my major professor, the generous one

So I'm studying at lab, which doesn't work very well when my major professor interrupts me every two seconds with some super-unimportant thing or other.

Today, he walks into my office and says, "You have your MD/PhD poster session AND retreat coming up.  Are they going to interfere with your orals?"

I honestly don't even remember the dates of those events because I'm too busy worrying about quals, but I know that the abstract for the retreat isn't due until two days AFTER my quals.  So I tell him, "Well, I don't remember when the poster session is and the retreat abstract is due two days after my orals, so I just have…a very full plate."

He responds by saying, "Well, I can talk to the MD/PhD people and get you excused from the activities."

By this time, I had looked up the date of the poster session and it's one day after my quals. "Well, there's no point since both of them take place after my quals.  There's no reason why they should excuse me from them."

To which he says, "Well, maybe you'll be too tired or something.  Or maybe you'll go to Vegas to celebrate passing."

And I say, "Well, you can try to get me excused if I fail."

And then he walks away, leaving me wondering how completely pointless that entire conversation was.  I'm sure he was trying to pretend to be generous or something, so that he could later rub in my face how much he "protects" his lab.  But really, if he wanted to be generous, then why can't he give me the next three weeks until my quals off?  Getting rid of my responsibilities that come into play AFTER my quals does absolutely nothing for me.  The only thing he can do for me right now is stop interrupting me, which I think he is utterly and completely incapable of, so really, the only thing he can do is not make me come to lab pointlessly when I could be at home studying much more productively without his incessant interruptions.

I'm so screwed. 

Related posts:

1. has my major professor been reading my blog?!Probably not.  But he's been acting awfully strange.  Strange as in being nice.  And supportive.  Being what he was like way back when I first joined his lab.  And he hasn't been like this a really long time.First, there was evil committee member.  I was scared to tell him about how she had shot my project down because I thought that he would just yell at me and not get the point (which is how he has been reacting to things I tell him ever since I rejoined his lab).  And he kind of did at first with a snide "I told you so" type of comment.  But then he had a change of heart or something and instead came up with helpful ideas for how I could address my evil committee member's complaints.  Ideas that I could actually use.  Which hasn't happened for as long as I can remember.  And he was nice about it.  And willing to have a normal dialogue with me as I raised different questions and reasoned through what he was saying.  He would always just end up screaming at me before.  I was amazed.  Maybe he got some the night before.  Or his wife slipped some Prozac into his food.  I figured it was just a fluke though.Until the other day, when I was having issues with the grad student who was making me feel like the village idiot.  I was particularly annoyed that day because we were having problems scheduling our patient studies...
2. the art of the major professor huntI've received some questions lately about how to find a good major professor and thought that I would address them in a post. First off, I'm obviously not really one to be doling out such advice since I chose horribly wrong, but I suppose I could at least speak to the warning signs to look for when on the hunt for a major professor. 1. How many grad students/post-docs does he have? If your lab-to-be is as deserted as, well, the desert, you should go running for your life. Why? You would think that the fewer people in the lab, the more attention you'll get. Though that may be true, do you really want attention from your major professor all of the time? Plus, fewer people in the lab means more meaningless non-PhD-related grunt work for you. And did you ever stop to think that maybe there's no one in the lab because your major professor-to-be is impossible to work for and anyone with half a brain knew better than to work for him? Yeah, nothing says run for your life more than an empty lab. 2. How does your major professor treat the people who are in the lab? This question might be hard to assess without actually spending a lot of time in his lab. For the few weeks that you may be there for your rotation, everything might appear rosy if your major professor-to-be is good at hiding his mean streak (like mine was), but given enough...
3. when the major professor is away…...the grad student will go on vacation.  Well, the trip was planned way before he incapacitated himself.  It's just that now I can take several extra days off to recover from my vacation.  Have a fun and safe Labor Day weekend!...

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