I know, I know....I'm sorry, I'll update more often, I promise....

So Summer II has come and gone, at that means my time at UTA has also come to a close. Tomorrow I go up and clean out my office, turn in my keys, and basically close that chapter of my life. I'll have some residual paperwork to tend to, and it's always possible they will call me for adjunct work in the future, but my days as a Visiting Assistant Prof there are done. It's all a little bittersweet, and I'm sure there will be a tear or two when I lock that office door for the last time. This has been a great job, even with the growing pains and the commute and the 8am classes. I'll miss this campus. I feel like I really got a taste of public university life, and I can make an informed decision as to what type of university environment is best for me.

Besides, without this job I wouldn't have met The Girl :)

A couple weeks ago The Boss (aka The Dean) called me and wanted to know if I had any downtime this summer. He's no longer The Dean, so he's going full-bore on the 1896 election book and he's chairing another faculty search. He offered to let me work from home and bring me on at my old rate. So I jumped at it. So far I'm not putting in all that many hours, but it's a small paycheck and it gives some structure to my working at home days, so I figure it's win-win. Besides, as much as I used to bitch, I really did love that job.

I got a tip that Moutain View College (part of the Dallas County Community College system) needs an emergency replacement for a cultural anthroplogy course, so I'm calling the guy tomorrow about that. I had a chat with him last week and he's excited about me, so we'll see. Pay's not great, but it's two days a week and it's good experience.

Otherwise, I'm taking what the unemployed academic euphemistically refers to "a gap year" to get the damn book published. I'm working on proposals for three separate presses, so we'll see who bites first. I will have the damned thing under contract to someone by the first of next year. Anything else is not an option.

I'm reading a couple of things to write reviews on, and I am trying to get some articles and such in the pipeline.

Personal life has been....oh, let's go with "challenging"...so I've not been as productive as I would have liked the last two months. Copious amounts of time crying in the fetal position are not highly compatible with intellectual acheivement. I'll talk about it all here eventually, but I'm not ready to do it now. 

And with that, I'm back to the book proposal...