End of the Semester

Well, we've just finished the Fall semester and I'm nearly done. I gave my final this morning and can head home as soon as I dig myself out from under this enormous pile of grading. The semester went pretty well overall, but I'm SO happy to be finished with the 8 am class. That's a tough time and, although I'm an early morning person, many of my students were clearly not. I'm teaching late in the afternoons in the spring, which is great! Hopefully, it will mean all the roads will be cleared by the time I get to class.

The new school's been pretty good so far. I've met some fun folk (including one Brit who is hilarious and probably has "the same sense of humor" that people are always telling me I have...even though I think they usually mean that I'm blunt and mean but in a funny way). The Ren/Med faculty have been great and the grad students are also a load of fun. So far, so good.

Probably won't do much blogging while we're home, since this site is primarily to KIT with folks who are at home. For those of you not in Ohio, have a happy holiday!! Merry Christmas, Drunken New Year, whatever floats your respective boats.

See you all very soon!

Another Dream

I am clearly tormented by this job hunt process. Last night, I had a dream that the U of Alabama (why them, I'm not sure) sent me a turtle through the mail to take care of as a part of my interview process. It was a small baby turtle, no bigger than my palm. They sent the turtle in a regular business envelope, so it was quite traumatized by the time it arrived. I think I started dreaming about something else after that, because for some reason, I left the poor critter in the envelope for a day before tending to it. Once I got the turtle out of the envelope, I took it to my good friend Rochelle (she had frogs for a while, so I guess she's now my reptilian guru). She, sadly and through no fault of her own, proceeded to push her long and beautifully manicured thumb nearly through the poor things' shell. But, happily the turtle survived. We fed it some celery and the damn thing proceeded to throw up all over the place (during another interview? or when I was being interviewed? There were definitely people asking me questions while I was trying to keep them from noticing the very sick turtle). That's when, thankfully, I woke up.

Info that might help you interpret this ridiculous dream:

My nickname as a baby was "little turtle" although noone's called me that since I was a toddler.

Chris and I had a short discussion about the dog throwing up not long before I went to sleep last night.

I've had one phone interview already.

I had leftover mashed potatoes and gravy not long before bed.

Oh, and I've always been jealous of Rochelle's beautiful nails. (Damn turtle squisher!)

Enjoy!

COLD SHOWER!

So, I went to the gym today, like a good girl. I was gone only maybe 45 mins and in that time, they SHUT THE HOT WATER OFF in our building until tomorrow! And I was dirty before I went to the gym. I rinsed off as best I could in icy water and now I just hope I don't have to go out in public tomorrow. How long will we be without hot water? Who knows!

Update: Chris says maybe the hot water broke and it's not their fault. Still. Cold shower after hot gym is fail!

Update 2: Yes the tank broke and it took them nearly all day to fix it. But we have hot water now and I'm clean! Happy day!

Job Hunt Anxiety Dream

I've had my first Job Hunt anxiety dream of the year, and let me tell you, it was so strange. I dreamed that I was being interviewed for a job at some school by a strange bearded man in a sweater vest. Somehow, I had scheduled the interview at the same time as a party my friends and family in Ohio were having. That's where everything went bust. It turned out that he needed to come back to my place (or somewhere in Ohio) so he could give me: A GALLON OF MILK! Of course, when we got there, my crazy sisters were very embarrassing, I got drunk, and Julie blew cigarette smoke all over the poor man. He was not amused!

But, my anxiety wasn't done yet! Then, I dreamed that I was teaching (back at Penn State I believe) and the technology in the room wasn't working, so I picked up one of those handy phones to call for assistance. When it rang back, I assumed it was the IT people calling to help, but... much to my horror, it was a school calling to set up an interview. I couldn't hear them, because my class had erupted in serious uncontrolled frivolity and when they gave me the number, it was a mix of letters and numbers, so I had no idea when they wanted to meet me, or how to get a hold of them to clarify.

Yup, I'm clearly a little up tight about this year's job hunt.

PS. Another school (that I had sent additional information to) has canceled their search b/c of the current economic crisis.. that's 5 that I applied to and 6 total in just my field(s). GRRRRR

Strange Things We've Done This Week

Well, the strangest thing was probably the apple that I discovered sitting perfectly in my parking space when I arrived home on Wednesday. It was a nice, ripe red apple, unbruised and sitting quite nicely on the end of my parking spot at the apartment. I was worried that it might be tainted or drugged or who knows what, but it smelled like the sweetness of fall, so... much to Chris' horror, I brought it inside, washed it, and ate it. It was fantastic and I don't believe I was drugged in any way. So, the moral of the story is... sometimes it's OK to eat things you find on the ground where you usually keep your car. Sometimes.

We took some of our recyclable bottle back to get our deposits back for the first time this week. (In MI you pay an extra 10 cents for all things you purchase in bottles, but then you can take those back and get your money back. I guess it helps encourage recycling). We took 2 grocery bags full of plastic bottles to the store, on a Saturday. When we got there, we found a swarm of people, all of whom had cart fulls (some more than one cart) of bottles. So we waited quite a long time, in the back of the store. It was loud and crowded and pretty awful all around. And at the end of it, our 2 sad bags only netted us 1.50 off our grocery bill. Words of wisdom, try to return bottles during the week. Saturdays seem pretty hellish.

Also, A tree fell down somewhere in the swampy area behind our apartment this week. Chris says he was out walking the dog, when he suddenly heard it fall. This wouldn't be all that interesting if it had been storming or windy, but the tree just seemed to give out with no real reason at all.

I spent a good 5 minutes overhearing a very heated argument one of our loud and obnoxious neighbor's was having about how broke he was (I feel his pain). I wasn't really trying to listen in, but he decided to have this conversation in the bathroom. I was trying to fix my hair and make-up and the walls there are pretty thin. I'm not sure why you would take that conversation to the can with you, but I am hopeful that they can't make rent and get their loud-ass we-can-hear-their-music-at-all-hours-of-the-day butts kicked out.

And that's all our strange news from MI this week.


ps. is anyone really reading this?

My Job Hunt

I'm in the middle of another job hunt in the hopes of finding a more permenant, tenure-track position. I'm searching widely and in both Late Medieval and Early Modern fields. Here's a map of all the positions that I've applied for.

Key:
Blue-Medieval

Teal-Renaissance

Yellow-Schools that have asked for more info from me (means I've made the first cut)

Rain clouds-Schools that have canceled their searches because, let's face it, no one has any money these days.




As you can see, only 2 jobs in all of Ohio, so we may not be coming home any time soon. There are more than a few in sunny southern California, but I'm so terrified of living out there, I really don't know what to do with myself. I should start hearing from more schools in a few weeks, and 1st interviews will be set up between Thanksgiving and Christmas for MLA (in San Francisco). After that, I have to travel to the schools for 2nd interviews. Yay, for hours in airports hoping to make my connecting flights!

I'll update the map when I hear more.

Jobs in Michigan

Ok, so we've been searching and searching and searching the classified ads. But here's a series of ads that I found more than a little funny. It's not just the individual sexual euphemisms, its the fact that they're all 3 together that cracks me up.



That's right folks, Michigan is hiring a Lube Manager, a Butter Packer, and a Screw Machine Operator. Seems the state is casting for a pretty elaborate porno! (Click the pic for a better view)

Happily, Chris doesn't feel qualified to apply for these positions. But, they're still pretty stinking funny if you ask me :)

We live where exactly?

Well, we've moved to Haslett Michigan... near Okemos... outside of East Lansing... on the Nemoke Trail. Say what? It's about 4 hours from home and central southish Michigan. For those of you more map inclined... we live here:


View Larger Map

First Blog

Ok, so I decided to start a blog, mostly because I've been so terribly lapse at keeping in touch with my family and friends since moving to Michigan (some, since moving to State College). I also decided this might be a good time to start, since I don't see many trips home or to PA in my near future. With MLA in San Francisco and the job hunt, I'm sad to say most of you won't see me (or Chris) for more than a day or two here and there until summer. By then, we may very well be moving even further away, so this blog will come in quite handy if that happens.

But enough with the sad we-will-hardly-ever-see-you-again stuff.

The move to Michigan has been pretty great. I like MSU, the people, and the students. I got my own office and have met tons of faculty and grad students who are quite welcoming.

The transition's been a bit harder for Chris, since he's still not been able to find work (but that means he does most of the cleaning around here, which makes me pretty happy)! Still, he seems happy to be living with me (and Buddy) and we're hopeful he'll find something soon.

So, check back from time to time and see what we've been up to! I'll try to find interesting things to say and hopefully you'll be, at least somewhat, entertained.