Day 123: Well I HAD a meeting

Today I reluctantly had two things to do on my list, this despite being sick. Now, I don’t normally like going out when I’m unwell, I don’t want to get others sick, I don’t want to suffer more, blah blah blah. The usual things you’re supposed to do when you are sick. Well today I was not that lucky, let’s talk about why.

Yesterday I got a surprise email from my PI asking for a meeting. I was taking the day to recover so I politely responded that I was ill and wouldn’t be in until friday at the earliest so we agreed to meet today. The problem was, I had a VA (veterans hospital) appointment today.

He originally asked to meet 30 minutes after my appointment time, that wasn’t going to happen and I knew it. The VA is awful at being on time and today was no exception. My appointment was at 9am, I wasn’t taken back until close to 10am and wasn’t seen until close to 10:30am. Good thing I had nothing else to do (I typed in the most sarcastic way possible).

My PI was understanding and said we could meet prior to 1pm, okay that works. So here I am at school waiting to meet while he has another meeting in the same room I am in right now. That isn’t the issue, the issue is I don’t feel well and don’t want to be here. It’s not his fault, I could’ve said hey, not feeling well let’s meet after the holidays. Oops.

So yeah, I’ve been politely waiting for about an hour and a half now to meet with him. I will probably continue to wait until he has time for me. It’s not the best outcome and certainly not one I am happy with, but it is sort of my own damn fault. Hurry up and wait basically. So I figured I would write for the day while I’m sitting here and hoping I can meet with him at all (he said he would only be available until 1 pm and it is suspiciously close to that time). It would be particularly frustrating if I came here for nothing.

Bottomline, make sure you set your boundaries properly and (when possible) make concrete meeting times so you don’t have to wait for your turn.

Until next time, don’t stop learning!