Oh, Anne, how stressful. Good vibes for you guys.

Anne, I'm sorry. I hope the diagnosis is for something fairly treatable. Sometimes older people are on a number of medications, and their interactions can lead to symptoms of confusion and so forth, and that can often be resolved by juggling the meds a bit. I hope things work out for your dad and the rest of your family.

Nanita, one of my coworkers and I think what we should really do is start an IRB.

As former Chair (and current member) of the IRB for a large university campus, I advise against it, if continued sanity is something you value.

It might be different in a business setting.

My five year plan is to finish setting up the global operations where I currently am (at a drug company) and then have one of my reports take over and cut back to either P/T or consulting to 24 hours a week.

And take the other hours a week to tutor Oakland kids.

I love this plan.

It might be different in a business setting.

I think Meara would rock this. What's an IRB?

I have no plans save getting to September 2 without a meteor strike.

Anne, I'm sorry. Every outcome is scary.

I'd like to stay doing data/metadata and systems engineering from an ops side,preferably in this field. Ops side because I like a working problem, not a theoretical. I get a little cranky with systems dev when there isn't already a framework- stop brainstorming, call it! You know how on those csi shows, there's always that floating screen where data is dumped out and is mapped (and totally not realistic to the tech available to actual crime labs)? That's what my brain does. I visualize data and queries. I imagine them as physical things (did this in physics too, which is probably why I stopped being able to solve problems except by rote repetition in the latter stages of thermo. I couldn't create a visual model. Forget relativity calc.) Good puzzle for my brain.

I need to feel competent and pride in what I do, but honestly, it doesn't have to be this. As long as I have that, really, I just want my job to fund the rest of my life and give me moderate engagement and not make me unhappy. I really do enforce a 40 hr week pretty strictly, especially when work is challenging the whole pleasant thing. My life is for me.

Oh, very different as a centralized IRB than as an institutional one! But I think most things are easier outside of academia (it has other benefits?)

So hard, Anne -- feel free to email me if you want any resources or just an ear.

sarameg, I actually think you would love what I do. Never too late to switch careers (this one has a lot of overlap with your skillset).

Thank you, everyone. Jesse, I will be taking you up on that offer in the not-too-distant future.

it has other benefits?

Well, you spend very little time doing what other people tell you to do, so it is a good match if you don't like doing what other people tell you to do.

It's lower pay for longer hours , but most of those longer hours are spent looking into some idea you got at some point, so if the work is boring or unproductive (and it sometimes is) you have only your self to blame.