A new start

The good:
I have a new computer (MacBook :) )

I've been offered a post-doc position at university of rochester, which I accepted. I was also offered an interview at the NIH. But I think the guy at Rochester is going to be a better fit.

I got to go to AZ with Dave, Missy and Bobby to cheer on my Dad when he did the Hike For Discovery for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I had never seen the Grand Canyon before. Pretty spectacular. The Michigan chapter raised almost a 1/4 of a million dollars (with many thanks to those of you who helped with that!).

The Bad:
I'm not exactly sure I'm ever going to graduate or even get any publications to make it seem like the last 7 years have been worth anything.

The Ugly:
My relationship with my advisor: I e-mail him research questions. I get no reply. I e-mail him again. No reply. I e-mail him asking for a letter of recommendation. I get a reply saying he hasn't gotten any updates on my research and is obviously not happy with me. I send a pissy e-mail back. I think things get worked out. He says he'll pay me for the summer and that I don't have to move back to CA since it's so much cheaper and efficient to stay in MN.
- But he still hasn't written my letter of recommendation for the aforementioned post-doc. My funding can only be granted once they receive the letter. I've been asking since the middle of April and I was offered the position in the middle of May.
- I continue to e-mail him asking him to register me for classes. But, so far as I know he hasn't done it. He has to approve my registration before the registrar can do anything about it. Until he registers me as a student (which I've been asking him to do for me since the end of May...I called the registrar, the departmental assistant and the grad office to find out what I needed to do and did all the paperwork fom here), I cannot get paid and I don't have health insurance.

That's right folks, I'm UNEMPLOYED, sans health insurance, working on my relatively unsuccessful research as a volunteer.... I'm living with a friend who has been kind enough to share her townhouse with me and my cat. I've saved up enough money to pay my rent and the credit-rating determining expenses through the end of July (I think). But none of that includes getting to see Dave, any emergencies or things like food and taking my cat for her annual check-up. I guess it's time to start accumulating more debt again. (and btw, the computer was purchased under the assumption that I was going to get paid this summer...never ASS-U-ME anything).

I'm continuing to send my advisor e-mails twice a week and I will call him at 5 AM CA time (which is when he usually gets into work) next week when he gets back into town.

In other news (or lack thereof): Dave and I have not set a date for the wedding. Dave is still working on getting a job.

I'm terribly homesick for my friends in/from CA, so instead of calling them, I'm avoiding contacting them, because it's just going to make me sad. I know this sounds horribly selfish, but I'm starting my 8th year of *&#^!@? grad school and many of them just walked after 6, 5 or 4 years. I'm depressed about my lack of success to say the least. I'm sincerely ecstatic for them, but in my head I'm reliving last spring when I saw all my college friends at my ex-boyfriend's wedding. I had just been rejected from 15 medical schools, was still grieving over mom, and basically couldn't see through the mucky present to the future. I grew up only knowing success, so experiencing this many set-backs/failures, big and small, is kind of tough for me.