It is a new and pleasant feeling to have paid my rent, bills and credit card balance for the month and still have $2000 left over. I make enough money to survive now! How novel.

It is putting a slight positive spin on an otherwise dark day. I tried to give blood today and was turned away because my hematocrit was too low - 35% not 38% as required. Marco has been away all afternoon. I am depressed. Astronauts, the people whom we lab scientists have to thank for taking our equipment designs into space, died because we failed them. Because our knowledge and understanding of the stresses on the materials used on the space shuttle is insufficient, because our diagnostic tools, our models, for finding the most minute problems with the shuttle are incomplete, because we are not perfect. Because we're human.

Today was M's first day at work in eight months.

His lengthy vacation was by choice and I thanked him for it more than once, especially while I was finishing up my thesis. It was nice to be able to call him up and say, "Let's get lunch!" and poof! lunch would be gotten. Or call him up and say, "Take me home, I'm done," or "Let's go work out," or "Fetch me my supper," and have it be so.

On the one hand: six figure double income! Whoo!

On the other hand: no more houseboy! Boo, hiss.

[Tonight climbing: scraped elbow, bruised both knees, and re-opened a "flapper" (ripped blister) on my pinky. OWIE.]

In case you were wondering why it's difficult to find good teachers, here's a blindingly obvious example. Here are two employment opportunities listed in a recent San Diego ACS (American Chemical Society) newsletter.

Position One:
Sabbatical Replacement - Chemistry Instructor
The position involves teaching two to four courses per semester for the 2002-2003 academic year. The candidate shall teach Physical Chemistry lecture [note: an upper division undergraduate course] and possibly General Chemistry and Chemistry & Society courses. The position pays $28000-$38000/year, depending on the course load. A Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry is required.

Compare this to:

Position Two:
Instructional Support Supervisor - Chemistry
The position is located at Mesa College. [note: Essentially, this is an undergraduate lab technical staff position.] An associate degree in chemistry is desired, including one year of coursework in organic chemistry, as well as OSHA certified training. The salary is $3329 to $4249 per month.

This is ridiculous. I honestly don't know many people, freshly graduated from a doctoral program during which they have spent several years in poverty, who would be willing to accept a piss-poor salary for a teaching position. It's not just the salary. This is a one-year temporary teaching position with no associated postdoctoral research. Not only is the person with minimal training going to get paid better, they are guaranteed a permanent position! Can we please make more of an effort to make teaching an attractive option to well-educated and talented people? Please?