random update

It is a shame it is so inappropriate to just write about my experiments, because I can really get going… and since I decided that I will not get into scientific detail, especially considering that you few readers are not even slightly interested, I decided to just give you an update on my work life and it’s discontents. First of all, let me say I am less than happy with the fact that, after 5 weeks, I still have not received our health insurance cards, and worst of all, called the insurance company and they have not yet heard of me! This is a problem because we never know when we may need medical assistance (knock on wood). But right now it is a more urgent issue because I need to refill L’s asthma medication. According to the brokers that process the university’s insurance requests, we basically have to pay for it upfront (“just” a few hundreds…) and wait for the insurance to kick in and then request a refund. Very simple. For a normal family, I guess, but not quite for one with no income to speak of at the moment. Nick is still searching for a job, and, lucky as we are (not), the papers for my grant were not processed in time, so I will only start seeing my paychecks in May. Sigh. The funny thing is that the insurance brokers say it takes from 4 to 6 weeks to process, but if there is an emergency, they can actually do it in 3 or 4 days. So my question is, why don’t they? I know: lots of people, lots of applications, whatever… the application goes from the university to the brokers, then the brokers send the paperwork to the actual insurance company. I found out that the rate-limiting step is the middle step: once the insurance company receives the papers, it is virtually instantaneous, and the time it takes is pretty much printing and mailing the cards (the 3 or 4 days the broker speaks of). I can’t understand why my (and obviously all the other) applications have to sit and wait for 4 to 6 weeks before being sent to finalize the coverage. It just seems ridiculous. Anyway, the twins are eligible for state health insurance and I hope we can use that. However Nick and I, not being Americans, are not.
As for actual work stuff, I am very happy. This lab offers tremendous work conditions, at all levels, and I feel very fortunate to have been given this opportunity. I am pretty much being given all I could possibly need to do a good job… so, on the other hand, there is the pressure to return the favor with great results. Actually, I think that is a good thing! So after a couple of minor stumbles in the first weeks, I think I have found my feet and things are going quite smoothly. Stumbles that could have been avoided, I must say. When I train someone in a new technique, I usually do the procedure and let the person watch. Then I watch the person doing it and make sure all the little tricks are passed on. Everyone can follow a protocol, but there are always nuances that only an experienced hand would know, that are not necessarily written in the “recipe”. So I find that I could have profited and saved some time with a different kind of “training” in the first few weeks, but I am happy that I finally got the grasp of things. The advantage of this DIY kind of approach is that I am pretty sure I won’t forget how things should NOT be done.
So I should have good and plentiful data by next week, or even by the end of this week. However I have been coming to work every weekend, so that has to stop because I am tired and feel that I desperately need to sleep… and I miss the boys. T does very well, he is so adaptable and flexible that he just rolls with the punches, but he is completely dedicated to whoever takes care of him, and one can clearly read that his loyalty lies with Nick, no two ways about it! L, as in most things, is the opposite. He loves it and thrives when we are both around, so he always misses the absent parent, and if when Nick was at work he just wanted him, now that I am at work, he just wants me. It is very clear that he misses me, and from the moment I get home, I am given little choice but to pay as much attention as humanly possible to this one little dictator. By the way, this last week he has developed an unprecedented and inexplicable fear of the bath… what the heck happened? He seems terrified and we cannot figure out why. Any ideas?