I didn’t really make New Year’s resolutions this year, but I guess an unofficial one might be to utilize this thing a bit more. I went strong with it for about a year or so (I think it was about a year), but in the last six months or so, the old blog has taken a backseat to more pressing concerns. Nevertheless, I still find myself hundreds–or in some cases, thousands–of miles from many of my closest friends, and so I need to be more diligent in posting.
Anyway, I have no idea where I’m going to be in six months and it’s starting to freak me out a little bit. A while back I posted about where I thought I’d be in five years, but five years is really pretty abstract. But six months? That ain’t nothin’. I think it hit me yesterday as I was looking around the apartment thinking, “Man, I’ll be glad to be out of this place in six months.” And then I stopped. SIX MONTHS?!
Six months ago was the beginning of August, and it almost feels like yesterday. Which means that August of ‘08 is essentially tomorrow. And I don’t know where I’ll be living. Right now, the options are as follows:
a) Richmond
b) Nashville
c) Northern Virginia
d) Savannah
e) None of the above
I’ve been pounding the pavement (figuratively speaking, of course), searching every nook and cranny of the internet for teaching jobs. I’m also working with a major national placement agency that is based out of Boston, and I have had a few pretty good leads. I sent letters to about fifteen schools that I am interested in, and most of them sent me form letters telling me that they’d keep my resume on file. A couple of them followed up with personal notes, which is somewhat encouraging, but really… who knows if they’ll even have an opening?
Emily and I would love to get back to Virginia, but I’m starting to get to the point that I’m open to just about anything. I don’t want to be too desperate, but the agency sent my file to schools in New Orleans and Miami, and where a couple of months ago I would have said, “Yeah, I’m really not interested in those,” I’m suddenly thinking, “Miami might be cool for a couple of years.” (Similarly, we drove to New Orleans this past weekend for Mardi Gras thinking we had no interest in living there and we left thinking “That could be fun.”)
I’ve also had a couple of pretty good phone interviews, and I even had an on-campus interview with a school in Richmond that I think pretty well. Of course, that was about a month and a half ago and I haven’t heard from them yet, so who knows what will come of that?
The thing is, it’s actually pretty early in the hiring season for independent schools. Many of them won’t even know whether or not their current teachers will be returning for next year until March 1st, and from what I can gather, most hiring is done in March and sometimes into April and beyond. But I’ve been at this game for a couple of months now, and I still don’t really have a clue about my fate. Quite frustrating, really.
It would be great to know where I’ll be next year, because that would allow Emily and I to figure out several things: what exactly we’re going to be doing, where we’re going to live, when we need to move, and how we need to move.
I’m registered to attend a job conference in Atlanta next Friday and Saturday, so hopefully I’ll be able to interview with a number of schools over a couple of days and walk away with some more substantial leads. I’ll keep you posted.
My semester is shaping up to be a very busy one. Between job hunting and trying to figure out wedding things (Emily will laugh when she reads this, given the disparity in time she and I have put into wedding planning) as well as studying for my comps, interning 10 hours/week at a history magazine, and TAing for a professor who assigns two papers, three exams, and weekly web postings, my plate is pretty full.
That said, there is light at the end of the graduate school tunnel (three months to go!) and I’m starting to realize that as much as I’ve complained about grad school, there are definitely things I’ll miss when I have to get a real job. Like getting off at noon on Fridays, for example. Of course, that alone isn’t quite enough to make me consider staying, but you get the idea.
In any event, I think that’s enough rambling and venting for now. Hopefully that gives you some indication of my life of now, and I hope that this finds you all doing well.
Yeah, so now I’m just as bad as Caitlin and Liz used to be. I’ve fallen off the face of the blogging earth. I have good excuses, I swear, but I know you don’t want to hear them. (I warn you in advance, this has turned out to be quite long. Don’t write for a couple months and then get going, and you just can’t stop. But if you care about me as a friend, you’ll read it all. And I’ll know if you don’t.)
Things here are going well, although the month of November was as crazy as I expected it to be. Believe it or not, I was actually ahead on my work for most of the semester, the result of my misreading the syllabus. Twice. I won’t go into details, because frankly, I started writing them out, and I realized they were boring as hell. Even to me. And I lived them.
Anyway, suffice it to say, I was ahead on my work for a while. Then, my mother y brother came to visit for a weekend, then Emily and I went out of town for a weekend, then we went out of town for another weekend for The Marriage Rites of Mr. Bedard (sounds like a book, right? right?), then back here for lazy weekend at home, then back home for several days of thanks-giving.
I have learned a few things. One: weddings are really fun. Especially when they have a seven-hour open bar. Two: Do not provide a seven-hour open bar for your friends. If your friends include my friends, this might prevent you from ever owning your own home. (Sorry, John!) Three: The 12-hour drive between Virginia and Alabama is really not too bad, but I do not recommend it 4 times in a span of 13 days. Of course, I will be making it again in about a week, when I return home for Christmas. Or, if you prefer, the holidays.
Speaking as a student, my semester is over. It was actually a fairly easy one. I was (ostensibly) taking 6 credits, which broke down as follows: Black History Since 1877 (4 credits), Independent Readings (1 credit), Teaching History (1 credit). For all intents and purposes, I was taking only one class. Three guesses which one it was. Yes, you’re correct. It was black history.
(Quick recap: Sort of mediocre, not because of the material, but because of the professor. He’s a nice guy, but a real oddball. If you notice anything out there on the web that says “Academics for Ron Paul” or “Historians for Ron Paul,” that would be my guy. He’s leading that charge, if that tells you anything.)
I finished up the independent readings class in mid-October (probably around the same time I posted last) because I read the books over the summer. Of course, I went to see the professor about a month later because I wanted to ask her a question and she said, “You still owe me a paper, right?” To which I responded, “Yeah, no. I turned that in about a month ago. But that answers my question.”
The teaching history class was basically a joke, but a for-credit joke. Which, when you’re trying to get a degree, is really the best kind. It’s only right, considering the German language exam I also had to pass a couple of months ago. That’s what I call a sick joke. (Speaking of sick jokes, Emily and I also watched The Aristocrats the other night. Wow. Just wow. I did laugh though.)
So, speaking as a student, my semester is over. As a graduate teaching assistant, however, it is not. We give the final on Thursday, but I’ve already calculated my grades to this point, so I just have to plug in the final exam grade. Hopefully I can crank those out in about 24 hours. Everyone tells me grading the final is really easy because 99% of students won’t care enough to ask for them back, so you just read it, make a couple of check marks, and throw a grade on there. And if they come back in January like, “I wanna see my grade, you toad!” then I’ll re-read it and throw some erudition on it real quick.
Sounds good to me.
What that means is that for the next week or so (a little less now), I’m basically just chillin’ and finally getting to do some reading that I’ve been wanting to do for a while.
I found a copy of Eric Foner’s book Who Owns History? at the library bookstore for $1, so I bought it. I then realized I put it on my Christmas list this year, so I e-mailed my mom to tell her. Her response? “Well, I guess you can take it to Border’s for store credit. Merry Christmas.” It was pretty good, but not quite as good as I had hoped, so I’m kind of glad I got it for one junior bacon cheeseburger instead of unwrapping it on Christmas Eve, giddy with anticipation.
Now, I’ve moved on to a Grisham novel, one of the few I haven’t yet gotten to (The Testament). It’s pretty good so far, but it’s a Grisham novel, so what more can I really say here?
I’m also reading another history book (I’m a masochist), but this one I got for free in exchange for writing a review for the UA-published grad student journal of southern history. It’s called The Spirit and the Shotgun, and it’s about armed self-defense v. philosophical non-violence during the civil rights movement. It’s very good (much better than I expected), although I suspect that none of you are particularly interested in reading it.
Pause. Emily just woke up, so it’s time for me to make some french toast. Back in a few.
OK, back. Where was I? Oh, yes–books. Right.
So, next on my list is a (relatively) new book I picked up the other day called 1 Dead in Attic. Written by a journalist, it is a collection of observations in New Orleans, post-Katrina. I have a feeling it’s going to be a powerful read, and after reading the acknowledgments–always my first stop, the author (Chris Rose) seems to have an engaging writing style. It’s labeled as a history book (indeed, I found it in the history section), but it just doesn’t seem like history yet. Which brings me to a philosophical question on the nature of history: when does the past become “history?” Is the recent shooting in Omaha a part of “history?” Or is it simply the very recent past? What about Katrina? I think we’re starting to see 9/11 dealt with in a way that it’s considered “history,” so maybe the threshold is somewhere around 5 years or so.
Anyway, the book seems to have a history of its own. Rose self-published the book in early 2006, not terribly long after the storm. It apparently sold very well and Rose was working on a follow-up book when Simon & Schuster approached him about buying the rights to republish, so both books have been combined as the new 1 Dead in Attic. I’m looking forward to it.
In other news, I have a more formal interview at a (for now) unnamed school in R_____, V______ coming up very soon (I’m not sure why I did that with the name of the city. Seemed appropriate at the time. Probably wasn’t. Oh well). As some of you are probably aware, I had an informal meeting there about a month ago, which seemed to go pretty well. In any event, I’m really trying to not get my hopes up here, but it’s tough. I really like the school (at least from what I’ve seen so far). I’d love to get back closer to home, and in terms of logistics for this summer, what with the finishing school, getting married, not starving while waiting for the new job to start, and moving, it would be really nice to know in the next month or two what I’ll be doing next fall. Then we could start making the less important but much more nagging arrangements in terms of moving trucks, subleasing, etc., etc., etc.
Of course, it all seems too easy. That’s what I’m telling myself. How could I possibly get a job in December or January at the first place I really looked? It just doesn’t work that way usually. But deep down, my hopes are up. Alas.
Sorry for the delay in posting. I hope this small book has given you an insight into my life of late, and I hope this finds you all doing well. Merry holidays!
On the first day of the classes this semester, I gave my sections the opportunity to ask questions about me. Anything they wanted to know, but the catch was, they had to answer the question themselves. I’ve used it with high schoolers before, and they generally eat it up, but I was a little apprehensive with college students, given that they are (at least in theory) more worldly.
Thankfully, I didn’t get any off-the-wall questions, but my favorite was from a young lady who politely asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I sort of chuckled, and was tempted to say, “Am I not grown up already?” But I didn’t. Instead, I said, “A teacher.”
Well, I took a career test today. It was about 90 questions and took about 10 minutes, and this is what it came up with. Pretty good, I must say. (After the first ten, I’ve included only the ones that I’m actually interested in.)
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1. |
High School Teacher |
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2. |
Communications Specialist |
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3. |
Professor |
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4. |
ESL Teacher |
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5. |
Writer |
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6. |
Activist |
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7. |
Corporate Trainer |
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8. |
Teacher Assistant |
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9. |
Political Aide |
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10. |
Critic |
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11. |
Historian |
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12. |
Principal |
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13. |
Public Policy Analyst |
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14. |
Lobbyist |
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16. |
Researcher |
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24. |
Fundraiser |
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26. |
Management Consultant |
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28. |
Caterer |
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29. |
Coach |
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32. |
Public Relations Specialist |
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33. |
School Counselor |
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34. |
Physical Education Teacher |
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36. |
Recreation Director |
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37. |
Career Counselor |
I graduated from college and finally got a new car, received a fellowship to get my Master’s degree at someone else’s expense, moved to Alabama, and pretty much sat around by myself for four months, reading and writing every day. And of course, I got engaged. So, it’s been a year of big events: some joyous, some less so, but overall, I have little to complain about. I look forward to 2007, especially as Emily is moving to Alabama with me.
Who knows where I’ll/we’ll be a year from now? Perhaps still in Alabama, as I finish up my degree. Perhaps in Alabama, as I finish up my degree and teach at the same time. Perhaps somewhere completely different (probably Virginia or North Carolina), as I teach and plan to finish up my degree in the summer. We shall see–check back in 365.
Whatever the coming year holds, I’ve made quite a few resolutions. Eleven, in fact–and let me tell you why. I’m usually pretty good at keeping them for a month or two, but then things get busy and I start slipping. I hold no illusions–I will probably not follow through on most of these, but I think if I keep up with two or three of them, that will be pretty successful. So here they are, separated into two categories but otherwise in no particular order.
Health/Fitness
1. Play basketball twice a week
2. Bike/row/run twice a week (in addition to the basketball)
3. Maintain my weight (after losing a bit of holiday weight first)
4. Eat at least three salads a week
5. Floss daily
Personal
1. Read for pleasure at least 30 mins./day
2. Take time to call an old friend every week or two
3. Write a letter (old-fashioned handwriting style) once a month
4. Spend 3-4 hours/month volunteering
5. Explore my surroundings in Alabama–rediscover my native state
6. Wear my class ring every day
Some of these seem of little importance, and I’m sure but I think they reflect what I want to be in the next year: a healthier, saner, less isolated person, and a better friend. And with better oral hygiene and pride in my alma mater.
I’m going to try to revisit this post at the end of every month–take inventory of how I’m doing, so to speak. But I’m not actually making that a resolution, so I probably won’t even attempt it once.
As promised, a post about my new goodies:
I got (among other things) an iPod Nano, books (including the ESPN College Football Encyclopedia), “The West Wing” (seasons 4 & 7 — thus completing my collection), several books (history and baseball, of course), tickets to the U.Va./Gonzaga game at the JPJ on January 3, some non-stick cookware (big enough to make TWO grilled cheese sandwiches at the same time!), a couple of pilsner glasses etched with the U.Va. seal, a motorized tie rack from Sharper Image that will apparently show me 72 ties in a matter of seconds (my 26 ties should take even less time), a good bit o’ cash (which I promptly spent on new clothes, including a new tie), and a big honkin’ cordless drill (which has inspired a lust for more and bigger power tools which I neither need nor know how to use). I had some cash leftover, so the rest will be going toward buying books for school, although I also want to get an iPod accessory or three. I want something to protect it, something to strap it to my arm while I’m working out, and possibly something to enable me to listen to it in the car. But I’ll probably just stick with CDs in the car.
I also got engaged. Yes, that’s right. Engaged. After months of planning to propose, I finally did it on Christmas Eve. For you saps out there, the proposal involved a Faberge egg Christmas ornament and a ring that belonged to my grandmother. Anticipating your next question, we don’t have a date yet, but for now we’re going with “sometime in the next 18 months.” If I had to wager, I’d put my money on late spring of 2008, but it could be as early as fall of 2007 I suppose.
Emily and I are both very excited, and I suppose we should probably start thinking more seriously about the who/what/when/where/hows of everything, but for we’re just enjoying all of the attention. Or at least I am. Even if I’m a little bit ashamed to admit it.
Needless to say, this was a very good Christmas for me. I hope everyone out there can say the same. Best wishes for a Happy New Year!
