Finally, after two months of excruciatingly slow progress, I submitted an article today. (Wooo! Par-tay!) I feel like the next week or so is going to do me in, but getting that monkey off my back was a huge breakthrough. If I can get it accepted in the next couple of months, that’s going to help a lot. I have another one in review now, and if that gets accepted, it has me publishing about two things a year since my last year of grad school. My advisor has some article that I co-authored that may already be out (or not?), and that can only help, too.
My job search continues. I’m much pickier about what I’ll apply to, but the market so far looks OK. I have 5 applications out and another two going out in the next week or so. There’s kind of a lull until November, but I’m hoping there will be more listings coming out over the next couple of months. My chair here let me see her recommendation letter and boy howdy is it amazing. It’s by far the best letter of recommendation I’ve read about anyone, ever. And it’s about me! Yesterday, in talking about my job search, she said, “Honey, if you don’t get a job this year, I don’t know what the hell is wrong with the world.” I’m hoping that my glowing recommendations, continued research productivity, and charming personality (*snort*) get the job done this time around. Either way, I’m not going through this again.
My productivity on other fronts is a bit suspect, though. I feel like I’ve been winging it in classes that I’ve already taught a number of times before. Overall, my teaching has still been good because I of course know the content, but it’s almost as if I can’t be bothered to focus on that when I realize that my teaching alone isn’t going to get me a job. Now that I know for certain that I have no chances of staying here long-term, I feel less of an obligation to invest my time and energy into my teaching. I do enough to get by, and that’s fine for now.
In other positive news, I’m about to head home to meet my shiny new iPhone 5. Even overworked professor types need some shiny in their lives.