Mr. Post-doc

Hedgehog Guy officially began his post-doc at UBC last Friday, May 1st.  He has really been working throughout his "vacation" on various grant proposals with his new advisor, but he started going in full time on Friday, rather than sporadic visits.  

Starting a new job is rarely very fun, perhaps especially in science where most of your co-workers are deeply engrossed in projects that they understand intimately and efficiently proceed with.  As a new person you are lost and feel like a failure immediately because you are not getting any results and it appears everyone else is.  You don't know the jargon, you don't know what you are supposed to be doing (usually), and you don't know where anything is.  You are really dependent on the benevolant pity of your labmates for a couple weeks.  Hedgehog Guy's comment summed it up pretty well Friday afternoon.  Something like, "It is like trying to jump on a moving train only you don't know where the door or handholds are, but you know people are inside who can help you."  He got a lab bench and pipettors of his very own and is now waiting on a desk in the group office.  

Hedgehog Guy's time off was largely spent playing WoW where he now has 3 characters over level 70 (Jod, Wapner, and Alchux).  I think he finally began to relax a bit since he was able to sleep past 8am without waking up by the end of it.  I think he secretly enjoyed being home with the dog.   

Hedgehog Guy works in the building next to mine, so we even get to eat lunch together like in the old days at DBI.  Funny how things circle around again.