New Job!

Part of the reason I've been focused on using up ingredients I already had is my new job. This is the end of my 2nd week! It is starting to sink in that I'm in a new postdoc position and that I can probably be more successful in this new environment. My old lab was having some financial issues and I didn't believe the chances of getting new grant funding were high enough to stay. When my old boss said we'd run out of money in Spring 2014, I decided to start looking for a new position. Better to be proactive than reactive! I didn't want to wait around for the lab to close next year if funding wasn't obtained and the university didn't provide bridging funds to tide us over. Plus, the other labs in my old department were definitely going to fail. One relies on company money, but the biggest contract from a company was not renewed, and I honestly don't understand how the other lab does experiments because they don't have any incoming money source. I wanted to go back to an environment where essentially all labs are funded, competitive, and interesting. When I moved to Houston, I kept my new institute as a back-up plan in my mind. I didn't want to go to this institute to start with, because my graduate advisor had trained there as a postdoc. I wanted to be independent and find a job that did not rely, or appear to rely, on his reputation. I wanted my reputation to be the main factor. I know it's a bit stubborn and I've lost a year of time, but I am getting a co-authorship out of my old lab and I'm still on track with my life timeline plan. I was hoping to postdoc for just 3 years and be left with a 4th year available for adventures. I burned that extra year, but I can still try to publish and find a job by the year I turn 30. :)