I GOT MY LETTER TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But since I wouldn't be me if I didn't gripe a little...
Wednesday afternoon I was in the office for a few minutes after the teaching workshop, he happened to call from North Dakota, and asked me to leave the unsigned letter in his office. "I'm not saying I'm going to sign it," he added.

Grrr.

Today I asked the secretary if my usual Friday afternoon meeting with him was still on (it gets cancelled about half the time if he's traveling). She said he'd already gone out of town again--he was only here briefly on Thursday. My heart sank. I'd have to wait until next week for the letter. Then I asked "I don't suppose he signed the letter?"

"Oh, I have a signed letter right here."

I nearly had a heart attack at those words. Seriously, I was incoherent. I babbled, hung up the phone and literally ran upstairs to see with my own eyes.

Once over my exhuberance I wondered suspiciously why he didn't email me to tell me it was signed.

I won't say all my problems are over...I still have that 20% of my salary to find...or I get to take a 20% paycut. Ouch. I've told my new boss that I have the letter, and I hope to start moving my stuff to his lab next week.

This was a welcome change of pace from yesterday. Yesterday, I got an email that the paper I submitted last week was rejected without review [1]. Another grant rejected [2]. And our little parakeet died.

[1] "The main point, X, isn't sufficient for a full-length publication." First of all, the main point wasn't X, it was Y. Second, my co-author published X (which I cited) in a much higher prestige journal than this one. I remembered that when I told my boss I wanted to submit to this journal, because my paper fits its scope perfectly, even though it's not as high impact factor as others, that my boss said "They won't take it because the editor doesn't like me." Well, the editor isn't the only one... Anyway, I called the editor-in-chief and explained that my main point wasn't X and that Y was worthy of a full-length article, and he asked me to resubmit the paper with that response.

So we'll see. If that fails, I'll try another journal. Perhaps there is still an editor out there that my boss hasn't ticked off.

[2] which would have covered that 20% salary.