More Good News for Mark

A couple months ago, I mentioned that Mark's boss wanted him to go to a pretty presitgious conference. That alone would've looked great on his resume. Well, the organizers of the conference want to turn Mark's poster presentation (he would stand by a chunk of posterboard as scientists milled around, getting drunk, and maybe asking him a few questions on their way to the bar - you think I'm kidding, too) into a powerpoint presentation to the whole conference. Poor Mark's stomach plummeted the five floors of his building when he read this though. He thought that HE would have to give the talk to a bunch of scientists eager to clash their egos before they got smashed (again, you think I'm kidding). My husband loves science, but he has a rough time prepping himself just to give a talk to a small group of researchers that he works with on a regular basis. So he was a little less than thrilled with the idea of giving a talk at Cold Spring Harbor. Mark brought the good news to his boss, and was immediately relieved to hear that his boss would be giving the talk. This means that now Mark just gets to go and booze it up himself since he won't have a poster to stand by anymore. He's very happy with this outcome. Not to mention that now his boss has guaranteed him a trip to next year's major RNA conference in exotic Wisconsin AND Mark's resume just got yet another boost. This is another reason why I left science. Can you imagine how depressing it would be to have to celebrate your spouse's amazing accomplishments while realizing the dreary state of your own project?

In other news, the new apartment is fully operational. Everything put in its (for now) proper place and all the pictures hung on the walls. Now we just need to clean the old place (which we decided to do next weekend) and hand in our old keys.

As for writing, I took yesterday off so Mark and I could wander around the quasi-new town (we did live here two and a half years ago) and just goof off at the new place now that it's done. I have decided that I will call my uncle for some research help and just swallow my odd issues with that. Besides, it's better to suffer temporary, if unjustified, embarrassment than to be stuck at 13500 words. So wish me luck as I call the cop and get to work.