And here’s the post where I talk about sticking things in my nose October 31, 2009

I went back to the clinic on Thursday immediately after class when I started having some serious coughing/hacking/choking/wheezing fits before teaching my 11 AM. Had it not been for my inhaler, I’m not sure I would have made it through class. After checking me out, doing some blood work, and X-raying my chest, the doctor concluded I had a sinus infection that was dumping gook into my bronchial passages (hence the coughing) and put me on Cipro. I started feeling a bit better on Friday, but was still coughing and run down. A few friends (via Facebook) sang the praises of Neti pots, so I went to the store this morning to buy a sinus rinse kit. Yes, I’m too chickenshit to dump salt water into my sinuses.

It took me a bit of time to work up the courage to even start squeezing the bottle, but once I got things going (and the water poured out the other nostril), I began to see why people liked it. One downside to the process is that you tend to leak profusely for another half hour after you squirt, particularly if you lean over. I found this out when I leaned over to kiss the spouse (grading papers and all) and leaked water on him and some unfortunate student’s paper. Luckily, it caused no damage and we were able to laugh about it, but that kind of thing can really hurt one’s image in some circles.

Three hours hence and I’m feeling a ton better. I cooked dinner, made two loaves of pumpkin coconut bread, and I plan to stop in on a friend’s Halloween block party later. Basically, I’m hooked! The initial “OMG-ick!-It’s-running-through-my-nose” factor is pretty substantial, but the after effects are well worth it! My hope is that if I do it regularly that I’ll stave off a large number of future upper respiratory infections and have far fewer days where I’m a wheezy, weepy, sneezy mess.

It seems gross, but kids, irrigate your sinuses. They’ll thank you for it profusely!

I think I can hack it October 28, 2009

I’m still hacking like a smoker. How did I teach my class today? I have no idea. I let them go about 10 minutes early because my voice (what was left of it) was totally shot. After class, I went straight home and applied VapoRub and a hot compress to my chest to loosen all the gooey bits. Three cheers for Mucinex!

On the job front, I have 25 jobs on my list, and I’ve applied for 11 of them so far. That figure will bump up to 12 by the end of the week. Once I hear back from Huge National Conference about all 3 of my proposed papers, I’ll apply for the jobs that have mid-November and December deadlines. I’m hoping to have all of my apps out for the jobs I currently know about by Thanksgiving. In applying for job #11 (a “safety” if there ever was one…), I found it to be the least clear and most complicated of all of the jobs I’ve applied for yet. It was enough to make me throw up my hands in defeat, but I’m hardly in a position to be turning down opportunities. This job is better than being unemployed, but not by much. I have to wonder about a place that makes you submit copies of your transcripts for a tenure-track position. Trust issues, much?

Three more classes to teach, and then a weekend to recover and write. It really can’t come fast enough!

When life gets you down, try prescription strength Damitol! October 26, 2009

Things were going fine for a while, but now I’m just over this semester. Students who couldn’t be bothered to come to class (or to participate when they did) are suddenly ultra-concerned about their grade, and blame their failures on me. Nice try, dear, but when I know I said something in class on three separate occasions, it’s hard for you to argue that I “never told” you when the assignments were due. A few have claimed I never told them my office hours. Never mind that they’re right on the syllabus and I make references to them liberally in class. RTFS, kids! I still have a ton of essays to grade, but like hell I’m getting anywhere near a grade book when I feel like this.

This is all coming down on me when I have a few important job apps to get out by the end of the week, not to mention a vicious cold/upper respiratory infection that’s had me laid up since last night. I felt sort of hoarse and sore on Thursday and Friday, but by Saturday night, I knew I had a full-blown illness. Now my asthma’s flaring up and it’s hard for me to breathe, so I’m off to the clinic in a few for a breathing treatment and perhaps a steroid shot to scare off any inflammation so that I can just start my week already.

I could use a drink, but I think mixing alcohol with Tylenol Cold is a bad idea, or so they say.

*ahem* October 19, 2009

My self-imposed blogging embargo has ended! (And the crowd goes mild.)

The first bit of good news is that I turned in my first full draft of all 5 chapters on Friday. I’ve been working steadily for the past few months, but it took an 11th-hour near-all-nighter to get the damn thing done. I stayed up ’til 3, woke up at 7:30, taught at 11, and tweaked a few things before turning it in around 2:30 that afternoon. My advisor promised a 1-week turnaround, and then I’ll have it for another week or so for a round of revisions, lather, rinse, repeat. I’m kind of hoping to have everything nailed down and ready to send out around Thanksgiving, so that I can leave my committee w/ a full draft before the end of the semester (and over 6 weeks in which to read and review the whole document). I’ve often scoffed at people who frantically pull together shoddy work to meet a deadline and then give their committee something that barely qualifies as a draft a week before the defense. I want my committee to have plenty of time in which to read it, develop thoughtful questions, and come prepared to make me actually defend my work. I respect the folks on my committee far too much to force them to read some haphazard drivel and then make them sit through a weak and chaotic defense.

Another piece of good news is that an article I sent off for publication a couple of months ago has been accepted for publication. I’m really thinking that I should try to write up the results from the paper I did at a conference back in April to see if I could get perhaps one more pub on my vita before I start interviewing. It would be a stretch, but it may be worth a try! My hope is that with at least one pub and a few refereed conference presentations, my vita will stand out among a stack of others gunning for so few jobs in a tough economy.

The job hunt is also really revving up. I’m finding a few more jobs here and there, and so it looks like that when it’s all said and done, I’ll be applying for roughly 20 jobs. If only one quarter of them have any interest in me, I’ll be thrilled. My goal is to have all of my applications submitted by the time we leave for Thailand so that I can come home with a clear docket (and maybe a few interviews) for the spring semester.

Duck and cover October 2, 2009

So, I’m going into virtual hiding for a few weeks. No blogging, no Gchat (horrors!!), and…wait for it…no Facebook. I feel like I’m at the point where I’ve got so much work to do that these activities can’t possibly contribute to my productivity. Besides, I need some excuses to stop staring at illuminated rectangles every now and then.

In addition, I’m curtailing my “real” social life, if you can even call it that. I figure those who know me and understand my predicament will be cool about it and those who don’t obviously don’t deserve my time. I’ve got a couple of family obligations and a few pre-planned friend obligations, but I’m not committing to anything beyond that.

Why, you ask? (All 4 of you!) In the next 2-3 weeks, I need to accomplish the following:

• Grade midterm exams for 3 sections, about 100 students total
• Grade essays for students who don’t meet the cutoff grade for the exam
• Finish writing my first draft (I probably have about another 15 pages to go)
• Get out the majority of my job application packets
• Work on a conference proposal to send out by the end of the month
• Get cracking on laying the groundwork for a study I’d like to start by the end of next month

I feel like my progress is being hindered by the insane number of distractions in my life, and so I’m taking a proactive approach to eliminating them. It may be extreme, but a lot of these tasks have very serious and direct implications for my (and my spouse’s) future. I owe it to both of us to get my shit done.