Hmmmm

At the networking and job search strategies class I went to, they suggested using your blog and your Facebook account as a means of finding a job. Uh no, I don't think so, unless I decide to start doing a chemistry blog or directing everyone to the food blog.  I love the LOLcats and the randomness but that's NOT the image I want to convey to anyone other than y'all.  So even when I do blog about my job search, identifying details get left out. 
With that disclaimer, I did get some good news on the job front.  A prof whom I know wants to get some equipment from my company and hire someone to run the lab, work with the grad students, etc.  He's trying to copy Caltech's model - they've been pretty successful since they worked closely with us and also hired a very good person to run it.  (Other universities have done the same thing but have had less success, largely because they didn't hire the right person to run it)  I think this sounds like a pretty fun job - the only reason I didn't apply for the Caltech job was that at the time I was dating T and didn't want to leave him-a lot of good that did me.  Also, I didn't want to move to SoCal.  Anyway, the T issue is obviously no longer a problem, and I like the location a lot better than SoCal, so this is kind of a dream job, mid-life crisis old biddy version.  (Former dream job = prof at MIT)  I could be in an academic setting and do fun chemistry without a lot of the headaches of being a prof.
Anyway, I talked to the prof and am in the process of putting together a proposal for him.  It would be ideal to get as much gently used equipment as possible, but the timing will make this difficult.  The garage sale has already begun and  I don't know how much of the really prime stuff will be left once the prof gets his funding, but you can't apply for funding without a budget and a plan.  So my current plan is to propose buying a new instrument as the workhorse for the program, and then try to get additional used equipment at low cost or as a donation.
Nothing is guaranteed, of course.  A lot depends on my proposal, as well as the prof's proposal to the university.  But it's worth a try.
Anyway, it's been a good distraction and I feel positive for the first time since they announced the reorg back in late October.  It feels good.  I've had too few truly good things happen in the last six months.

journal article

For the last few months (ok, for the last nine months) I've been ever so slowly writing a paper. It's on some chemistry I worked on in 2003-4. I started it around the time I had knee surgery, exactly nine months ago tomorrow.  I was too drugged after surgery to do much on it, and since then I've been working on it in an on again, mostly off-again fashion.  After T broke up with me, I made some more headway on it.  When the reorg was first announced, the last thing I wanted to do was spend my spare time doing something for my company.  My boss' boss kept pestering me to finish it, so eventually I figured that (a) that was a good sign about us getting bought (b) if I stayed it would help keep me in his good graces (c) I might need it for my resume and (d) I no longer felt guilty about working on it during business hours.  So I wrote and I wrote and I procrastinated and then I wrote some more.  I spent way too many weekend hours working on it, but the truth is that it partially kept me from moping about T so it did serve a purpose.
It's done. It's a big behemoth of a paper, even though I left out a lot of stuff and just referenced our patents. It's comparable in length to two chapters of my thesis.   I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.  My coworkers are supposed to review it by Friday and then it gets sent out to the legal department and also to the legal department of the company that paid for the work.  At that point I expect nothing to happen for a while, but at least it's out of my hair. 
Meanwhile, we're winding down with our current program.  We have our last phone conference tomorrow, so everyone's just got odds and ends to tidy up.  The weekly update meeting about the status of the negotiations is also tomorrow afternoon.
I still haven't started Christmas shopping, although I have started baking. 

Reorg Blog,7 weeks/Old Biddy Wish List

The negotiations are still going on for the sale of my group.  So far it seems to be going well. The level of detail has progressed to the almost trivial level, i.e. which printers are part of the deal, do we get food service, putting stickers on all the lab equipment that is part of the deal, etc.  This is a good sign. I'm trying to be positive and calm and yet not get my hopes up too much.  If they're going to this much detail, I hope they remembered to include the espresso machine is part of the deal! I may have to go and put a sticker on it in case it isn't....Caffeine is the true catalyst for the catalysis group.
They told us that if the deal isn't signed by next week, they will automatically extend everyone's layoff date by one month.  That's a relief, even though I had an unofficial two month extension anyway.
The startup where I interviewed made an offer to one of my coworkers.  I don't know who, although I do have my suspicions. I did manage to inferentially confirm that it was one of my coworkers.  I didn't like their business plan, so I'm not too disappointed.
I'm not actively looking for jobs at the moment.  It was just too much stress to throw myself 100% into it.  I'm still very vulnerable. I had dinner with Judy last night. She thought that I should look for jobs more aggressively, but I just can't until I know what's going on.  There's not much hiring going on right before the holidays, anyway.  Likewise, I'm holding off on putting my profile up onto Match.com. I'm just circling the wagons trying to get through the next month or two.
It is weird trying to get all the health stuff squared away in case I have to switch insurance providers.  I got the OB/GYN exam and birth control issues out of the way, but decided to get my eye exam out of the way too.  Unfortunately, they found some trouble spots on my retinae, so I've got another appointment to get that looked at more.  I may have to get them sealed up with a laser.
So anyway, on a lighter note, here are a few things I'm going to buy do if I stay employed.
1.  Figure out what to do with the rest of the living room project, including window treatments, redoing the fireplace, and paint.  This may also include a new TV in time for the 2010 World Cup.
2.   I'm still tempted to get a kitten.
3.  I had originally planned to get laser hair removal of my old biddy chin hairs and also get rid of some redness/spider veins on my cheeks as a birthday present to myself.  My midlife plastic surgery, such as it is, will once again be a possibility.
4.  I want jewelry.   I'm on a big jewelry kick. In place of plastic surgery,  I bought myself a nice watch as my birthday present to myself.  I plan to buy a nice necklace or some cool rings or earrings.

Interview blog: Startup edition

I had an interview at a startup company today.  They are very small (4 people) and are looking to hire a chemist with my background.  The CTO knows a lot of the current and former people from the company where I currently work, including all 3 of my former bosses.  (Hopefully, he won't talk to one of them!)  Not surprisingly, they had already talked to a number of my coworkers about the same position.  In fact someone else was being interviewed at approximately the same time, at another location. 
The CTO was a good looking, fast-talking guy of extremely confident, slightly shorter than average, slender but muscular, dark-haired variety.  They seem to be fairly common in academics but this was the first industrial one I've met.  In any case, I've known a few in my time so I felt about as comfortable as possible, considering it was an interview. The other guy was an inorganic chemist with approximately the same job history as myself (do postdoc, then go to tiny startup company and stay there for a very long time).  He'd just started there last week, although he and the CTO had worked together twice before.  I was assuming, since it's a startup , that they'd have people right out of grad school, but this guy was about the same age as me, and they'd also hired someone with 30+ years experience who starts next week, so at least they'd done their homework and realized they needed some experienced people.  Whether this translates into giving me a competitive advantage over my younger colleagues remains to be seen. 
Anyway, it's very long-shot technology.  They are going to need a good business plan to succeed.  Since this was just a preliminary interview, they didn't have me sign a non-disclosure agreement and couldn't tell me exactly which reactions they were targeting, so it's hard to judge how feasible the chemistry is.
I'm still in this strange phase where I'm not stressed about the reorg or the interviews.  Part of me thinks that the deal will go through and we'll get bought, part of me feels like it would be nice to get a fresh start, even if that means moving to another part of the country, and part of me is still burnt out from the stress of T breaking up with me that I'm guarding myself from feeling too much.  Nonetheless, it does help that I've already had two interviews and the job market for chemists seems to be picking up compared to the summer.

Reorg Blog, 1 week

Things were pretty depressing at work last week.  No one got much done.  It's marginally less depressing now, but I feel like I have to be careful not to be too cheerful in my autoresponses when people ask how it's going.  Not like I really am very cheerful these days, just numb and unmotivated, but I have an annoying tendency to pretend to be cheerful.
Rumor has it that the acquisition is a done deal and it's just in the hands of the lawyers now.  I hope that's the case.  I had my lunch interview at the solar company yesterday.  I enjoyed talking with the manager of the group, and it sounds like a good place to work.  Unfortunately, I have neither the requisite skill set nor much interest in polymer properties, so it wasn't a good fit.  They called me to set up a full day interview, but after reflecting on it overnight I withdrew my application. It's not them, it's me;-)
I also have an interview at a startup on Friday afternoon.  It's a very long shot technology.  It will be interesting to see what they've done so far.  I am surprised and pleased to get interviews so quickly with so little effort.  There seem to be a lot of job listings for chemists as well.
I haven't told my mom about the reorg yet.  My plan is not to tell her anything until I have to.
I've discontinued Breakup Blog unless I have something that I really HAVE to write, and removed the old posts.  If I do post, it may stay up for a few days and then get removed.  Since splitting the blog in two it's easier to find this blog with a simple Google search, unfortunately, and not realizing this, I posted the link to the other blog on Facebook.  I won't post the latest things that would've made it into Breakup Blog, other than to say that if I don't get a polite response in the next few days, either by email, IM or phone, to my email describing what's been going on at work, I'm going to stop making the effort to stay friends.  To paraphrase one of you, I'm not wasting any more of my energy and emotions for the sake of his serenity.