But I will come close.
I leave for the Other Side of the World tomorrow, and this week I received 85 midterm papers (give or take a few). The goal is to get through as many as I possibly can tonight so that I can spend the bulk of my 14-hour flights relaxing with novels, knitting, movies, and the inane little games that you can play via the movie consoles. Go spring break!
I may post more substantively here later on tonight; it's been a while since I said much of anything, hasn't it? But if I don't, well, I'll let you know when I get back. I'm not taking my laptop with me, and 10 days sans computer will be good for both me and the laptop, I think!
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Why I Am Drinking a Beer at 5:15, Even Though I Have to Go Back to Campus Tonight and Have A Lot of Grading to Do
1. Today I got a "rejection that is not a rejection" from Dream U. Goodbye, Dream. There will be others.
(May I also interject here a request to search committees? When you reject a person, reject her. None of this "Our search is completed! I'll bet your search is going well, too!" nonsense. Seriously. Dream U was absolutely splendiferous in all aspects of the process saving this one, so I'm really not too bothered by it and I think it just comes from an exaggerated anxiety about upsetting people--a misplaced courtesy, in fact--but it's not the first such letter I've received and I don't relish having to reread rejection letters two or even three times to figure out what the hell they're saying to me. It doesn't cushion the blow.)
2. People were crying in this afternoon's faculty meeting. Crying. Obviously I can't and won't talk about why--and honestly I haven't been here long enough to know what the real deal is--but suffice to say that there is Drama. And I will be accepting the Field offer in the next two days, so. The Drama will soon be mine.
3. In the last three days, I wrote up extensive comments on 47 drafts (10 to go!) and conferred with 18 students (2 to go!). So there's cause for celebration + lobotomy.
4. Hey! I have a job! It's almost official! So, in spite of everything, I get to have a small mid-week celebration. Right?
(May I also interject here a request to search committees? When you reject a person, reject her. None of this "Our search is completed! I'll bet your search is going well, too!" nonsense. Seriously. Dream U was absolutely splendiferous in all aspects of the process saving this one, so I'm really not too bothered by it and I think it just comes from an exaggerated anxiety about upsetting people--a misplaced courtesy, in fact--but it's not the first such letter I've received and I don't relish having to reread rejection letters two or even three times to figure out what the hell they're saying to me. It doesn't cushion the blow.)
2. People were crying in this afternoon's faculty meeting. Crying. Obviously I can't and won't talk about why--and honestly I haven't been here long enough to know what the real deal is--but suffice to say that there is Drama. And I will be accepting the Field offer in the next two days, so. The Drama will soon be mine.
3. In the last three days, I wrote up extensive comments on 47 drafts (10 to go!) and conferred with 18 students (2 to go!). So there's cause for celebration + lobotomy.
4. Hey! I have a job! It's almost official! So, in spite of everything, I get to have a small mid-week celebration. Right?
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
We Interrupt This Grading to Bring You a Picture of Shoes
I bought these! They are lovely.
I guess that should be a question: Aren't they lovely?
It is, of course, far too cold to wear them, but the weather will get warmer eventually. Or so I have read.
Back to the grading mines I go. At least they've fixed the music down there; we've currently got a bit of an Erasure thing going. Nothing like Andy Bell for correcting semi-colons.
I guess that should be a question: Aren't they lovely?
It is, of course, far too cold to wear them, but the weather will get warmer eventually. Or so I have read.
Back to the grading mines I go. At least they've fixed the music down there; we've currently got a bit of an Erasure thing going. Nothing like Andy Bell for correcting semi-colons.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Sunday Sunday
This weekend's lists:
DONE:
I fear that blogging this semester will be naught but one long grading whine. Bear with me, please. *Sigh.*
DONE:
- graded batch of 55 short papers for comp (should have been 57; 2 are missing)
- read for tomorrow's class
- cleaned apartment
- grade batch of 18 responses from survey (should be 25; what happened?)
- prep for tomorrow's class
- finish reading play for independent study
- swim
I fear that blogging this semester will be naught but one long grading whine. Bear with me, please. *Sigh.*
Friday, February 15, 2008
Memoriam
I don't know what to say about the NIU shootings, except that they were horrible, and I'm frightened by the recurrence of such incidents in this country.
A student on our campus was directly affected by the shootings--one of his close friends was killed--and seeing him at today's memorial service, surrounded and held by the other students, made everything terribly vivid.
Again, there's nothing I can say. I'm at a loss. This is awful, and I don't understand why it keeps on happening.
A student on our campus was directly affected by the shootings--one of his close friends was killed--and seeing him at today's memorial service, surrounded and held by the other students, made everything terribly vivid.
Again, there's nothing I can say. I'm at a loss. This is awful, and I don't understand why it keeps on happening.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Job Search Update
I know what you're all thinking. You're thinking, "Heu! What the hell? You never tell us anything about your job search! In fact, are you even on the market?"
Well, grieve no more, for here's the current state of things.
Field College has made me a tenure-track offer. I've hemmed and hawed about whether I would take this offer, should it be made, and decided that yes, I would--unless Dream U (still silent) comes through. So I'm feeling moderately good about this offer. It means that they like me; it means health insurance; it means the most minuscule salary hike in history, but oh well. Maybe I'll get an office with a window once I'm on the t-t.
Meanwhile, I have emailed DU to let them know what my situation is and to (re-)express my deep and abiding interest in their institution.
I've also had a conversation with the other u's search chair. I was pretty nervous going into this conversation, as I was afraid that her advice/impressions re. my interview skilz would be less than flattering. But honestly? It was really helpful, both practically and psychologically. One of the things that swayed the committee against me was something that I suspected had been a problem--sort of an intellectual-fit issue, which I didn't help by not answering a couple of questions particularly well (and I was aware of this as the words were coming out of my mouth, unfortunately)--and the other was an easily-fixable issue regarding how I present my professional range. Finally, though, the major deciding factor was my relative lack of experience. The winning candidate has been out longer and has accordingly more teaching and publications. So...that's it. No big deal. My degree will only get older; with luck, I'll go on to teach and publish more, and then I'll be the annoyingly experienced candidate who bumps other people out of the running.
So it's not that I'm a dismal interviewee, or have horrendous interpersonal skills, or whatever--it's all stuff that I can address or that the passage of time will address for me.
In short: I feel better this week. Much better. And while life might not become perfect for a little while longer, that doesn't mean that I'll never get where I want to be. As a friend reminded me this afternoon, "Academic careers are really long."
Well, grieve no more, for here's the current state of things.
Field College has made me a tenure-track offer. I've hemmed and hawed about whether I would take this offer, should it be made, and decided that yes, I would--unless Dream U (still silent) comes through. So I'm feeling moderately good about this offer. It means that they like me; it means health insurance; it means the most minuscule salary hike in history, but oh well. Maybe I'll get an office with a window once I'm on the t-t.
Meanwhile, I have emailed DU to let them know what my situation is and to (re-)express my deep and abiding interest in their institution.
I've also had a conversation with the other u's search chair. I was pretty nervous going into this conversation, as I was afraid that her advice/impressions re. my interview skilz would be less than flattering. But honestly? It was really helpful, both practically and psychologically. One of the things that swayed the committee against me was something that I suspected had been a problem--sort of an intellectual-fit issue, which I didn't help by not answering a couple of questions particularly well (and I was aware of this as the words were coming out of my mouth, unfortunately)--and the other was an easily-fixable issue regarding how I present my professional range. Finally, though, the major deciding factor was my relative lack of experience. The winning candidate has been out longer and has accordingly more teaching and publications. So...that's it. No big deal. My degree will only get older; with luck, I'll go on to teach and publish more, and then I'll be the annoyingly experienced candidate who bumps other people out of the running.
So it's not that I'm a dismal interviewee, or have horrendous interpersonal skills, or whatever--it's all stuff that I can address or that the passage of time will address for me.
In short: I feel better this week. Much better. And while life might not become perfect for a little while longer, that doesn't mean that I'll never get where I want to be. As a friend reminded me this afternoon, "Academic careers are really long."
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Wine + Britney + Revision = Happy
It's 38 minutes to midnight on a Saturday; I've had a couple of glasses of wine but am not drunk; "Toxic" is on the iPod; and I'm revising the intro to my dissertation. Weird combinations can yield positive results. This feels good: I need to get back to work.
Last week was kind of an emotional maelstrom, for a lot of reasons, most of which you know. But this weekend is bringing some peace. Life is better this semester, in a lot of ways that would likely continue to improve if I were to stick around for a bit longer (e.g. I have a friend or two), even if TB is too far away for my taste (but I just bought my spring break ticket to the Other Side of the World, hooray!). But above all, I need to do my work.
Right. Like that thing on the blog header says. Do thi werk, eh? Maybe the 14th-c. spelling threw me off.
Last week was kind of an emotional maelstrom, for a lot of reasons, most of which you know. But this weekend is bringing some peace. Life is better this semester, in a lot of ways that would likely continue to improve if I were to stick around for a bit longer (e.g. I have a friend or two), even if TB is too far away for my taste (but I just bought my spring break ticket to the Other Side of the World, hooray!). But above all, I need to do my work.
Right. Like that thing on the blog header says. Do thi werk, eh? Maybe the 14th-c. spelling threw me off.
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