rivka

Lydia: "I wanted to ask - did you ever send in an abstract to that Banff thing?"

[She's referring to the 6th World Congress of Psycho-Oncology, a scientific meeting which will be held in April, in Banff, Alberta. "Sending in an abstract" means submitting a proposal to present research there.]

rivka: "Uh, no, because I didn't have anything cancer-related. Everything they had said 'oncology,' and, you know, everything we have is HIV-related."

Lydia: "Well, I'm still going to present." [She is, in fact, a keynote speaker. The conference organizers are paying her way.]

rivka: "Well, sure, you can do that, based on your prior record. But I didn't really think I could."

Lydia: "But I put money in the grant for you to go. There's $1500 in the budget for it."

rivka: "Right. I'd love to go, I think it would be great, but I figured that if I wasn't going to present something, I wouldn't be going."

Lydia: "Well, I still think you should go. The money's in the budget. We don't have to say that you're not presenting. I just think it would be really good for you to be there."

rivka: "Yeah, wow, you don't have to convince me of that. I'd love to go. But, you know, if we need that budget money for something else, it's not essential that I go."

Lydia: "I think you should go. It would be nice if you could present, and get another notch in your CV, but we have the budget for it in any case."

See, on some levels she is such a good boss. It's not just that this conference will be fun and interesting (although it will be), it's also a good networking opportunity. When she takes me to things like this, she introduces me around to people. She includes me in informal strategy sessions with her Big-Name Psycho-Oncologist friends. As much as I complain about her flakiness sometimes, I do like working for her.