Little Bits of Drama

Here are some small dramas that are happening right now.
My Work:
I'm in the middle of a company merger/consolidation.  Thankfully I have a job afterwards, but that's not the case for everyone.  I'm working with various committees to make sure everything transitions smoothly; which I honestly enjoy since I like knowing the details behind things.  But that's not the drama.

The drama is that one side of the company (the one I'm on) backed out of a planned joint event at the last moment, and now the other side is offended.  The people on my side are frustrated and annoyed because the other side keeps harping on it, while the people on the other side hasn't been directly told why my side backed out.  I'm in the middle, attempting mediation.  I managed to get our side calm enough to agree to address the issue calmly at the next meeting.  Let's hope the other side can react in a similar fashion.  This particular drama has been going on too long.

UPDATE:  Another situation exactly like this has just landed on my desk.  Argh!  We haven't finished cleaning up the last one!

John's School:
Most of John's classmates are amazing.  Very intelligent people from all over the world, who have also been kind enough to "adopt" me into their group.  The fact that I make them cookies doesn't hurt!

But some of his classmates are causing trouble in the lectures.  Some don't show up to lecture at all, even though there is a strict attendance policy (3 absences = failure).  Others spend the lecture interrupting the professor with stupid questions.  For instance, the professor explains a picture on the powerpoint.  The student raises their hand and asks, "Can you explain that picture?"  Not even exaggerating.  That happened.

This seems apt.

Those questions mean that the professor can't cover everything the professor needs to cover for the test.  Those same students have been known to raise their hand and say, "Excuse me, professor, but class ends in 5 minutes.  Can you just tell us what will be on the test?"  AFTER they had spent the whole two hours interrupting with stupid questions so that the professor got behind.

John's Labs:
John is in his second lab rotation, and although he says it's a good lab, he doesn't think it's a good fit for him.  We've been having an on/off discussion over the past few days about what he wants and expects out of  a lab.  For some reason, even though we were talking, we weren't communicating, and both of us were getting frustrated with the other one. 

Thankfully, we finally had a breakthrough last night and were able to talk it out.  We're good now.


On a completely different note, John and I decided that I need to try various types of tea.  The only tea I've ever tried is the tea made in the south, and I do not like it at all.  It tastes and feels like flavored water, and often leaves a bitter aftertaste.

I do like Chai tea, but can't drink that all the time due to how many calories are in it.  (But if I could, I would.  So good!)

So, probably starting soon I'll be trying various types of tea to decide if there is a tea out there I can drink.  I wonder if there is a place nearby where I could get samples...

Back In School

John did not get much study time this weekend.  He claims that he doesn't have much to study yet; only a week out from his first tests, and nothing posted online yet for the upcoming week.  A part of me is glad that he's on top of things.  Another part is just a little bit worried.

We've done this before, you see.  Before starting the program he's currently in, John spent two years in medical school - and hated it.  He disliked the curriculum, didn't connect well with his classmates, and generally was not ready for the responsibilities required for medical school.  By the end of his second year, he was genuinely dreading the next 8 years of his life. 

After much heartache and discussion and prayers and more discussion ... we decided it would be best for him to leave.  Which he did.  Leaving him unemployed, without an MD degree, and over $100,000 in debt.  Yeah.  For two years of medical school. 

We spent the next year basically trying to "find" ourselves and survive.  John found a temporary job to supplement my decent-but-not-great income.  Our income was low enough to put his school bills into deferment for a year until we could "re-evaluate". 

Months passed with John recovering from his ordeal in medical school, and finally he decided that he wanted to go back to school again - this time for a PhD in research.  He worked hard, interviewed several places, and was accepted - at the same school he had attempted to get his MD degree!  Plus side: we don't have to move!  And they give their grad research students a stipend.  He would be paid for going to school - and actually be making more than me!

We've still got that medical school debt ... but now that John's in school it should go into deferment.  Meanwhile, we've bought a house in a much nicer neighborhood (no drug dealers or murders!  Yay!)  And John is so much happier than he ever was in medical school.  Which makes me happy!