That’s what WordPress asked me when I logged in to start this post–Remember me? If you’re on Facebook (and you know my Top Secret Identity) you know what I’ve been up to….ignoring this blog, among other things. I do love the immediacy of micro-blogging, but I have to say that it feels kind of good to be back here, rambling in my own pseudonymous space. Maybe I’ll blog a bit more this spring, if anybody’s still around.

How about some brief RBOC updates? As always, life is wildly in flux…

  • I didn’t get the job that I had the campus interview for. Which is too bad, because, damn, those were the nicest people I could imagine working with, but I’m not really sad about not having to move again right away.
  • They sent me three (THREE!) very kind, apologetic, complimentary rejection letters. They are very, very sad that they didn’t hire me. To which I say, dudes, you could have just hired me and saved the paper. But thanks.
  • Living here in Hometown has been fabulous. Last year was so solitary and insular for us–hardly any friends, place we didn’t know, incubating Waylon. This year? Total opposite. Not only are we here with my oldest friends, but through the wonders of Facebook I am now regularly seeing old friends from Hometown who I haven’t talked to in 20 years. Pretty amazing.
  • It is so freaking awesome to have a community again, I can’t even tell you.
  • But I still miss the west coast people and the east coast people.
  • I realize this is the downside of moving so freaking much…I always miss people.
  • More than that: I realized the other day that, while I have these fabulous friends all over the country, moving so much means that no one–except GB–knows the whole story of my past 20 years. I keep having to fill in pieces for people, or correcting them when they assume certain things are the same as they were 15 years ago.
  • Still: it’s awesome being here.
  • I finished a draft of the dissertation, sent it to the Advisor. He wrote back to let me know that he thinks it’s a “fabulous project,” that I’m an excellent writer (kind praise, coming from him–he’s known for his surprisingly interesting academic writing), that it’s looking good and “the end is very much in sight.” He also thinks that I should aim for a November degree instead of a June degree. The extra revisions in the meantime, he’s suggesting, will make for a much stronger project that is closer to publication-ready. I find this disappointing, but it makes sense.
  • And the end is still in sight, though I’m looking at a June 2010 commencement now.
  • I got hooked up with a job with an internet startup, providing content that specifically draws on my area of research. It pays absurdly well. I’m contracting with them right now, but it may translate to a full time or part time job in a few months. I could work 10 hours a week for them (all from home) and make more money than we’re living on this year.
  • And maybe I don’t actually want to teach, after all. This is something else I’ve been kicking around.
  • I’m back on the job market next year anyway–we’ll see how that goes. Life, as always, is up in the air. Not sure if we’ll be moving, where we’ll be working, what we’ll be doing next year.
  • Oh, and I got an article accepted for publication and an email soliciting a book chapter on my research for an edited collection, which is nice.
  • And Waylon. Waylon is amazing. Utterly, completely, “I’ve-become-one-of-those-moms” amazing. We are now trying to finagle our working plans so that both GB and I can spend as much time as possible with Waylon–this year, both of us getting to be with him all the time, is so fabulous. Fortunately neither GB nor I is especially ambitious, when it comes right down to it. Because seriously? We’ve got our priorities lined up, and right now (well, always), family is right up at the top of that.  So yeah. We’re just enjoying Waylon and life and friends. And worrying about the future. And waiting for spring.
  • You know I’ve gotta do it…can you believe how much hair he has now?

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