Ugg. The wild fires are putting a ton of crud in the air. Giving me a bit of ick. Blargh. The apartment is warm, but I don't want to turn on a/c or open windows and let in the crud.

Attention: Peanut butter toast is the best. Breakfast. Evar.

Yum. I like to add a bit of cinnamon sugar or sliced banana sometimes.

Sometimes I like peanut butter on toast dipped in hot chocolate.

I also like the occasional Peanut Butter and bacon on toast.

I don't go the full Elvis, tho.

P-C, the note about your uncle might've been a throwaway line, but your family making judgments on your life (and you feeling stress to adjust your life to decrease the tension)is a running theme, so I took it seriously.

You've got a good career going, and you're doing fine. But I am awfully serious when I say that real adulthood is being able to sit down with your family, eye to eye, and firmly assert your own agenda, not merely acquiesce to theirs. You've got a lot going for you, but you constantly undermine yourself because you view yourself through a family-tinted prism. Take away the kaleidoscope, be honest with yourself and it will work out.

Best peanut butter breakfast: (there are many fine breakfasts in this world -- so they must be categorized) Chunky peanut butter on a toast cinnamon raisin bagel

Java, I don't entirely disagree, but I do think that what you're describing is a very recent and culturally-specific definition of adulthood. It is not the definition held in great big swathes of the modern world today. And, sure, P-C's American as an American thing, but that doesn't neccesarily include the kind of WASPy distancing of family and prioritising of self & one's personal desires and aspirations over responsibility to family and community that has become common currency in much of the West. That isn't the default setting of normal adulthood.

I mean, yeah, I think we all share P-C's frustration at the expectations his family put on him over his marriage and his car and his job, but this doesn't mean P-C's being a pussy, or being a child. He's dealing with conflicting paradigms of what it means to be a successful adult and a good person. Buggered if I know which way I'd jump.

Okay, I think I need a hug from javachik and a hug from Fay, and whoever hugs me harder wins.

Ha, P-C.

Fay, I think you're right, but my comments were specific (originally) to P-C equating adulthood with a barometer (making $100k) that his uncle set forth. I have issues with anyone who sets "adulthood" in relationship with one's ability to make money. That's why I was (and am) emphasizing another view of adulthood.

ETA: You know what I just realized, going back and re-reading the posts? That I think I am resentful (if that's even the right word) that instead of being able to talk about careers, cars, life, whatever directly with P-C, it ends up actually being a discussion (usually) with the board acting as counter to his family. It's really predictable. And since I am not big on people complaining about stuff they're unwilling to change, I get unduly impatient.

So, I will bite my tongue the next time the topic comes up because as much as I want to offer advice (since I like P-C, and he works in my industry, so I am familiar with his struggles), I get too frustrated when I am arguing with his family and that's a bigass waste of my very limited time.

I shouldn't have mentioned my uncle. Honest to God, when I brought this up in the first place, my family had nothing to do with it. They still don't. I'm trying to work out what I want to do with my job/career.

It's okay. I am happy to talk about your career with you. Hell, I'll be honest, I think it's cool that you and Meara "get" my references to work stuff (esp. on LJ).

Now, when you say that "medical writing" stuff is sent your way, as it comes (even if rarely), does that mean it's overflow from another department? Or do you not have a medical writer team on staff? We don't have one - we use consultants or CROs like Constella. So, that could be one option for you to explore.

We have one in-house medical writer who sits in Regulatory; she's my main hope for projects like protocols and the like. We do seem to outsource most of our major writing projects. Opportunities in drug safety are generally only SOPs and safety narratives (which is what got me into the company in the first place and what I cut my teeth on, medical writing-wise). It seems like a lot rests on the future of the new products we've acquired; when they get going, there will be many documents to create. I don't want to just be spinning my wheels until then, though. (I also don't want to leave before getting a promotion, since that will look good on my CV. And stability this year would be nice. But I was really hoping that I would be a real live medical writer by this fall, and that's not going to happen. This was supposed to be The Year. Guess I could push it out.)