Lacking Motivation

Not much has changed since my last post. The only major thing that has occurred is that my husband and I moved. At the old place, our lease was up at the end of July and the owner wanted us to sign a one year lease. Because I don't know when and where I'm going to end up, I didn't want to commit to a one year lease. But it was a major challenge to find a place in this town that would rent to us on a month to month basis. Everywhere I looked, they wanted long-term (one year) leases. Finally, I found someone through a friend, who was willing to rent to us month to month. Thank goodness for friends! The new apartment has a larger kitchen and bathroom, and it has a fireplace. It costs $226 less a month than at the old place! There are a lot of pine trees around the place.

The view over the patio fence.

My job hunt isn't going very well. Since I graduated, I've applied for 5 positions. For 3 of them, I have never heard anything back, so my application probably went into the circular file. One of the positions got canceled because the interviewers didn't have time to look at the applications. For the fifth position, I made the cut and my application has been referred to the hiring official! It's a low level position, but the pay is okay and it's based in my home state.

There have been at least 7 other positions that I could have applied for but did not. Why? I have been asking myself that very question. I did spend a lot of time looking for an apartment. But if the truth must be told, it's that I really really like where I am working right now. So, I'm just not that motivated to go anywhere else. I believe that I'm at one of the best, if not the best plant diagnostic department in the country. The only problem is that my job is the same that I had when I was an intern. The job title is the same, the pay is the same, and there are no benefits. I want more. I cannot stay in the position indefinitely. So how do I motivate myself to apply to more positions? Keep my eyes focused on the more that I want...I guess.

Job Hunting

Thank you my friends for continuing to come to my blog even though I haven't posted anything in a while. I have been busy. I am still working full-time at the job that I've had for almost a year now. I really like my job, but I can't stay there. It started out as an internship and then turned into a regular job, but with no pay raise and no benefits. So I am job hunting.

There are basically two types of positions that I am looking for. One is as a crop consultant and it doesn't matter what crop or crops. The other is as a post-doc, preferably one that utilizes my molecular biology skills. Some of you may be wondering what happened to my plans to apply for the federal positions that involve plant protection. You know the ones I mean. The ones that have 45 questions to answer with about 9 questions requiring an essay answer of approximately 8000 words. Well, I've given up on those positions. According to my answers to some of the questions, I do not have the specialized experience that they are looking for and so there is no point in putting myself through countless 45 question applications all for nothing. I do not have the time for that. So either crop consultant or post-doc it will be, unless something else comes along. I'll keep you posted on my job hunt.

In the meantime, have you ever seen an artichoke in bloom? I haven't. My step-daughter has blooming artichokes in her yard. She took a picture and I'm posting it here.

Graduation Pictures!

A good friend of mine took some pictures of me in my cap, gown, and hood. So I have a few after all. One of them is posted here, the rest are in a photo album in facebook. I love the hood!

Doctoral Degree Conferred!

I graduated and officially received my doctorate today. It still doesn't seem real. It will take awhile I guess. I really don't like going to graduations because they seem so long, drawn out, and are boring and this one was no exception. The best part of it all was getting hooded. That was so awesome!!! I wish I had pictures, but sadly I don't. My husband wasn't feeling well today; he tried, but not any of the pictures that he took came out.

Dr. Joyce!!!

I had my oral this morning and I passed!!! It wasn't bad. My committee and I sat around the round table (some of you know which table that is) and they asked me some questions and I answered them to the best of my ability. I thought I would have to do a calibration problem, but thank goodness, I wasn't asked to do one. My brain tends to freeze up when doing math under pressure. The oral lasted about 2 hours and 20 minutes. The chair (my adviser) of my committee then asked me to step outside of the room for a few minutes while they decided my fate. It felt like the wait was about 30 minutes, but in reality it was only about 6 minutes. My committee congratulated me with hugs and handshakes and called me doctor!!! Wow!!! It doesn't seem real yet.

I Passed!!!

I found out this afternoon that I passed my third and final written exit exam!!! Yay!!! All I have left is the oral which should not be anywhere near as tough as the written exams were. For the oral, my committee and I will sit around the "round table"; they will ask me questions and I will hopefully be able to answer them. Then I will be done! I am so ready to be done.

I'm Still Here

I took my 3rd exit exam last Tuesday and I am waiting to hear the results. All I know so far is that I did very well on the plant disease diagnostics portion. There were 5 other parts to the exam and so there are 5 more professors that have to grade their part. As usual the exam was hard and it lasted for 9 hours. It covered pretty much every area of plant pathology.

My oral is in 2 weeks and I am now studying for that even though I am so sick of studying that I don't want to read anything. I think that is why I am not blogging very much. I don't even feel like reading what I write, so I don't write.

But soon I'll be finished, I hope...