their kids grow up being prepared for a world which is going to very likely hold their race against them. I'm familiar with this type of parenting because two of my daughter's best friends are Asian, one Chinese the other Indian. Not long ago, my daughter's chinese friend commented that I parent like a Chinese mother, and I felt that was one of the highest compliments I'd ever received as a parent! The fact is that Chinese mothers don't play the radio, which is one very strong reason why so many Chinese kids excel academically and in everything else they do. I also see the same kinds of parenting style in African and Caribbean immigrant parents which is why med and grad schools often have more blacks from these backgrounds than american born Blacks. So, it isn't strange to me that people who come to this country are taking of opportunities that many of the rest of us, especially american born Blacks, take for granted and that's just a fact!!!
Moving on to my parenting woes, my kid flunked her honors geometry final exam and ended up with a C for a final grade (down from an A), and unfortunately, it's a grade colleges and universities are going to see, both the failed exam grade and the "C" grade. Now my kid , with her high genius level IQ that she inherited father, is by far smarter than I ever thought I was, and attends a school in the best public school system in the country. So the question I'm asking is what is the 'effing problem here? I'll tell what it is, too much TV time, too much texting, too much computer game time and not enough study time. But good 'ol Black tiger mom can fix it and you can trust me on that!
Moving on, this past week at work was off the chain in that I'm starting to feel like I'm in the exact environment I was in on the job I was fired from back in 2009. But at the same time, I KNOW there's an amazing opportunity for growth for me, so I'm gonna hang in there, do my best, and let the chips fall where they may!
In sadder news, the mother of a friend of mine is very near death and as sad as it is, it really does help me keep a perspective with the shit I'm dealing with on the job and with my kid. Life is extremely short and we really do have a lot of power in how we choose to deal with the negative things that come up in our lives. So when I found myself becoming overwhelmed with work BS, I reminded myself that in the overall picture of things, this is just a job, a means to and end and that I have a far brighter future ahead. And if I dropped dead tomorrow due to the stress, they'd have a replacement for me in no time!! The fact is that as difficult as times are for me job wise, someone out there has it far worse. I also remember thinking when I saw this job advertised that God had a plan for me to have it and that sometimes when God teaches us a lesson, it's bittersweet (or just bitter in this case, LOL!!). So my best bet is to continue to do my job well, keep my head held high, and when the time comes, move on to the bigger and better things in my VERY bright future!!
There was an article a few weeks back by a Yale Law professor who calls herself "Tiger Mom" that many American mothers took offense to. I didn't because while I did think that a few of her parenting methods were abusive (like not allowing a kid to use the bathroom or eat until they played a piece of music perfectly), I also understand minority parents doing everything they can to make sure their kids grow up being prepared for a world which is going to very likely hold their race against them. I'm familiar with this type of parenting because two of my daughter's best friends are Asian, one Chinese the other Indian. Not long ago, my daughter's chinese friend commented that I parent like a Chinese mother, and I felt that was one of the highest compliments I'd ever received as a parent! The fact is that Chinese mothers don't play the radio, which is one very strong reason why so many Chinese kids excel academically and in everything else they do. I also see the same kinds of parenting style in African and Caribbean immigrant parents which is why med and grad schools often have more blacks from these backgrounds than american born Blacks. So, it isn't strange to me that people who come to this country are taking of opportunities that many of the rest of us, especially american born Blacks, take for granted and that's just a fact!!!
Moving on to my parenting woes, my kid flunked her honors geometry final exam and ended up with a C for a final grade (down from an A), and unfortunately, it's a grade colleges and universities are going to see, both the failed exam grade and the "C" grade. Now my kid , with her high genius level IQ that she inherited father, is by far smarter than I ever thought I was, and attends a school in the best public school system in the country. So the question I'm asking is what is the 'effing problem here? I'll tell what it is, too much TV time, too much texting, too much computer game time and not enough study time. But good 'ol Black tiger mom can fix it and you can trust me on that!
Moving on, this past week at work was off the chain in that I'm starting to feel like I'm in the exact environment I was in on the job I was fired from back in 2009. But at the same time, I KNOW there's an amazing opportunity for growth for me, so I'm gonna hang in there, do my best, and let the chips fall where they may!
In sadder news, the mother of a friend of mine is very near death and as sad as it is, it really does help me keep a perspective with the shit I'm dealing with on the job and with my kid. Life is extremely short and we really do have a lot of power in how we choose to deal with the negative things that come up in our lives. So when I found myself becoming overwhelmed with work BS, I reminded myself that in the overall picture of things, this is just a job, a means to and end and that I have a far brighter future ahead. And if I dropped dead tomorrow due to the stress, they'd have a replacement for me in no time!! The fact is that as difficult as times are for me job wise, someone out there has it far worse. I also remember thinking when I saw this job advertised that God had a plan for me to have it and that sometimes when God teaches us a lesson, it's bittersweet (or just bitter in this case, LOL!!). So my best bet is to continue to do my job well, keep my head held high, and when the time comes, move on to the bigger and better things in my VERY bright future!!
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