I'm back!!

Hi everyone!!! Sorry about the delay in writing... but this time I really do have a good excuse! But even so, I can't let Mark out-blog me... LOL So here's my latest story...

Many of you have already heard all about this since I've bitched on the phone... but for those of you haven't heard... :) So before I left my lab, I wrote a review on all of my work and how it compared and related to the field, etc. Fine... it's a somewhat typical thing for a grad student to do after finishing their work. Anyway, so I write my review and we submit it in June. Now, Mary (my former PI) pulled some strings to get it submitted to AJP (American Journal of Physiology). It never would have gone there if she hadn't "invited" it in. Anyway... so I wrote the paper and Dawn (my former supervisor) submitted it. Well, I never heard anything after I left. I saw Dawn in July and asked her what the status was and she said it was in decision pending. I said... okay... just let me know. Well then I never heard anything and I got busy with school starting. At the beginning of September I e-mail her to get the scoop. Find out that the paper was rejected, needs to be re-written, the reviews were bad, but it can be re-submitted. I'm just like... okay, do you need any help? She says no. So I figure... okay, she's handling it. I've got classes to worry about. So late last month I had coffee with Ange (friend from the lab) and she tells me that the whole situation is a mess. I guess it came out at lab meeting that Dawn hadn't done ANYTHING with the paper and the deadline to re-submit had come and gone. Mary was pissed because she pulled strings to get it in and Dawn did nothing, etc. And I'm pissed cause I'm sitting here going... I could have done something but I never got to see anything!! So Ange recommends that I call Dawn. So I do... and I play dumb and just ask how things are going and what's happening with the paper. I told her that I had lots of time right then (a big fat lie... but I would say anything to get that paper!) and that I could work on it. She says not to worry... that she's going to take a stab at it. Inside I'm thinking... "take a stab at it?? You've had it for 3 months and haven't done anything!! That was you 'stab'!!" So I was just like... fine... I give up. I figured I'd wait until January when I wasn't teaching and talk to her again. Well, a little over a week ago now, Ange sends me an e-mail with the most recent table of contents of Cancer Research. And in it, a competing lab (the one that stole some of my data!!) has now published a review on my protein in cancer. I'm just like... crap. So I e-mailed Mary. I was just like... should we just cut our losses now since this other review is out? Granted... that review has a different spin than our's. So we still have a shot... but with Dawn just sitting on my review and not doing anything, that isn't helping!!! Based on the publication date, we were both writing at the same time... but they actually did their revisions while Dawn sat on our's. :P Anyway... so Mary called me back and told me she was going to have a meeting with Dawn about "many issues" and you could tell that she was pissed at Dawn. So that Monday, she has the meeting... and I get an e-mail from Mary right after saying that I'll be getting the reviewer comments. This was Monday the 6th. I don't get the comments until the 7th in the afternoon. And the first thing I notice when I read through them is that we actually had 120 days to resubmit, not the 90 Dawn said we had (of course... I'm guessing Dawn skimmed the comments once, sobbed, and never looked at them again). So the due date is Nov. 25th, not October (the e-mail was sent July 25th). So I quickly sent a note to Mary telling her that important tidbit... her reply back was... "make the deadline." So yeah... no pressure. Dawn had had it for 3 1/2 months and did nothing. I had less than 2 weeks to get it done. So I tried to get stuff for school all caught up so that I could spend some time writing this paper. I then spent part of Sunday, all day Monday, and a good chunk of Tuesday working on the paper. So pretty much... 2 full days in total. And the paper is done. I got it to Mary on Wednesday morning. She is out of town, so it got faxed to her at her hotel and she's going to work on it Friday on her flight back. I expect that I will get a copy this weekend to fix. Dawn comes back Monday (did I mention that she is in Maui this week... so she was OBVIOUSLY going to "take a stab" at the paper this week before the deadline). Because the paper was originally submitted by Dawn, we have to re-submit it through her. But Mary was like... we will re-submit on Tuesday. I was just like... that's fine. I realized that we are re-submitting on a day when Mary will be in lab so that she can watch over Dawn and make sure that it gets done. So that is the scoop with that. Let me tell you, as soon as I had to start dealing with the lab again, my stress level went WAY up. I never realized how much I had calmed down and relaxed being here until I had to deal with lab people again. I'm so glad to be out of there. But yeah... I REALLY hope that this paper gets accepted... even if it's with revisions. After all of that work, I want something out of it. And I know this is really mean to say, but I wish we could take Dawn's name off of it. I'm honestly really pissed that she screwed me over like this and I had to bust my ass at the last second... and she is still getting credit for this paper even though she screwed up. I mean, in the end... my name is still first on the paper... so I get the credit. But her name is last, meaning she gets just as much credit, for the most part. Oh well. Needless to say, this is a reason why I'd like a bit of my own research money to do stuff with. Because Mary said that all I have to do is acknowledge them in the paper for giving me cells. So my name would be the only one on any other papers. No one else. And yeah... I like that idea. Not to give me any sort of fame or glory... but just because then I have no one to blame but myself if things don't get accepted, etc.

Anyway... that's the update with that.

In other news... nothing much going on over here. The semester is winding down, which is SO nice!! :) I've almost made it!!! Next week I just have to teach one class and that's it. YAY!! And when the semester is done, I don't teach again until the end of January!!!!!! Can you tell I'm excited?? :)

Vicki is coming home for an interview this weekend and will be here through the week... yay!! So we've already tentatively scheduled time for coffee outings and such. Since I don't teach on Wednesday and Mark has to work, I think that will be a perfect time to get together!! Anyway... I really think that's all of my news for now. Sorry if you wanted more drama... one story is more than enough for me!!

Oky doky pokies... I'm going to head on out for now... I hope you are all doing well! :)

Happy Friday :)

Hi everyone... well, it's another Friday. So first off... updates. :) So my computer arrived yesterday... that was WAY fast considering that we ordered it Sunday night! My computer is way cute. I know, every guy is sitting there going "cute"?? Hey, I'm a girl... :) Of course, as expected... I didn't actually use my computer because Mark had to "set it up." That lasted from 7pm until 9 when I gave up and went to bed. He was sad that it took longer than he expected and that I just didn't care by the end of the night. Apparently the problem was that they installed a trial version of Office on my computer (we didn't pay the extra $250 to order it since he already had a copy himself, so they put a trial version on... aka, more crap to remove) so he had to uninstall that. But then apparently his disk with his copy of Office was bad, so he was trying to fix that or something. I don't know. All I know is that it WILL get fixed this weekend... no matter what. Or there is going to be a very ticked off Doodle on Sunday night. I told him that the computer is basically worthless to me without Office on it... so it needs to be installed pronto. Mark was basically desperate for me to use my computer so he brought it up to me in bed and made me check my e-mail. I was just like... this is ridiculous. But whatever. I checked my e-mail, had nothing in there (shocking) and handed the computer back to him. LOL Next time I'm taking it out of the box and doing it all myself. LOL Screw this nonsense!!! And yes, I do realize that Mark actually cleared my computer of all the useless crap that they put on there (like AOL in 15 different places) and installed some of the other programs that I wanted. But part of me was like... I just want to play with my new toy tonight... we can work out the kinks tomorrow. Oh well... I think he's more excited by the computer than I am. We still have to figure out what to do with my old monstrosity. I told Mark that if he wants any parts, he needs to take them out now... otherwise, it's getting trashed. I want it off my desk by the end of the weekend... so that will be a project.

In other news... apparently Mark's phone is on the fritz since I can't call him... it just puts me right into voicemail and he isn't able to make an outgoing call. Lovely. I sense a trip to Verizon this weekend if the problem doesn't correct itself quickly.

So moving on... I will be in Cali for a few days next spring. AACR's annual meeting is in LA, so I will be there. I'm actually staying at a hotel in Universal City and then getting shuttled in by one of their official buses. Most of the downtown hotels were completely booked up already... or if there was space, it was almost $300/night. I was just like... you've got to be kidding. I only have $1500 in travel funds and the hotel alone was going to eat it up!!! So I'm staying in Universal, paying half the price. And as long as I don't have to drive in the traffic, I could really care less. Plus there will be way more to do in Universal... I've never even been to Citywalk... so hopefully that will help me while away some of the hours. Mark is going to fly out with me on Friday and stay through the weekend (at least... still figuring that part out) so I plan on getting him to SCV on Saturday to see my old home, etc. Hopefully I'm going to catch up with some friends there... working on that right now. So yeah... everything is good to go, I just have to book airfare. But I'm waiting to see what Mark wants to do time-wise so that we can book together. Also, prices are kinda expensive right now... not sure what that's about. It's almost $300 for a ticket right now... I'm just like... what?!?! O'Hare to LAX?? Are you kidding?? Considering that those are two major hubs for United (and American flies there a ton also) prices should NOT be that expensive. So yeah... we'll see what happens. Kent was telling me that I should plan an extra week of time to just enjoy myself. I love these type B's... I was just like... I'd have to cancel over a week of class!! Right now, I'm cancelling one day and that's more than enough, in my opinion. The only reason it's not more is that I'm not teaching on Tuesdays and Thursdays. But yeah... just crazy. If it was spring break, then sure I'd stay longer... but it's not. So I'll be getting myself back home. :)

Another interesting thing I found out today during coffee... apparently being department chair for my department is on a rotating schedule. I don't know if it was always that way. But Earl told me that the only reason Kent took the position was with the understanding that it was temporary. He only wanted to be there for a set number of years and that was it. So that's what is happening. I guess Jim (Frick U) will be up next. Which tells me that then it will be Paul, then Tamara, and then me (assuming I get tenured). Good to know. I'm not sure how long the rotation is... it's possible that my turn may get skipped the first time if I'm not tenured or deemed "too young." That's fine with me... at this point in time, I have NO desire to be chair. Too much crap to deal with. And I don't even know how good of a chair I will be... the way I figure it, I'll either be a really good one, or a really bad one. But I don't think I'll be mediocre. LOL I mean, my organizational skills will certainly be helpful in being chair (something that is severely lacking right now with Kent!!) and I have learned how to play the game from Mary... who may be one of the "best" when it comes to that. But I don't like to play the game... I don't like office politics, and I don't think I'm particularly good at diffusing situations... plus, if I get an idea of what I want or think should happen, I'm pretty stubborn (I know this is shocking to all of you... HAHAHA!!) So I'm just like... I don't think I'm cut out to be a chair... but maybe things will change in 10 years... we'll see.

Anyway, that is my news for the day... I hope that my readers are all well... have a great weekend and hopefully I'll write again next week!! :)