Wilde Away

What does someone do when they've been laid off?  They go on vacation!  No wait, that doesn't seem like the normal thing to do.  Nonetheless, boyfriend and I are not in country right now, we are in Morocco!  In a way it's a good time to go on vacation.  It gets the mind off of the fact that I don't have anywhere to go in the morning.

Boyfriend and I are currently in the Sahara desert, riding camels around.  We got to spend the night in a Berber camp in the desert, where I saw the stars for the first time in a long time.  We have spent the past few days in Marrakech and will be moving on to Agadir tomorrow morning, where we will learn how to surf!  I'm very excited and totally frightened for my life.  The ocean is scary and I'm hoping we're surfing little baby waves.  On giant surf boards.  While wearing floaties.

Until I come back, enjoy these uh-mazing strawberry bars.  I made them just before we left, you know, in all my unemployed free time.  I really enjoyed them hot with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.  For breakfast.  Don't judge.

Disclaimer: OXO was nice enough to send me some fun fruit-related products as a part of their blogger outreach program, including the strawberry huller you see in the first image.  I used the huller to remove the hulls of the strawberries.  You can use a paring knife just as well, I like tools.

Bittersweet Celebration

I'm settling into my unemployment quite well.  Though I'm not technically unemployed, yet.  Due to Warn Act laws in New York State, companies of a certain size must give their employees 60 days notice before they can just shut down.  So technically, I'm still employed by my company.  They just don't want me to come to work.

If only I could get paid indefinitely to not come to work, I'm quite good at this not working thing.  The house is clean, the dishes are done and all the laundry is folded.  Yesterday I got to sleep in, I headed to my 9am Crossfit class and did some grocery shopping.  I even got a pedicure, something my running weary feet loved.

It's not all fun and games though.  As much as I want to imagine this will last, I realize I only have a few months before they won't be paying me to sit at home.  I've been dusting off my resume and contacting all my friends and former advisers.  I am so thankful for all my friends and colleagues that have reached out to me.  I have had the privledge to work with some amazing people over the years, including those that I have just parted with at OSI.

I know that all my friends will come out of these sad times even stronger.  While I don't want to say that it was a good thing, the site closure, but I'm sure there are opportunities out there for all of us.  The world of pharmaceuticals is strangely tiny, I know it isn't the last time I see my friends.

This is a celebration cake.  Not of the end, but of a new beginning in my life, a new chapter.  Full of sweet, early summer peaches, and covered in tangy, sharp ginger cream cheese frosting, this cake is a little bittersweet, just like this week.  Make it for yourself.  If you're having a rough week, it will totally cheer you up.

A Wilde Day

I'm sitting here today disappointed, a but disillusioned and unemployed. You read that right, jobless. After landing what I thought was my dream job two years ago, I find myself once again looking to the future and deciding what to do next.

As some of you know, I have been working at a pharmaceutical company on long Island. That company was OSI pharmaceuticals. While I can't disclose the full details of what happened (here's the news article about the site closure) I can tell you the story of my yesterday. 

I arrived at work (after my two hour commute) and discovered a meeting invite. When you work in the Pharma industry, and are a subsidiary of a larger Pharma company, these types of meetings never sit well. 

It wasn't a surprise that our company was closing.  It was just shocking how quickly everything happened yesterday. A friend of mine had just returned from his honeymoon, I'm heading out of the country on Thursday for vacation. No one expected for Monday to be their last day at work.  No one thought they would be packing up their desks and saying goodbye to colleagues and friends.  I would have savored that last ride on the LIRR if I knew it was going to be my last one.

We all emptied our offices, carried our stuff to our cars and met up at the bar across the street.  Someone at the bar must have tipped off the news, because they showed up about thirty minutes later.  Since yesterday I've received about fifty LinkedIn and Facebook requests, started polishing my resume and surfing the internet for opportunities.

Now I am on the job hunt again. I have some time to find a new position, the company was very generous with our compensation at least.  Sadly I'm a little disillusioned with the whole pharmaceutical research business. If the new model is for big Pharma to buy smaller companies and close them, I can only hope to hold a research position for five years before another layoff.  Maybe I'll see what else I can do as a PhD chemist.  Clinical or regulatory affairs, patent law, consumer products development, there are so many options, it's time to start investigating.  And making cookies.