Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Labor Day Weekend

Well, not much has happened to progress towards my new, higher paid job.  HR is not very motivated, and they're moving at the speed of a snail to get my paperwork through.  I still haven't said anything to my PI.  I think I might talk to her tomorrow.  I won't officially give her my 2 weeks' notice yet, but I will tell her what's going on.  I feel like I need to give her more time to talk to David before I actually put in my 2 weeks' notice.  That way, they can counter-offer or match if they want to.  I know what I'm going to say, and I'm not as nervous about it as I used to be.  I'm sure it won't be a fun conversation, but it needs to happen.  And soon.  I want my higher salary!

Work has been extremely busy lately.  I have finished all the projects that I was working on when this new job offer presented itself.  I have been doing everything in my power to be productive and efficient so that I leave this lab with good feelings all around.  Last Thursday and Friday I worked very hard.  We had a huge harvest over at National Jewish so I went back to the old lab for those days.  It was great to see everyone, but difficult because we had limited supplies and no desk or computer for me to work at.  I worked from 8:30am-6pm and then unfortunately I had to leave.  My handbells group was having a beginning of the year potluck that I really didn't want to miss.  I felt so guilty leaving early because my co-worker who has 3 children between the ages of 7 and 13 stayed until after 7pm.  And I, who has zero children, left at 6pm.  But she is also getting paid much more than me.  We worked so much together for those two days that we got to know each other so well.  And when I told her how much I was making, she was appalled.  She thinks it's pretty rude to pay me so little.  I'm glad I'm not the only one!  I told her about the new offer, and she said that I should take it.  I told her mostly because I knew that she would be taking over a lot of my projects so I wanted to give her a little more time to get what information she needs to do that.

Friday was another long harvest day, and when I got home Daniel had made a beautiful romantic dinner for us. He made Spanish tapas with our own homegrown tomatoes, and even baked brownies from scratch.  He went to the grocery store and bought mussels for dinner and fruit for homemade sangria!  It was delicious and beautiful and exactly what I needed after 2 very long days.

For our Labor Day weekend, we got a lot of chores done around the house, and had some fun too.  On Sunday we went to A Taste of Colorado which is a food festival downtown.  There were all kinds of food vendors and you could buy little tastes of everything, or a whole meal.  I ate so much junk food that night that I got a stomachache.  But it was still really fun.  On Monday we met Hope in Colorado Springs.  We drove to Garden of the Gods which is these giant sandstone red rocks that stick up from the mountains.  We hiked around a little bit and enjoyed the gorgeous almost-fall weather.  Then we went to a little art festival in Manitou.  Colorado Springs is super conservative, and Manitou is the hippie town right next to it.  The festival was small and cute- perfect for a small mountain town.  We got back to Denver in time for me to get some more chores done and have a nice little dinner together to finish off our weekend.  Every time I go somewhere new in Colorado I am overwhelmed by how beautiful it is.  I never want to leave.  I would be happy living here until I die.  I think it is just about the most beautiful place on the planet.

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