  These posts seem to get more and more depressing. We didn't seem to get the paper into the Italy conference. Of course we weren't holding our breath since (a) the acceptance rate is 25% and (b) our paper had pretty bad results. I was just hoping that someone would have enough faith in our project to give us the benefit of the doubt, since now we can say we've significantly improved our method and results. The most unfortunate part is not that I'll be missing out on a "free trip" to Italy, but that I still don't have a paper published.
If no one's really as psyched about our work as they say (ie. if no one wants to publish it, even at a workshop ), then I don't know what case I have for continuing on this path. Meanwhile, my advisor is submitting a career proposal, and he keeps cutting down the section about my work. I realize that in his proposal, my work might not be as glitzy as some of the other stuff that NSF might want to fund him for, but if he (and others) are going to keep saying that it's such great work and then not using it for things like this, then I just don't know what to do. I'm starting to think "put your money where your mouth is", but in this case not money, more like "stop saying you respect the work, and start actually respecting it", if that makes any sense.
Other than that, today sucks. Yesterday morning was god awful. Today sucks. Reggie has gotten it into his head that screaming all the time is a good idea. It really, really pisses me off, but since we have this language barrier, I'm at a loss for how to stop him. I almost don't want to go home in the evenings because I don't want to endure the screaming. And I can't walk because my calves still ache from the gym.
Also, my grandmother emailed me practically begging me to have my cousins visit. I love my cousins, and I would love to see them. I don't know what has made her think I've become such a bad person who has to be begged to do things. Granted, I don't write or call much, but that's just the way people are when they're 5000 miles away trying to have their own lives; she just got lucky that she lives near the rest of the family, I think. I'm sorry I use this blog to bitch so much, but for the last few days I haven't been able to think of anything really good to say.
It's really been a bad six month stretch (I can't think of one thing that's gone terrifically right in six months), and I don't have anyone who really understands, which is, I guess, why I started the blog in the first place. Stay tuned, because I keep thinking it can't get much worse. 
