I know I said I would try and do a stock market post this week. It will not happen. Things are just a little too busy. However, I do have good news to share.

On July 1, I will return to the land of the employed. I am very excited about my new job. It will be with the University, where the benefits are great. I will still be marginally in healthcare (School of Medicine), and I pretty much get to build my own department. Good stuff.

What I’m being paid, I’m a little less excited about. It’s pretty much exactly what I was making before (which certainly isn’t bad), when I was hoping to go up a few thousand a year. When the offer was made, I did ask for more. The response was that it couldn’t happen this year, but given how things go, it could go up substantially as we build this new department. And truth was, I wasn’t going to refuse the job at the pay they offered.

C’s response was that the “raise next year” is pretty standard patter, and I kind of agreed, but I was proud of myself for even asking. I have NEVER done that before.

Today, I got my official offer letter, which mentioned not just my salary but what pay grade I am in. And standard patter or not, they placed this position in the pay grade where there is considerable room to move up.  Which means to me, I really am in control of my future.

Obviously my immediate goal will be to make my new department succeed in the limited form it has been conceived in, but then I have plenty of room to grow- my department and my own position/salary.

And in the end, things could not have worked out better. SP was placed with us right before my official last day. I have gotten my 8 weeks maternity leave (and my plan was only to take 6 weeks), and now I go back to work, with 16 weeks still left on my severance. So for almost 4 months, we will be getting double my salary. That’s the last of my student loans paid off and a new kitchen right there.

And after the kitchen is done, I can get the interior of the house repainted, and after the painting, I can replace the flooring….  Okay, I may be getting ahead of myself there.

So that’s where we are. Life is good and the future is full of possibility.