Allyson, I hear you about the history and the relationship and etc., but definitely start looking. That job is not good for you anymore. It takes more than 9 weeks to get a new job almost all of the time, anyway. And just think about all the new stuff you've been doing that you can sell to a new employer!

I hung out with some wealthy kids in my first couple of years of university. I once stayed with friend's family's in Toronto. They weren't terribly rich, but def. upper class WASPs.

I totally thought I was going to be friends with people like that when I went to college, but no! They were there, but somehow my group of friends who gravitated to one another were all on the normal side. My family was on the higher end of the middle class, but even that is more about education than money. But anyway, none of us had clubs, and all of us had jobs.

Like, right below the junction of wall and ceiling? Where crown molding goes in houses that are on Trading Spaces, et al.?

Yep. I've been in many house were all the pics were lined along the top of the wall.

Huh. That would ping me as "wrong," but not because I'm all full of class and such, but because of the proportions of empty wall:pictures.

Yep. I've been in many house were all the pics were lined along the top of the wall. I am trying to find an example and Google image search is not helping.

I really have never seen this. Despite being poor, though, my family is artistic, and I think we tended to hand things in artisitically pleasing groups just out of instinct, even though most of our "art" was stuff my mom or I painted or drew. I am actually trying to make my mom give me this set of unfinished hooked rugs she made where she made everyone in our family do a drawing, and then she hooked the rugs. I want to sew them together and make one giant rug.

I totally thought I was going to be friends with people like that when I went to college, but no!

By third year I hung around only two of them (surprisingly, one that seemed snottiest when I first met them all.) I never really fit in, but my 1st year roommate was superrich, popular, and we got along well, so I ended up hanging out with all these rich people, and having opinions on the snooty private schools in Canada. Which is totally bizarre to think of now. I don't know what I was thinking. I also had friends were kind of arty freaks, so it was definitely a strange time, but I think it taught me not to be too judgemental of people because of money, looks, and if they went to a crappy private school like Ridley.

Allyson, you need to think of yourself first in this situation. Regardless of how committed you are to the symposium and your complex relationship with your boss. In the end, it's still a job. And if it's making you miserable, you need to changer--when it's best for you--NOT them.

This, very much this.

If you don't hang your pictures at eye level, Sherlock Holmes will think there's something wrong with you.

But whose eye level. I am 5'2" I bet Sherlock Holmes is taller than I am!

Seriously, I have so much stuff hanging on the walls some of them are filled from tip to toe, though.

My landlord's sister was here today with her son to fix the lights that were out in the hallway, and asked if she could come in to wash out the glass fixtures. She was all, "you're SO CREATIVE! This place looks GREAT!"

I was pleased as punch, the place does look supercute.

My pictures are hung at my eye level, which means they're low on the walls.

I hear what everyone is saying about doing what's best for me, definitely. I think in addition to what people are saying about it being difficult to leave with a huge project on my plate, I'm also very attached to the participants in the symposium, and that makes it extry hard.

Jesse is right about it taking several weeks to find a job, I realize, so I better get my ass in gear.

Where gooogle image failed, reality sites have come through. High hung pictures (well, plaques in this case.)

[link]

Also, as a side note, you can buy really cheap houses in rural Nova Scotia.

Allyson, a lot of places will negotiate start dates, and if you can work it out so that you can get a healthy job and not feel like you're leaving them in the lurch, great. If not, you can tell him your consulting rate and do your level best to get things in order before you leave, but if he's being unreasonable, and the working relationship isn't working, then you have to do what's best for you. It will be hard, but it's like ending any bad relationship where you like the other person's family.