Snow day!

I'm 31. And still a snow day is just as fabulous as it was when I was 8. Long weekend!

--And this is an extra good thing because my inability to think beyond the current work week has, once again, led me into some real trouble in terms of getting ready for the next. At least now the stuff I had prepped for tomorrow (what little I've already done, anyway) will last through Monday. And I can think about getting ready for my Field College campus interview. You want to know what's weird? Having to schedule a formal, all-day interview at the college where you already work, with the people you see and talk to every day. Yep, they're even taking me to breakfast.

ETA: Annnd if you guessed that I'd spend my extra evening off getting drunk and watching movies, hooray! You win a cookie! Much like one of the cookies that's slated for my immediate consumption!

Bon Blogiversaire a Moi

I started this blog a year ago today. While I was swimming yesterday--or maybe it was the day before--I thought of some things that I could say about that: mainly concerning how this blog isn't quite what I envisioned it to be, but has become a much more sort of frivolous and largely silly blog with the occasional desperate cry for job-related reassurance. I'm perfectly okay with that. I think it suits me.

But I don't remember exactly what I was going to write, and I'm starving and also need to head back to campus in just over an hour to show a movie to my students, so I won't try to reconstruct my thoughts. Instead, and true to the above-stated theme, I will only say that today is the EARLIEST POSSIBLE day that I could POSSIBLY even DREAM to IMAGINE hearing about either of the jobs for which I have had campus interviews, and I am, accordingly, a wreck. (Never mind that this state could last weeks and weeks--I know the process--I will proceed to fret in an undetermined fashion, fraught with self-loathing and despair, until everything is settled and/or I've resigned myself to my fate.)

The Dream of My Life

Why yes, it is a personal goal of mine to be seen in my bathing suit and swim cap by as many of my students as possible.

Preferably my freshmen. Even more preferably, my freshman boys. Oh yes.

Was there some kind of Dr-Mihi's-Comp-Students-Special-Lifeguard-Training session over winter break? I mean really.

Aw! Sometimes they're nice to me.

Field College has begun holding campus visits for "my" job--or, rather, the tenure-track version of my job. (My interview/job talk aren't for two weeks, thank God--I need a break!) So in my survey class today I mentioned to my students that they should consider going to the teaching demo this afternoon; they need students to attend these things, and it might be interesting, and they'll have a say in who gets hired, etc. Now, they all know that I'm interviewing for the job too; the chair has sent emails to the campus about the search process. When I'd concluded my announcement, one student asked if I was going to go to the talk, and I said, "No, that might be weird," which provoked some laughter. (The survey is the fourth class I teach MWF, so by then I'm a little...looser? than I normally am when I teach. So far I think that this has served me well: they laugh at my jokes! And we all know that that's the ultimate goal of any teaching situation.)

Anyway, after class, as they were sort of wandering out of the room, one student remarked, "I think it would be cool if no one went to any of the other candidates' presentations but yours was standing room only. It'd send them a message about where we stand."

"Well, thanks," I said, "but you should go anyway."

And another woman came up to me after everyone had left and asked point blank, "Are you leaving?"

"It's all up in the air right now," I said (or something to that effect).

And then she told me that she'd switched majors (which I think she'd been considering doing anyway) so that she can take an upper-division course with me next year.

How touching! I was touched. And a little conflicted. But mostly that felt good--because I got my course evaluations yesterday, and true to my way of doing things I find myself absorbing the negative comments first (I'll get around to the positives in a couple of days and wind up feeling perfectly good about myself; no worries--this is how I process things, for better or worse), so it did make me feel that my teaching is actually meaningful and productive and that I'm not just on some endless comp-grading treadmill.

On the subject of course evaluations, though. I was struck by how well some of my students seemed to have me pegged, particularly in comp. The evaluations were generally positive, I think, the lit classes much more so than the comps (which didn't surprise me at all, and was totally in keeping with my sense of how the semester went). But a few of the comments from the comp evals were interesting. For example: that I seemed unsure of myself and afraid to stand up for my views. Or that I seemed nervous. And yes, I was nervous in comp, precisely because I was unsure of what I was doing and uncertain about whether I should agitate for my interpretations or just let the students talk (because the content of the course wasn't particularly interesting to me and wasn't actually relevant to the goals of the course, I thought). Fortunately, this semester is all about what I like, so I feel a much greater degree of ownership over the material and I don't think that uncertainty will be a problem. Plus I'm not scared of students any more.

Annnd on the subject of the Field search: It's a little awkward trying to avoid running into the job candidates, especially in SUCH a small department. All kinds of weird complications. Further complicated by some general weirdness surrounding the job search about which I'm not going to blog. It'll be nice when everything is settled--for a lot of reasons.

The Thing about Winter

Here's the thing about winter. When it's winter, I scuff around in my slippers on the beige wall-to-wall carpeting in the study/living room, and then when I sit down at my desk I first need to touch the metal goose-necked lamp in order to diffuse all of my static electricity before coming into contact with my computer. It kind of hurts, and I dread it a little every time I get over here.

On the other hand, I dread it a lot less than I dreaded zapping the laptop back before I figured out that touching the lamp first made things better. (I came to this realization, oh, yesterday.)

What's in Store

I present you with the first batch. (I had my students attach an in-class pre-writing to their papers; hence the ragged edges.)

For those of you who were curious about the numbers:

• 3 sections x (avg.) 20 students = 60 comp students
• 1 section x 25 students = 25 survey students
• 4 short papers + 3 drafts + 4 final papers = 11 comp papers
  
• 10 comp papers x 60 comp students = 660 comp papers (I miscounted last time)
  
• 4 short papers + 1 midterm + 1 final = 6 survey papers
• 6 survey papers x 25 survey students = 150 survey papers
• 660 comp papers + 150 survey papers = 810 papers

I've been so excited about this semester's syllabi and the students (who seem like a good bunch thus far) that I'd forgotten all about this part of teaching. Yeep. This is the semester in which I experiment with typed comments, methinks; my hand won't make it otherwise.

In other news, there haven't been any bird pictures on this blog for a while. Here are some geese that I photographed in the fall. I'm really fond of this picture, which I only just downloaded from my camera tonight. I like the way that the birds are captured in flight between the two trees.

The Lull

I'm giving myself the morning off before I begin preparing Teaching Demo 2. Due to a variety of unrelated and incomprehensible airline delays, I didn't get home until about midnight; I hadn't eaten dinner, so despite my exhaustion I cooked up some pasta + parmesan and had a bit of wine whilst watching "Arrested Development" DVDs. Then I slept until 10. It was nice

Now I'm afraid of getting my hopes up and all, but before I firmly put School 1 (Miracle U) out of my mind, I can't keep myself from writing a few words on how heavenly it seemed. Great students, gorgeous campus and area, fabulous research support, all kinds of amazing opportunities. But enough! Wish me luck--I was the first of three candidates, so there's going to be a long wait. And I have this other school to go visit.

I can't think about this anymore. I need to read about what y'all have been up to, instead.