Free at last...

Well, the time has come to say "good bye" to the longest relationship I've ever had. The University of California Davis and I first met in the fall of 1998. Over the next three years, I would live in its dorms, call several different apartment complexes "home," work countless hours in one of their student-run medical clinics in Oak Park, and get my first tastes of medical research. After graduation in 2001, I started my career in the School of Medicine and, after 6 years of research there, moved to the greener-grass of the School of Veterinary Medicine. All in all, this institution has gotten three years of study, nine years of research, blood, sweat, and tears out of me. Now, I think I'm ready to move on.

So, I will officially be leaving my post as the surveillance coordinator, laboratory safety officer, lead molecular technician, and "monkey wrench" at the Center for Vectorborne Diseases on Friday, February 15. Now, contrary to the revenge fantasies I've played out in my mind for years, my resignation from the university was not fueled by anger or spite and it wasn't the result of any proverbial straw or incident.

To put it simply (and a bit ironically)...I can't afford to work.

In order to use the VA fee waiver my dad secured for my sister and me, years ago, I need to NOT MAKE over a certain amount of money in the tax year prior to my school year. I knew that this would preclude me from using the fee waiver my first year in school, but it wasn't until the other day that I realized that working from January to June of this year, prior to going to San Francisco, would bring me enough money to preclude me from using the waiver my second year of school, as well. Considering that the fee waiver covers $18,000 of the $21,000 tuition, I was suddenly faced with a very difficult decision.

Through many chats with our folks (thank you for your love, support, and undying faith in me), e-mails and phone calls to the university and the VA, Paul and I have decided that it would be most prudent for me to quit work before we broke the income cap on the fee waiver. So our plan is to keep me unemployed until I find out the results of my February 8 UCSF interview. If I'm accepted, I will continue my unemployment until I start school in September and we move to the city in July. If I'm rejected (oooh, ugly word), Paul and I have decided that we both need a change of pace...from work and this university and California, in general. So we're playing with the idea of accepting an offer from an old co-worker of mine and moving to Virginia. The coworker, a post-doc from my current job, is now the director of a large infectious disease lab in Shenandoah Valley, VA. I would be able to continue my virology research there, potentially go to graduate school, and work on the re-re-application to pharmacy schools. Who knows...the move and the job may even lead us down a new path. If one door closes, we'll look for a window.

So, Mrs. Domer is going to be playing house wife for a few months. In all honesty, I'm sad to be leaving science because I get a great deal of satisfaction from my work. On the flip-side, I'm truly looking forward to the sabbatical. It will be nice to spend a few months getting our little house organized for a move, and perhaps I can finally get back into doing the volunteer work I so enjoyed when I was in school. There are so many things I have planned. Heck, the idea of having dinner ready at a decent hour and the house vacuumed more than bi-weekly is awfully novel and exciting right now, too!

Things feel really good right now, like we're moving in exactly the direction in which we're meant. It's a bit scary to quit work. I've been employed AND in college since I was 16 years old. Fourteen years later, a bit wiser and a whole lot more comfortable in my skin, I'm ready for an adventure. And I know that we're going to make it just fine. We have the love and support of the two greatest families for which a newly-married couple could ever wish, and we will forever be grateful to them!

I think 2008 is going to be a very good year for the Domer Family!

(Note: I honestly don't take photos of myself working. These were taken by the UC News Service for a series of stories they've done on the center, my work here, and my battle with West Nile virus. I'll probably get rid of them when I leave...I think I'm done being the WNV poster child).