I'm trying to get back in the habit of posting here again...I really let this space languish, and I can feel it. I'm spending a lot of time over on Facebook, but it's just not the same...anyway...
The Boss let me work from home today, so I've done a little brainstorming on a project, and that's about it. I'm off to Dallas to have coffee with my sweetheart in a bit, and I may stop by the office to tie up some loose ends if it looks like I would otherwise be sitting in rush hour traffic. (Aside: I have yet to come up with a name for her in LJ land....I'm working on it.)
Tomorrow I'll be hanging at the house, possibly baking, working on my ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
holiday_wishes cards and packages. I fell behind this year, and I feel a little bad about it, but I know it also means people will be receiving a little cheer even after the formal holiday. I'm excited to do them, both because it spreads some holiday love and because it helps me declutter my card box and other little stuff that is useless to me but dearly wanted by others.
S thought she was going to have to go to family's for the holiday, but it now looks like she'll be here. So we'll have dinner and do presents tomorrow night. She ganked my stocking when she heard I would have to stuff it myself and put all my presents in it. That just tickled my heart. She is very sweet. I am hoping she likes all the little things I put together for her. We'll make a nice vegetarian dinner and spend some time together tomorrow night.
She'll be with her family on Christmas, and I'll be spending it with friends.
I was worried about this holiday, being the first without Bun. And I'm not going to lie -- opening the boxes of holiday decorations was hard. We had bought things on clearance last year, for use in future years, and seeing all that optimism and knowing how it turned out was a little bittersweet.
But at the end of the day, I am so much better off. With or without the new girl, I am in healthier place than I have been in a while, or could have ever been with Bun or E. It's a hard-won lesson but it's worth learning.
- Location:Amazon Treehouse
- Mood:
happy
Not that I think you're all out there waiting to read my ramblings with bated breath, but I know this is the primary way some of you keep tabs on me...
- Mood:
busy
Before I forget, and while I have a few uninterrupted moments on line....
- If you responded to my open reading thread at dw_divines , I'll be getting your reading to you this evening.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
memoryanddream , I have the receipt I needed to send you pics of. I'll get those to you in the next day. I was without camera for a few days.
- real_bethy , I hope you and theonetruetiny had an awesome visit. Swap on the way to you, let's hope the Postal Monster is satiated with the lost one and lets this one arrive.
- Keo, your package is on its way. Sorry for the delay. I'll put pics up of mine in embodiment_mail this weekend. (See above about no camera for a couple days)
- If you ordered from the Dreaming Priestess shop recently, we are shipping a batch of stuff out tomorrow. You'll get an email after your things are safely in the postbox.
- thewenchywiccan I have not forgotten the image of our Lady that I am sending you. Hoping budget will allow her to go out this weekend, finally. I'll email you to let you know when and how she goes out.
- If I owe you an email or PM, I'm catching up on my correspondence this afternoon/evening.
- Location:The Office
- Mood: busy
Sometime late today or tomorrow I need to put up my to-dos and organize my life for the next week or so.
- Mood:
sore
Taxes are ready to be mailed out. I owe $113. Argh. But it's better than last year, and I'll be in a position to pay it by the time stuff has to be mailed out.
Bread is rising on the back of the oven. Whole wheat this time. I'll make a couple loaves of white bread either later tonight or tomorrow.
Commando grocery raid done. (No, not the kind without panties.) Budget's almost nil this week, so we did the inventory of the pantry and figured out what we could cook with the absolute minimum of money spent at the grocery. $19.07 later, we are all set for the week, including a little splurge on some Cadbury minieggs and a lucky find of on-sale cat litter. I'm going to post the meal plan to my frugality community later this week. If you're interested in seeing how two girls eat semi-gourmet food on roughly $20 and what's left in the pantry, I'm happy to put it here.
Grades are done for UoP. I'm waiting on some papers to come in tomorrow night and then I'll grade them Monday or Tuesday so I can get my feedback reports up before I leave town Thursday.
One load of laundry done and put away, one in the dryer, jeans heading into the washer as soon as Bun wakes up from her Nyquil nap and I can bang around in the bedroom without disturbing her.
Still to be done tonight or tomorrow:
Muffins baked
Potatoes boiled for potato salad
Potato salad made
Litterboxes cleaned
Brownies baked
Couple more loads of laundry done
Bun's in a really bad way with The Crud, so I think tonight I will probably be in the living room by myself for a few hours. I want to clip some new collage materials and organize my box of collage supplies. I haven't been doing much work with them of late because they are such a mess. I also badly need a pedicure, so perhaps I'll clip collage materials with my feet in a bubbling foot spa. While watching a Rush or Blue October concert.
Yes, yes....sounds nice....
- Location:Amazon Treehouse
- Mood: content
- Music:Blessed silence, for the moment
The job search is in wait mode at the moment. I'm going to put some more applications in, but I know that several of the searches I'm really interested in will be putting out their shortlists in the next week or so. So there's a bit of waiting game going on now. Nothing else from the place I interviewed with on Friday, but they are on spring break so I don't expect to hear anything for a week or so after they return, to give the committee time to meet. I'm feeling fairly calm about the whole thing at the moment. I expect that will change several times over the next weeks, but as for now I'm feeling Ok. It will all somehow work out. I'll be glad when I get my employment settled so that I can put my energy into something else.
I have some time away coming soon, which will be welcome. I really need to get out of my regular life for a few days, just to recharge and get some perspective.
But now I have to get motivated to write about the cultural importance of The Feminine Mystique. In 850 words.
Seriously.
- Location:Amazon Treehouse
- Mood:
blah - Music:Bun watching a movie
But I'm up now, I've had a lovely asiago bagel with spinach-artichoke cream cheese, and I've got a cup of coffee, and it's off to the races :)
Today is Job Application Day. I have about six or seven applications to get built and sent out. I spent some time with my sis on the phone last week -- she's a career coach -- and got some advice about how to apply for the nonteaching jobs I'm looking at. I've got a couple of teaching positions to apply for, too, plus whatever the job boards yield this morning.
I'm excited to get alot done today...yesterday and Sunday were both amazingly productive, and I like how that feels. I like crossing things off my to-do list and, more importantly, getting things off my conscience.
And getting these job apps out into the stream will vastly increase my chances of actually, you know, landing one of the jobs.
- Location:Amazon Treehouse
- Mood: working
- Music:Bun taking out the trash
I'd like to actually cross off the rest (or at least most) of the remaining stuff on the to-do list today. I got a lot done last week, and seeing those tasks being struck out on the list is very edifiying. It's a lot of 10-15 minute tasks, so hopefully I can knock them out relatively quickly.
The grading of the essays for UoP and the feedback reports will take longer. I don't know why I'm not better about doing these in drips and dabs throughout the week. However, it's supposed to be cold and windy today and tonight, which should curb any desire I have to go out of the house -- or at least not much further than the workout room. So perhaps I'll curl up with tea and grading whilst Bun works on her Latin.
I have job applications to bang out too. Quite a pile of them. I'm formulating a Plan B, and the Universe has been generous enough to offer me some possiblities -- a couple positions in Women's and LGBT programming at universities, a couple of pulic health and education positions that would allow me to put my anthro skills to applied use -- so I'm jumping on them. No guarantee that they will go anywhere, but at least they are options that I had not really considered before, and which I can see myself doing and getting excited about. Turning an academic, teaching-focused CV into a resume for these types of jobs in a challenge, but I think I can do it with relative facility.
I also have cleaning and laundry to do, as these crazy weeks -- exacerbated by Monologues -- have left our house just short of a disaster zone. The cats are looking at me piteously, and the pigs are formenting fullblown revolution. Time for a complete litterbox scrubdown and pig cage cleaning.
Meal planning for the week will happen as I clean out the fridge. We have a lot of good stuff that needs to get used up before it turns to compost, so I'm forseeing tomorrow being a "let's cook for the week" day, after we get back from yoga class.
My reward for being productive will be a home pedicure with yummy foot spa goodies and new polish.
It's funny, but these ordinary days, no matter how busy, make me very happy. I begin to feel very grounded and centered, something I haven't felt in too long a time. I feel as though I'm in control of my life, something that I also haven't felt in some time. I feel like I'm living and not merely existing, building something for myself. And that feels good.
And part of that means finishing this cup of coffee, signing off LJ, and going to my date with the treadmill!
- Location:Amazon Treehouse
- Mood: content
- Music:Pigs munching their timothy log
Got a little forward momentum last night and finished a couple job applications. Also went online and applied for three adminsitrative jobs, in the academic advising arena, with the local community college district. It feels a little like failure to think about going into something other than teaching, but I am also practical and realize that if I can get a job in programming or advising, and teach part time, this will give me valuable experience in academe while also providing a steady paycheck and time to write. I may not get called back for any of them, but it took almost no time to apply via the online system, and at least it's anothe baited hook in the water. I'm going to have to start seriously considering nonprofit work and other career paths if none of the academic jobs pan out this time around. I know I will eventually be professoring somewhere, it just may be in a year or two when I get my finances straightened out and more publications to my name. Right now, working three part time jobs does not leave me much time for my own scholarship.
So far this morning I've posted my materials for the week on my UoP class sites. I have some other things I need to post throughout the week, but we are required to post several things every Sunday -- Weekly Overview for the coming week, Wrap Up for the last week, Discussion Question threads. So that's done. I have papers coming in today that need to be graded by next Sunday, so later today I'll likely check to see what's already in my digitial dropbox and get a jump on the grading.
I also have part of a leg of lamb I need to cut up for my lamb and lentil stew, which I am making for Brighid's Day today. As soon as Bun gets her Sims fix in and can come help me chop veggies, I'll get onto that.
Later today I'll have to sit down with calendars and such and make the To Do List of Doom for the coming week. I'm trying to get everything possible crossed off the exisitng one first. I hate carrying stuff over week to week if I don't have to.
I think there'll be a run in the park this afternoon as well, if the temperature goes to where the local news says it will. All the ice last week kept us mostly homebound -- which is funny to me, being from icy climes originally -- and it will be good to get back out in the sun. Failing that, the treadmill and yoga mat call.
But all that will wait until I have another cup of coffee..
- Location:Amazon Treehouse
- Mood: calm
- Music:Snip excavating her cage
I really need to be working on either an article or some job applications tonight, but I just can't seem to get any forward momentum going. Got up this morning and did my required grading for my UoP class, which was nice. I'm on top of the grading (which has a 48 hour turnaround) thus far, which is a marked improvement from my mentorship..I did all the grading in about an hour, which is also an improvement. I'm hoping it continues to go as fast.
After grading was done, it was errand time. Ran out to Target and then to Lane Bryant for an interview suit. I don't have any interviews lined up as yet, but I'm hoping that having the suit ready and waiting will bring some of that energy. I still need a blouse and shoes, and will get my hair cut Thursday. Pictures will follow, as soon as the whole outfit is ready. I got some things ready to go into the mailbox, and have a few more that I'll pack up tonight too.
Yet I can't settle down to writing. Not even my reviews for
50bookchallenge which I need to get up before I lose count. (Seven books so far in 2009, for those keeping count for some bizarre reason.) But my Muse, she is silent tonight. Perhaps a cup of tea and some dinner will spark her awake.I need to do these job applications. I just think I'm a bit burned out -- tired of putting all these little pieces of myself into envelopes and either getting rejected or, worse still, waiting and waiting. I'm thinking that hiring committees will start making decisions in the next couple of weeks, which means that I'll at least have closure on a number of the searches I have out there in the wind. I know I need to keep pounding the pavement (metaphorically) but I am continually suprised at how exhausting job searches are. I think some of it is peculiar to the academic market and the totally fucked up way we do things, but I imagine some of it is just job searching in a down economy. I'm trying to keep positive yet I also know that I have limited time to come with a Plan B should my academic search come up empty this year.
And why I'm nattering about it on my LJ instead of taking action to do something about any one of the things I could be taking action on? That's anyone's guess.
- Location:Amazon Treehouse
- Mood: blah
( Cut for basic life update nattering )
- Location:The Office
- Mood:
cold - Music:Nothing yet, actually
I've been incredibly reflective since Christmas, which is why I've been so silent of late. I'll be posting an update (probably over several posts) for those who are interested in my process, but for today it's probably going to be pretty quiet.
I have a lot of things to finish up from last year, and a lot of things to kick off for 2009, so my energy's going to be going there for the next week or so, until I get the foundation built.
- Location:Amazon Treehouse
- Mood:
thoughtful
The last two weeks have been completely taken up with my online training for UoP. Two more weeks to go and then I find out if I actually got the job. Training is fun but takes just about every spare moment and brain cell I have.
More later.
- Location:The Office
- Mood: busy
It's going to get better. Hopefully soon.
- Location:Amazon Stronghold
- Mood: numb
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