#GeologySlay

Work

I have never really understood the phrase “good things come to those who wait.” Mostly I don’t understand it because I am an impatient millennial who adores instant gratification. But I also think that delayed or complete lack of praise doesn’t create a productive work environment for me.

So anyway, I gotta tell you a story about what happened when I waited.

I’ve been working on a particular geology project (what I was hired to do) since July. Note: it is currently February. When I had the intervention with my manager, one of their points of contention was that I had not completed this task I was hired to do.

I calculated it: if each sample I ran only took 3 hours to prepare, it would have taken me at least 230 hours for just preparation and about 780 hours of machine time. This is all assuming everything worked the first time. This does not take into calculations any of the time it takes me to interpret the spectra produced by the machine. This does not take into consideration that I had to teach myself two programs including one that crashes every 25 minutes. So no. In November, I was not DONE this fucking project yet. I am only barely finished the analysis in January and in February and I’m about halfway through the interpretations.

Layered into all of the work stuff is a pretty interesting cultural clash that I’ve had with my mentor. Mentor 1 comes from a culture that holds authority in high regard. You do not argue with authority, you do not undermine it. I come from a culture where I was taught that people are people. Some people have extra letters after their name but if you approach a conversation with respect it’s ok to discourse on points that you don’t agree upon. Yeah, anyway, I’m no one’s favorite person at work for holding this opinion.

For the first two weeks after winter, Mentor 1 didn’t want me working on the interpretation aspect of my project because it hadn’t been sanctioned by the person she deemed the “expert” on these things. This “expert” was the guy who sat at my desk and said (repeatedly) “You’re from BAU, aren’t you supposed to be smart?” So I obviously have no interest in reaching out to him or asking him to check my work.

The exciting part of the story is that when Mentor 2 came back from the field, he was WAAAAY more on board with the fact that I had done a ton of literature research and was well on my way to doing competent interpretations of rocks. Not only did he tell me that he thought I was competent, it turns out within the past week he told Mentor 1 that he thinks I’m competent. Not only am I competent, but he trusts my interpretations so much that he doesn’t think the “expert” should get involved because I understand the local geology better than that guy.

I am feeling so grateful and appreciative that Mentor 2 is actually standing up for me. I know it can’t be easy for him because I can get on his nerves. But he is acting like an adult and he is treating me like an adult. This is incredible and I am so appreciative that it has happened and I will leave with a bridge between us.

TLoTH definitely has not known what to do with me or how to use me as a whole person but I am basking in the fact that I am finally being acknowledged as a geologist who knows how to think critically, synthesize information and draw important conclusions.

Mum Visit

I learned an astonishing amount from my mom’s visit. I am glad that we are starting to have a better relationship even though it takes a lot of energy. It’s definitely worth it.

I think one thing that was a really important discovery is that my mom feels culturally more attached to France than the US. We had some good discussions about how the places we respectively culturally matured in shape us. For me, it was going to high school in the Big Scrapple that shaped me in a lot of ways from my sense of humor, my spark for activism and my sense of adventure in cities. My mom spent her time in France when she was much younger so she was less able to articulate specific influences and attributed more of a cultural difference. It was really important to learn that a lot of reasons people have been asshats to my mom over the years was that she behaves much more like a European in home customs.

One major thing that people made fun of her/vocally disagreed with her on was her choice to have my brother and I learn multiple languages. Joke’s on them because speaking multiple languages makes you smarter.

Another thing I learned is that you can clean wooden furniture. There is a theoretical level of cleanliness that one can achieve to actually get a deposit back on an apartment. Mum is much more able to attain this esoteric goal than myself. She spend a lot of time teaching me about cleaning products and how to keep a nice apartment so I can get my money back. Mind. Blown.

I introduced Mum to lots of my friends and we had lots of dinners with people. She was a bit reluctant but I carried out my usual expectations that if you come to dinner, you bring an ingredient or a dish. We had so many interesting foods and such good conversations that I think she eventually agreed it was a good idea to people over, even if she was uncertain of my methods.

Adventures

On Friday, The Jr. Ranger, Mum and I went on a geology tour of the area. I felt so proud that I actually was able to give a comprehensive tour at a general public level of the local geology. One of our favorite places was this cool travertine dam with icicles!

I love when I can include ice as a mineral. No one in normal talk refers to ice as a mineral but it totally is. ^___^ And it’s super weird too.

On Saturday, we went to a spooky gorge and Mum was so brave, she walked on the bridge all the way to the middle. It was pretty deep and had a river at the bottom. Basalt and peppa to spice up your life.

MORE GOOD NEWS

I’m just fucking full of good news today! ^___^ The final happy note in today’s post is that PartnerPenguin is back!! We’re back to living together. Soon, we will travel together! For the meantime, we will make gratuitous amounts of mushroom stew and watch silly YouTube videos until we cry from laughing too hard.

I can’t stop watching “Formation” by Beyonce today. So. Good. Ah! 

And I usually stick to music videos and stay away from comedy but I feel like this video warrants a spot here today as a pairing to Queen Bey for Black History Month.