Well, I found a little down time to do these lil personality/mindset thingies, and aside from one painting me as an uptight trendy bitch at one point, it's pretty spot on. Tell me what you think!

Life is FINALLY good! Or at least starting to shape up that way. :)

Suddenly I feel like I'm putting on my big girl pants and joining the grown ups by securing my job with Thermo Fisher. I've had two decent positions previous to this, one of which had fantastic benefits (it WAS at the medical school, after all), but nothing really impressive until now. After five years of college and three years of working crappy science jobs, I can officially call myself an ENGINEER! I don't think anyone understands how happy that makes me, but you will soon.

And that, my friends, is what makes waiting to get the hell out and away from the contract job at Monsanto even more problematic. I want to work hard and help out where I can, but I have never felt as uninterested as I do now after securing my new position. My mentality at the moment boils down to this: since I'm stuck there for an additional two weeks, I might as well be busy and make the money, so just lay it on me. It makes the time pass faster.

I hate thinking like that, but after a year of being 'crapped on' as a contractor, I think I'm entitled.

Oh yeah, here are some pictures from my interview trip. :-D

Headquarters of the Specialty Diagnostics Division of Thermo Fisher Scientific

Hotel battle room at the Mariott, across the street from HQ

View at dusk from my corner hotel room

See that fog? Awesome.

Is there any GOOD way to pack a suit? Ugh.

Thank goodness I don't have to go straight to the interview from the airport. That would've truly sucked.

Instead, I will arrive late, get my SUV (since that's the cheapest rental you can find in California -- duh), drive to the hotel, check in, hang up my suit and promptly crash (hopefully anyway). By that time it will probably be midnight Pacific time, or 2AM CST.

I'm going to attempt to sleep in, but since my body is on an unforgiving wake-your-ass-up-by-7am CST schedule, I'll probably be wide awake by at least 6am. Not looking forward to that. So, I'll just have to make myself sleep more. Damnit, right? At least I will be wide awake by 2pm Pacific, 4pm CST, which is when my interview begins. By the time it ends, it will be well-past a well-deserved beer-thirty. :-P

I have every intention of landing this job on my visit to Silicon Valley, and will do everything in my power to make it so. This is just the kind of change I need in my life - a job that challenges me, gives me a new car to drive (BONUS), lets me travel (albeit mostly in the midwest, where we're supposed to have a hellacious winter.. oh well), allows me to work with customers to install and keep their analytical instruments up and running . . . it's right up my alley.

Gee, I think I just answered one of my highly potential interview questions. :-D

Stay tuned, more to follow from lovely Fremont, California! And maybe even some pictures, too . . .