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.

On the prowl September 30, 2009

By some stroke of great fortune, I am beginning to see more postings in my area at a time when I thought that all of them had pretty much been posted. I’ve applied for 4 thus far, and I plan on trying to get out another 5 or so in the next two weeks. The job search process starts out really labor-intensive, but as I get comfortable with drafting cover letters, the process gets easier. Every time I drop a package in the mail or hit “Send,” I get this shaky, nervous feeling, because I know that from that point forward, the process is out of my control. There is literally nothing else I can do, and it’s an unsettling feeling. I can only have faith that who I am and what I do fills a need somewhere.

It kind of blows my mind that I have no idea where I’ll be living or what I’ll be doing 8 months from now.

2 down, 12 to go! September 19, 2009

On Friday, I submitted my first two job applications. I am officially “on the market” now. And thus begins the waiting game, the tortured months of ambiguity, the sleepless nights. One of these jobs is (for now) my #1 pick, given the strength of the department, the resources they have, and the location. The other position is far from my top pick, but seems to be a good fit in a lot of ways. I’ve done a lot of thinking over the past few months, and even though I really love teaching, I know that I don’t want to end up in a place where my primary focus is teaching, and that has really shaped my search. Also, I promised the spouse I wouldn’t move us to some God-forsaken pit on the prairie where the closest city of any size is a four hour drive away, not only for his benefit, but also for my sanity and well-being. The next 12 applications will all be submitted in a flurry over the next six to eight weeks, and then I wait. That’s the worst part, at least for me. A few are long shots, a few are possibilities, and a few really excite me.

In the meantime, I’m also faithfully slaving away at my final chapters, and it seems to be going well, so far. I have about 2 pages done for both chapter 4 and 5, and I have a good outline for the rest of 4. I still feel like there are some changes to be made in the first 3 chapters, but for now I’m letting the words spew out. I have 2 months’ worth of revising to do before my committee will ever see it, anyways.

Teaching duties are also taking a lot out of me. I have two tests coming up soon that have to be written (and then, of course, graded), and I need to have at least something on paper by Monday afternoon to show my supervisor. This will have to happen somewhere between running 9 miles and getting some more writing done tomorrow. No rest for the wicked!

Nobody puts Baby in a corner! September 15, 2009

First, R.I.P., Patrick Swayze. Pancreatic cancer is an ugly, ugly thing.

Second, this weekend ended up being insanely productive. I finished my teaching and research statements, so with that, I’m ready to start applying for jobs. I have a pretty good collection of institutions from all over the country, and while some are long shots, I’d say most are within reach. The next few months will be a waiting game, and I hope that I don’t lose my mind in the process!

I’ve started in on my Chapter 4, and so far, so good. In a lot of ways, this chapter writes itself because you’re reporting results. The interpretation and implications get held off until the next chapter, so while it’s important to write well, the information itself is already there. I have about two pages written and an outline for the rest of the chapter, so I’m hoping to knock that out within the next week or two and then proceed with the final chapter to turn that in by October 16 (or so).

In the meantime, I have a number of classes to teach, two tests to give, a bunch of grading, and in my spare time, sleeping, eating, and running! The marathon training is going well, and it’s been exciting to build miles. This weekend my long run will be 9 miles, and the following, 11. Eleven miles. My training partner and I made an agreement that we would treat ourselves at various milestones (10, 15, and 20 miles) by getting massages or pedicures. By the end of the semester, I will have basically finished my long run training (longest run=23 miles) and taper off during Winter Break to run the marathon on January 10. Crazy.

Speaking of Winter Break, the spouse and I are planning a trip to Thailand and Cambodia for 18 days in December. We figure it may be our last opportunity to take an extended vacation like this, since we don’t know what kind of jobs we’ll have next year (or if we’ll have jobs), and since he’s not 100% committed to another academic job, he may not get the kind of long breaks to which he’s been accustomed. Also, if one of us is unable to find employment, we won’t have the money to blow on such an expensive vacation. I’m really excited about seeing Bangkok, Chiang Mai, the hills of northern Thailand, and most of all, Angkor Wat and Siem Reap in Cambodia. This should be an amazing trip!

The Paradox September 12, 2009

How strange is it that I have to travel 800 miles in order to get any work done?

I’m tagging along for the weekend with the spouse on a trip to Florida, and because it’s rainy, I have no choice but to stay inside and get stuff done. Here’s hoping for a teaching statement, research statement, and a few pages on the diss. ::raises coffee cup::

Save the drama for your baby mama September 8, 2009

As if there hasn’t been enough of the well-known ingredient in my life lately, the house drama continues. No, not the old house. That is (as far as I know) totally settled. The drama to which I refer involves the new place. Without going into all of the gory details, there are some pretty substantial issues w/ our new place (i.e., things that could potentially burn this mother down), and our landlord seems to think that we are at fault for these issues and are being “difficult” because we are asking for these things to be repaired. Sigh.

I feel like I’m getting into a groove with my writing, job applying, and teaching. I’m working very, very hard, but I enjoy it immensely, even when things don’t go so well (see: slacker undergrads). This week, I’ll send out a couple of application packets, get cracking on my Chapter 4, and teach what I hope will be 3 very awesome classes. I have Friday off because I’m going to Florida w/ the spouse for a conference (his, not mine). I’ll take the opportunity to get a ton of work done, maybe even have a good bit of my chapter done. It’s crazy how much one can accomplish if he/she chooses to do so.

In short, screw the haters and git ‘er done!

Makin’ progress September 6, 2009

This morning, I finished (for now) revising my first three chapters. Tonight or tomorrow, I begin writing the 4th chapter. Pretty exciting stuff! I’ve agreed to have a 1st draft of all 5 chapters by the middle of next month. At first, I wanted to kick myself for agreeing to do that, but as I thought it over, I realized that it’s ambitious but completely reasonable. It will be exciting to reach that milestone, even if I still have a good ways to go before being done (3 or 4 rounds of revisions, the defense, and then corrections). The plan is now to have the writing totally finished by the time I leave for Thailand, give it to my committee at the beginning of January, and defend at the end of January/early February. Not bad!

Teaching is going really well, too. I thought three days a week would be hard, but it really hasn’t created problems for me yet. I’m trying to stay on top of the material and have my PowerPoints and activities ready to go a week ahead, and so far this strategy has paid off. One issue is that I’m basically teaching the same material in all of my classes, but my Wednesday/Friday class is a week ahead of my Thursday class, and the way I teach the material is very different between them, too. I’m finding I like my Thursday class because the students seem a bit more responsible, and I also have to cover an entire chapter in a 75 minute lecture, so I feel like things flow better. In contrast, my W/F kids seem very…young. Not very motivated, somewhat irresponsible, and less interested in the material. On Friday I asked my class of roughly 30 people to raise their hands if they had actually done the reading. 5 people raised their hands. It will be an uphill battle, for sure.

After being settled into the new house for nearly 2 weeks now, I’m really seeing how much the house sale drama was affecting me and the spouse. Those kinds of situations really take a lot of emotional, mental, and physical energy out of you, and I really don’t see how I accomplished anything over the past 2 months. It’s refreshing to have all of my attention focused back where it belongs, and even more refreshing to not live out of boxes.

To reward myself, I’m going to brunch this afternoon, visiting a motorcycle museum, and then treating myself to a 7 mile run. Tomorrow, it’s back to the grind, even if it is a so-called holiday.

La Vida Loca September 1, 2009

My life has been crazy, and not in an altogether good way.

The good: We sold our house! That’s definitely a load off our minds.

The bad AND the ugly: Spouse got sick last Thursday. He started to recover. On Saturday, as we began our move, I got sick. Then I got really sick. As in, “Get thee to an emergency room” sick. I’m better now, but it’s been an uphill climb over the course of a week and a half.

I would pay to freeze time just for a day or so, in order to catch my breath.

Forgive me Internetz, for I have sinned. It has been 12 days since my last blog post. August 20, 2009

Holy crap have I been busy! There’s been a lot going on, but frankly, I’ve been too brain-dead to string together a coherent post.

I taught my first class today, huzzah! Things went well, and I managed to come across as reasonably intelligent and trustworthy. Always good. At the 11th hour, I found out that I’m also going to be teaching another class two days a week to help accommodate some bureaucratic weirdness, and get paid extra, to boot. Apparently, my department is stretched pretty thin and they need all the help they can get. I am, of course, more than happy to help, especially if it means extra money and more experience in time for the job hunt.

Speaking of which, things seem to be looking up in that area. I’ve seen more postings come rolling in from some pretty amazing schools, most of which will likely have no interest in hiring me. Still, I’ll apply and let them be the ones to tell me that I don’t have what it takes. I’ve managed to craft an excellent CV, draft a decent cover letter, line up references, and all I have left is to compile teaching and research statements that are supposed to be separate from the cover letter. I should be able to start applying for jobs next week, or the next.

Things with the sale of our house seem to finally be moving forward, so we’ll be moving this weekend and early next week. That should make for some stressful times! I will really need to adopt the ethic of “make hay while the sun shines” if I want to have a prayer of staying afloat, much less ahead. A few days of laziness may well cost me weeks of headache and disorder. My goal for the semester is to always stay 2 weeks ahead, but knowing me, even if I prepare ahead, I’ll still be putting final tweaks on it up until the bitter end.

I’ve also done a ton of revisions on my proposal to make it a more coherent part of a five chapter dissertation and to polish up the writing in general. I’ve totally finished Chapter 1 and have very little left on both Chapters 1 and 3. I have a good feeling that I should be done by the end of next week so that I can begin the month of September with a solid foundation for the rest of my diss. My chair and I decided to postpone any plans for defending it until early spring, which means that I will have plenty of time to devote to writing and editing before the big day. It will be nice to be able to take my time, for once, and I hope that it shows up in the quality of my writing.

Sometimes I think about where I am and how far I’ve come, and my mind is completely blown.

And in other news August 9, 2009

A little bird told me that my last post seemed like one big pity party. I apologize. I’ve been pretty down about things in general right now, and it’s hard to summon my usual ebuillence. After a long conversation with the spouse and another one with my advisor, I feel cautiously optimistic. It’s actually a really exciting stage of my life, and I should be enjoying it far more than I have.

I’ve been tracking my measurements over the course of the summer, and I’m happy…no, overjoyed to announce that I’ve lost a whole 2.5 inches off my waist and 1.25 inches from my hips. I haven’t weighed myself in a good while, but I can only assume that I’ve lost some weight. I may drop by the gym today to do some weight training and I’ll hop on the scale then. I try not to use weight as a barometer of my overall health or fitness progress, but in conjunction with other measures, it will tell me more about how well I’ve been doing to be healthy and slimmer. My energy levels have certainly increased, and I’ve found that my running pace has increased dramatically (from about an 11 min mile to about a 9 or 9.5 minute mile). Now that the summer is over, I’m going to start building mileage to my long runs, starting next weekend. By the end of next month, I’ll be up to around 10 miles per run. By Halloween, I’ll have 15, and by the end of the year, I’ll be up to 26 miles!

These next few weeks will be frantic, what with the beginning of the semester, the job search, and of course, the dissertation. My life is about to become one huge transition, but I welcome the challenge enthusiastically.