Job stability?

Okay, I'm beginning to get a bit nervous now. Last week our business manager asked me if I had begun the renewal process for my grant. I said "never done it before - what do I need to do?"

So I was able to find the appropiate website and login information to begin. The problem is that I can't do it yet because the grant is still "Pending administration review".

This grant will keep me employed for another year. Yet, I have reason to be nervous as to why it's still under review.

My PI has cancer. He's already long beaten the odds by having it over a year, and is doing better than he was a year ago. We kept it under wraps to granting agencies because we didn't want the funding pulled. Yet, this agency did call me right before the holiday break and asked me "we heard some rumors that he's sick - is he able to do his job".

I politely said "yes, why don't you ask him" and connected him. Don't know how they found out, but after a year, it's hard to keep it a secret. I have a couple ideas, but unless I get further proof, I'm not going to confront anyone.

Then they started to nitpick the budget. My PI got a series of emails a week ago asking why we replaced one graduate student with another (grad students come and go - hello). I thought it was cleared up, but the status still hasn't changed.

Now I'm getting nervous. I'll go find the manager later this morning, and ask her to bug the contacts on the administration list as to what is the holdup. Generally, this agency is good about having the funds available at the start date (which is February 1).

It's entirely possible that I'm being paranoid. It could be that the review is underway because this agency has had its budget slashed. We already were told by NASA that they will not support our grant for the third year as promised because of its "change of focus" (aka: budget cuts).

My first fight?

I think there should be a rule that you can't IM when you're drunk.

Last night my boyfriend gets home from work. He logs in and starts to tell me that his older sister got in trouble with the law yet again. He doesn't know any details yet, so we talk about other things. When my dinner is ready from the oven, he goes to talk to his Dad to find out the details of his sister's latest troubles.

A half hour later, he comes back, and says it's the same old stuff. She's bi-polar, and is fine when on medication. But without monitoring, she stops taking it, starts other drugs, petty crimes, etc. She was in jail somewhere in Mississippi state when Katrina hit, and she was trying to call from jail during the storm.

The biggest liability with her is that she has a child that is being raised by its grandparents.

I don't know much about bi-polar disorders. It's sad that even for your own child you can't take your medications daily.

I've never met his older sister. I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt. Especially since this is his older sister, therefore family. He starts being blunt by saying "I couldn't handle a person like older sister" and "I will never be able to forgive and forget what she's done" and "she'll never change".

Granted, IM can't reflect speaking tones, but my quick to anger temper is about to be lit.

Then he drops a bombshell - "we didn't have it easy growing up, but I was able to deal with it and have a decent life why couldn't she?"

WHAT? I know that your parents got divorced, and your dad came out of the closet and moved in with a guy. But what else haven't you told me?

Before I can ask him to clarify, he then rubs me the wrong way with "you don't understand - you had it easy growing up".

Okay, so I grew up in a happy house with a mom and dad that loved me. Don't throw that in my face unless you start telling me why you resent it so much. But I take a deep breath, but I know something's not right.

So I ask what's really going on. He finally said something that made a bit of sense "I drank too much".

So something else happened with the news of his sister that made him hit the bottle. I'm going to try and find out what.

The moral of the story - don't IM when you're hitting the bottle.

BTW: I did get an email from him early this AM apologizing for anying he said that upset me. Not really upset, just wondering what else he hasn't told me that can be so terrible.

Fixed (sorta)

Well, I was able to restore this back to the way it was before I mucked around with Haloscan. Now I have to figure out why adding the script messed up the colors.