Brightener

The hiring dean at NewU send around a notice to his existing faculty about my impending arrival and I got four nice notes from future colleagues overnight. Then I got to work and found a bunch of termination paperwork shoved under my door.

Word gets out

So my chair wrote to the rest of the faculty today, so they all know, and I told the grad students last night. I haven't made a big deal for the undergrads, but I did tell my last PrettyGood class ever (mostly so they wouldn't spend too much time on the evaluations, since I don't think I will see them). It was funny - one of the students in there asked me directly "So did the tenure thing not work out for you, then?" I told him "You could look at it that way. I went up in the last year of Pres. X, and it didn't work out for a lot of people that year."

So I have grading and clearing out my office, and then I will be on to bigger and better things.

Spouse may stay here next year. We are still negotiating that one.

Clearly this will be a process

Spouse talked to the school that wants to hire him yesterday, and he's not at all excited about the job (roughly the equivalent of 4 sections of freshman comp, but in his field), much less the pay. He can always work in industry, but then he won't have the summers to spend with the girls.

So we are blessed, but bitchin'

I'm a little verklempt

So since we decided on a break in a 4-hour meeting Friday afternoon, Spouse hasn't told his chair yet, and it's going to be hard. This guy has been the chair since before Spouse came here and is retiring this year. He recruited Spouse hard, did his best to urge my chair to go to bat for me with the initial denial (which my chair decided to not do for reasons I still don't quite understand), lives in the same little suburb as us, and even kept Offspring for us when we had to go to the hospital at 4 in the morning to have Bun. I think his chair feels the changes that have happened at PrettyGood over the last 15 years even more intensely than we do. When Spouse started, it was a pretty good comprehensive university with a really supportive, family feel. Now, after 9 years of a 10-year "We're going to spend a ton of money in a concerted effort to get US News to love, love, love us" plan, we are a pretty good comprehensive university with a lot of infighting that really just wears people down. But for the people who have been here most of the time that we have, for most of them, leaving feels like betraying a friend.

Plus, spending time doing things and thinking about how our kids won't get to do this or that thing or we won't do this or that again makes me a little sad.

I keep reminding myself that they have {piano teachers and churches and some great students and some irritating students and some arts festivals and the like...} everywhere.

*Update: Spouse told his chair, who apparently was quite upset. As is Spouse. As is his best friend over there.

Just to be clear

It's only an 80% win. The job Spouse will in all likelihood get is at a state-supported school in a state with budget issues (like all of them) and so even though we think the title will be the same, the pay will be a substantial reduction, which he, understandably, is super bummed about. He's really taking one for the team on this one.

And the decision is

Spouse talked, we think they want to hire him. I said yes, and we are outta here.

Yay!

Squeeeeeee

Spouse got an e-mail today from a school 20 mins from New School that wants to talk to him.

Everything crossed!

Still at an impasse

I have until Friday, and Spouse and I still haven't decided. Offspring wanted to make a list of issues, so here they are:

Pros:
*Better job with opportunity for growth for me
*Lets us expose our kids to the moving experience, different culture, etc.
*Much closer to families

Cons:
*Spouse will likely never get another job as good as he has right now
*No job growth possibilities for me. There are some changes afoot at PrettyGood right now, and I see my job getting significantly worse in the near future
*May lose summers with the girls if Spouse has to work in industry, which is looking increasingly likely
*Significant, but not crippling, loss in family income

Neutrals:
*Stay means ego blow to me
*Go means ego blow to Spouse

But we're taking it a bit light, as much as we can. We had a family sing-along last night.

The time is near

Heard from dean at new school today. They need a decision soon. Very stressful.

But, some things are changing at my job that I think will make it less likely that I could graduate director any more, and I am much less excited about staying here. Not that I was that excited in the first place!

Did I mention very stressful?

Heading home

I stayed asleep until 6 today, but then there wasn't any hot water, so I had a "refreshing" morning. My last student gives his paper today, and then we are off to the airport to head home. He's the one with the personality issues, but I don't know if anything is going to happen. I decided I'm not going to say anything unless it comes up.

On trips like this, sometimes I don't like being the grown up. I know my students went out at night a few times. They don't invite me, and I wouldn't have gone in any case, but knowing it accentuates the loneliness of being in a strange city where the only person you know is the past president of your university with whom you have some "history," but that doesn't count (although it was slightly tempting to go knock on his door and ask him if it was all worth it - I guess I have an evil streak...)


Speaking of evil streak, one of my students was extremely hungover this morning. So I get to have the internal debate as to whether I should say something, since this student is apparently still developing, maturity-wise. I haven't, but I might feel free to expose us to loud noises and bright lights today...

Very ready to see Spouse and the world's cutest, smartest and generally most awesome children tonight.

Two time zones

So I am here two time zones away in a moderately priced hotel preparing to go to a mediocre conference with some of my graduate students. REALLY don't want to be here. I'm missing my own classes today and missing my family. Offspring got in trouble at school yesterday - enough trouble that she will go to the "punishment party" at school at the end of the year wherein she will sit in a room with the other little miscreants and do really hard worksheets that they will tear up in front of her at the end, while the good kids watch a movie. Good times. Her crime - she got busy playing with her sister yesterday morning and wasn't paying attention when she packed her homework, so she didn't put two pieces of it in her bag. Her fault, but a real bummer since she had in fact spend several hours doing it.

Let's see, Spouse has been a little more active about actually looking into job options in the area around NewU, and it has been encouraging, but not enough so for us to decide to go.

I had an admitted grad student turn us down yesterday, which means we will not have enough new students to offer the core classes next year, which sucks. Not sure what I am going to do about that. We had more applicants this year, but they were of a much lower quality. Strange.

The two time zones means that I have been awake since 4.

Um...

I think I'm allergic to this hotel room, or the pollen here is actually worse than it is in Central State, which I would not have thought possible.

Have I mentioned I don't want to be here?

Dogs that I am as sick as

All of them, I think.

I have been sick since Easter, and it doesn't seem to be getting better. This needs to end prior to my taking my grad students to Reno tomorrow. Please.

Slowing down

We have reached that lovely, lovely point in the semester when I hand off a lot of the responsibility to my students. I've written the assignments, taught them what they need to know to get er done, and now it is up to them to demonstrate to me that they have, in fact, mastered the material.

I get a big project on Tuesday, and yeah, it's going to be a pain to grade, but it's more time-consuming than hard. I am taking grad students to give work at a conference (will be gone Thursday and Friday) and if I carry it with me, I am pretty sure I can get everything done on the planes, so that's a bonus.

One of the students who is going is one I am really worried about. He's had some, I think, depression issues since he started our program (on the rebound from another program he became disenchanted with because of some bad politics within the previous department. I knew he could succeed as a basketweaver, and, he's done pretty well, but now that he is finishing and looking for a job, his sort of moody depressiveness is really a turnoff to people who might hire him.

So I am debating if I should use some of the time on the trip to visit with him about this. On the one hand, it's really kind of beyond my job description as the head of the grad program. On the other, I do actually care and I think he doesn't know how he is coming off to others.

Thinking...

Meanwhile, back at the ranch

I know I am in a family of super nerds because we all found this statement funny: You know, seeing Three Musketeers outfits, visigoths and pirates of the caribbean-type outfits here is like seeing movies with polar bears and penguins together.

Spouse and I took the girls up the road today to a Renaissance Festival that we had visited with Offspring about 6 years go. We had a much better time this time - I think in part because the festival has grown a good bit and in part because we had a better idea about what to expect. There were several good shows that we saw, and the "pub" had Belhaven Best, so what's not to like.

We spend some time in the car not talking about this decision that we have to make next week. We are having a difficult time even talking about it, I think because neither of us wants to disappoint the other with their opinions. I am mostly taking the approach that we really need to get as much information as we can in order to make a decision that we can both feel good about, although even that feels like I am meeting with some resistance. Spouse would have to give up so much in order for us to go, and I do understand and appreciate that. But, of course, the decision is about more than career - it's about doing the best things for our girls and, as the events of this week brought into focus for my only-child self, our families at large.

In other news, Offspring's teacher told her she was going to have a difficult time in middle school. Since we have not heard peep one about Offspring having trouble at school since September, and since she rarely trips the behavior infraction system, I am not sure where this is coming from. Debating now if I should leave it between her and Offspring, or go try to find out what's going on. The fact that I am leaving Wednesday for a conference for the rest of the week isn't helping with any of this.

Big sighs

Test results back. It's pneumonia and not lung cancer.

Yay!

Wickets and things that stick in them

So I got a call from my Mom and they think she might have cancer again, and it's bad. Tests pending, but we now have to think about where we can go where we can a) be close and/or b) have a place where we can afford to have my Dad move in with us.

I never, in a million years, thought he might outlive her.

Not much to report, unfortunately

We still are in the fact-finding phase, but are finding it slow going.

But we have a deadline - April 15 - to make a decision, since that's the day we have to let PrettyGood's preschool know if Bun will be attending there next year.

Things are very irritating at the job lately, which, of course, makes me more want to go. But then, we got our contracts for next year, and it would be very hard for us to walk away from what Spouse has, which is a great job with a lot of security. There's no chance that he would do as well if we move.

In other news, we are seriously considering trying skip Offspring a grade. She took the Explore test for the talent search she is in, and scored in the top even of the gifted kids who took it, who do better than the general population 8th graders who the test is intended for. (I really try to not sound like a braggy Mama, but that's just a fact). My best friend from college skipped her daughter this year, and says it was a good decision. Then again, her district, in another state, is extremely supportive of GT kids, whereas ours is moderately supportive, to the extent of the law, but extremely resistant to grade skipping.

This is all complicated by the possibility of an impending move, of course, and I think would require us to get more explicit grade level and IQ testing done, which isn't easy or cheap. So we are on the horns of a dilemma about that one.

The 'rents

So my parents flew in from the great Northeast to spend the Easter holiday with me and mine. Having completed my super giant conference deadline, I am relatively free to enjoy it with them. I bought up the J-O-B tonight, which, of course, they are excited about (much closer to them) and I see Spouse growing a bit more uncomfortable. It's super much closer to his folks, whom we also told this week.

I did no PrettyGood work today at all, and I don't think I will do any tomorrow, either.

So for the moment, life is pretty good.

What I did yesterday

*Taught two classes
*Had individual 30 minute conferences with 6 students
* Had a lunch meeting with some colleagues in another dept. who want to work on a project together
* Uploaded 3 papers for the big conference in my field (I feel good about 2 of them)
* Went to Maundy Thursday services
* Got the kids in bed
* Took the night off. Watched some Colbert off of TiVo, drank a beer, read part of a novel

My semester gets much, much better from this point : D

Smartness

Today is the big deadline day for the major conference in my field and I have three papers I am submitting. I also, for my technical basketweaving class, scheduled all of my students to come in for conferences in lieu of class time, making the three hours I would spend in class stretch into 9 hours of occupied time. "cuz I'm just smart that way....