Angularjs sessionStorage and scope

Anyone know why my scope variables aren't being updated? It's mind boggling to me. The sessionStorage variables are fine but when I define them within scope variables.. I get 'undefined' errors. I've tinkered with $scope.$apply but apparently the scope is already being digested...:S please help a newbie out.

  if(sessionStorage.loggedIn){

    $scope.user = sessionStorage.user;  
    $scope.user.gravatar = sessionStorage.gravatar;
    console.log($scope.user.gravatar);
    console.log('Session variable is active');
    $scope.loggedIn = sessionStorage.loggedIn;

  }

the full code:

app.controller('loginCtrl', ['$scope','$route','Auth','$modal','$timeout', function($scope,$route,Auth,$modal,$timeout){

  if(sessionStorage.loggedIn){

    $scope.user = sessionStorage.user;  
    $scope.user.gravatar = sessionStorage.gravatar;
    console.log($scope.user.gravatar);
    console.log('Session variable is active');
    $scope.loggedIn = sessionStorage.loggedIn;

  }

  $scope.login = function(){
    Auth.save({
      'username': $scope.username,
      'password': $scope.password
    },function(data) {
      $scope.loggedIn = true;
      $scope.user = data.user;
      $scope.user.gravatar = data.gravatar;

      sessionStorage.loggedIn = $scope.loggedIn;
      sessionStorage.user = data.user; 
      sessionStorage.gravatar = data.gravatar;
      $route.reload();

    },function(response){
      $scope.flash = response.data.flash;   
      $scope.pop = true;    
      $timeout(function(){$scope.pop = false;}, 3000);
    })

  };

  $scope.logout = function (){
    Auth.get({},function(){  
      delete sessionStorage.user;
      delete sessionStorage.gravatar;
      delete sessionStorage.loggedIn;
      $scope.loggedIn = false;
      $timeout(function(){$route.reload();}, 1000);
    })
  };


}]);

Summary of chain of events:

1) User logs in

2) Upon successful login, the user's details (json object) are stored in sessionStorage.user = data.user and the data.user variable typically contains this sort of info {id: 1, username: "user123", firstname: "", lastname: "", email: "username@gmail.com"} -the user's gravatar hash is also stored in a sessionStorage.user.gravatar variable.

3) If user logs out, sessionStorage variables are deleted.

4) However, if user is still logged in, refreshes/reloads the page (from browser), the sessionStorage variable is still active, and still contains the data, BUT for some reason, when I set scope variables eg. $scope.user = sessionStorage.user--the scope variable remains undefined--despite sessionStorage.user being perfectly viable. The issue appears to be with the scope.