some thoughts on work and friends ...

I am killing a bit of time before my research talk this afternoon and thought I would blog a bit! My "hostess" (and former labmate) is off teaching some boring class, so I am hanging out in her office with wireless internet and some diet coke. I should go over my talk (since I haven't actually practiced it), but instead I read some blogs, looked at wedding stuff and went over some proofs for a paper (which in, of course, I did the figures wrong. Again.).

I was very grateful for the stop at Panera this morning and diet coke, because my hostess and I stayed up way too late (1am!!) having beers and chatting about life and academia. It was nice to catch up with her (she has gotten married and started this new job since I last saw her) and also to talk like real grown-up scientists! She's in a very good place in her life right now (which wasn't always true) and so it was really enjoyable to spend the night gabbing away! Maybe we annoyed her husband a bit (but luckily he had videogames to distract him from us!) because we had so much fun!

I guess I am amazed by all of this because we were never best of friends when we worked together. We occassionally hung out, but mostly I just stayed out of her way and tried to have my own life and my own research. And occassionally I was overly annoyed with her because some things she did (or did not do) at work affected my work life (which really pisses me off). But now that we don't actually work together, there's really nothing to be upset about! So, I am happy I agreed to come out and do this talk! And I think she and I will continue to be colleagues for many years! Overall, I am pretty pleased with it all!

Well, I should go practice now. More thoughts on work-related friendships later!