- GB and I watched I’m Not There the other night. Okay. Do y’all know what huge Dylan fans we are (especially me)? I got into Bob Dylan when I was 13, and my Dylan vinyl collection is gigantic. I have, like, 30 vinyl bootlegs, plus the regular catalog. GB and I actually got together in the first place because we met at a bar, and started talking about music, and I told him about my Dylan bootleg collection and he asked if he could come over and check it out, and the rest is rock & roll history. Anyway–so my point is, we’re bigtime Dylan fans, and we were obviously this movie’s target audience. And you know what? We hated it. Loathed it. Abhorred it. Threatened to turn it off halfway through (though we stuck it out to the bitter end). Oh. My. God. It was fucking awful. Boring, self-indulgent, confusing, simplistic, and did I mention boring? Holy fuck. It actually made me angry, it was so bad. Now we’re loving hating it. GB has been reviewing it on various websites. That’s how much we love hating this movie.
- This swing may be the most amazing invention ever. Yes, better than electricity, at least as far as my tired brain is concerned. Waylon naps in this thing like he’s back in the womb. There are times he’ll nap for almost THREE HOURS in it. I am a fan. The swing is the only reason I have two free hands with which to blog right now.
- Waylon is getting more awesome every day. I’m not sure how he’s managing that, but GB and I have both noticed it, so it must be true.
- We’re rethinking the move to SF. This makes me sad, but when I find myself fighting off a panic attack at 4am (when I’ve been up every hour anyway, because Waylon, while awesome, does not like to sleep for long stretches of time at night…like, two hours is his outer limit, which is sad for mama, who is tired a lot and wondering why all those people who said “oh, he’ll sleep through the night when he hits 10 pounds” felt like they had to lie to her)–ahem, anyway, yeah, there are a lot of things stressing me out right now. And trying to find GB a job in SF, and us an apartment, and then rent that apartment with our crappy credit, and then move us all up there for probably a year, before we go somewhere else…that’s not sounding like the best idea.
- We haven’t totally given up on it, but it’s looking like we might just stay here, month to month, when our lease ends next month…and try to figure out a Plan.
- I’m supposed to be on the job market this fall. This’ll be my first time doing that particular Hellish Endeavor. Every single thing about the job search freaks me out, starting with getting letters from my recommenders (who have already written letters for fellowships for me, so I’m just being a freak here). Every step seems like Impossible Hell. I’m hoping my outlook on this improves. Soon.
- The teaching portfolio? Stress City. Especially when I’m trying to start doing all this on very little sleep and with a baby in one arm most of the time. (The sling helps, but I still find myself one-handed very often, and not so much inclined to start on all this, but I’m feeling the time crunch…)
- There are actually, surprisingly, about four or five job openings in my specific area this year. This is amazing. Of course, none of them are ideal–one is in Home State (which actually doesn’t seem like that bad of an idea, oddly), one is in State By Homestate, and two are in State I Really Don’t Want to Live In (Where I’ve Done Lots of Fieldwork). But yeah, there are jobs to apply for, so that’s good, I guess.
- Any hints on how to stop being completely terrified of the job search process?
- Because I know you might need proof of Waylon’s continually increasing awesomeness:
polyopia 
August 1, 2008 at 5:15 pm
I have no advice, since I know not of this “job search” thing of which you speak. But can I just say that I died of delight after seeing this photo? (Yes, I am now commenting from the afterlife.)
August 1, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Best onsie ever- and he is just adorable!
August 1, 2008 at 6:37 pm
It’s always hard to put your finger on what might relieve more stress (vis the move to SF or staying put). You can only really go with your gut feeling at any given time, though, so at least you’re in tune with what prospects feel unsettling for now. That’s good. You can do the month by month thing just about anywhere, too. So maybe stay put for now, but hold the other options in your head if the current place starts to look/feel more like plan B than plan A? I always think that feeling like there’s another option makes me feel more comfortable with the current choice, too.
August 2, 2008 at 5:58 am
Who would have thought it was possible? But yes, I can definitely see the increased waylon-awesity : )
As for the job searching, what i’ve always found frustrating is that sometimes it seems like a lottery – there’s just only so much you can do and the rest is kind of fate. Which means it’s helpful if you can, you know, like, Trust Fate. Or at least get resigned to the Only So Much You Can Do aspect.
Quick story: after being laid off last year, I was really depressed by the job search, and then when I accepted the position that I ended up falling into by accident, I felt even worse, and demoralized, etc. But that gig turned out to be one of my best working experiences Ever, and is still kind of this bright shining light in my memory -seriously!
And ya know, luckybuzz you’re such a blazing torch (regardless of sleep deprivation; that fire’s not going out!) that you’ll be able to make the situation you end up in shine!
August 2, 2008 at 5:59 am
It sounds like not making the move is a good choice. The onesie is AWESOME! I don’t know that this will help with the job search, but the first time I was on the market, I relied heavily on an academic job search book (specifically, The Academic Job Search Handbook, which has recently been updated) – that helped me a lot because it provided a lot of info about what to expect and how to do stuff each step of the way.
August 2, 2008 at 9:41 am
Sigh. You’re so lucky that Waylon likes the swing! Yo still isn’t a fan, although we can get 20 good minutes out of him sometimes (not sleeping) if he’s already in a good mood.
By the way, I heard/read that the sleeping more thing comes at 13lbs, not 10…Maybe that helps you, psychologically at least? (is Waylon 13lbs yet?)
August 2, 2008 at 10:39 pm
While I would be sad for you to miss out on the loveliness of SF, I totally support you NOT adding more stress to your life.
And I promise to come visit at some point in 2008 or maybe for Uncle TJ’s birthday in January, at the latest.
Otherwise, I can’t help but ask– do you think if I got a sling that Aspen would let me carry her around in it?
Hugs and kisses to the 3 of you. I miss you.
August 3, 2008 at 5:52 am
I love you. You are awesome. And I am not one given to smooching you up on your blog. That’s it. I love the boys too, by the way. (This was in no way a ploy to get you here)
August 3, 2008 at 8:30 am
your baby is officially super awesome! and yay for the baby swing… good luck with the plan planning.
August 3, 2008 at 2:28 pm
I kind of wondered about the wisdom of trying to pull off the SF move– what I mean is, I know *I* couldn’t do it, that’s for sure. (But then again, I hate moving with an unholy passion.)
And: Waylon. Is. AWESOME!
August 3, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Cute baby! And when you have time…..Tag!
August 3, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Love the pic of Waylon, he is so happy!
We almost moved when I was 9 months preg, we decided against it, moving with a new baby would probably be just as hard. I know you’ll do great either way. As for the job search locale, where do you want to live in an ideal situation?
August 3, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Thanks, y’all!
Museyme, I have that book–I really need to read it.
Ianqui, Waylon’s only about 10 1/2 pounds…so I’ll stay optimistic about 13 pounds. 🙂
Skycat, thanks for commenting! We love you back.
LillyRose…ideally? We’d love to live in SF, but finding a job there could be very hard for me. California, overall, would make us happy. But honestly? We’ve been talking about how living in HomeState wouldn’t actually be the worst thing…We’ll see. 🙂
August 7, 2008 at 3:38 am
We did a year twice. In fact if you look now you can see that Turnip is holding CRSE hostage until about 4 for 5 now. Sleep is a commodity that we still sell back and forth in our house.