Sunday, August 22, 2010

And so it begins... again.

The MLA job search list doesn't come out for almost another month, and already Brownie has found a position for NEXT August to apply for.  Meaning that any possible sense of "yes, we could actually settle in and stay in this city" is already obliterated.  I figure this is probably not all bad, in that it's good to remember that we very well could be moving again in 50-ish weeks, but it's also like &^%%%*OKIGDKF_)%^&FUCKING%T^Y&DAMMIT NOT AGAIN. 

And so we begin another year of Brownie sending applications off to the void of department application committees, whence they will never be heard from again.  Ever.  A few years ago, I was pointed by a good friend in the direction of a blog whose author was going through a rhet/comp job search and posting the rejection letters with commentary.  The blog was awesome (and even more amusing to me was that the blogwriter had decided not to apply for the opening at the school I was doing my Ph.D. work at because the Humanities Center website was WAYYYY to hippydippy to bother with).  Meanwhile, last year, I don't think Brownie got enough rejections from schools that he could have done a blog mocking them - he wouldn't have had more than about 15 entries despite the 70-odd applications he sent out.

So, if you somehow trip over this blog and you're a member of an academic search committee:  PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF CEILING CAT SEND OUT REJECTION LETTERS IN A TIMELY MANNER.  Many, many lives are depending on the knowledge contained in those letters.  It's much nicer to know for sure that one has been rejected than to sit around and wonder.

The above-yelled advice goes for anyone else who is in the position to reject someone from a job:  please just send out a rejection letter/email/note/whatever.  In the 20-ish applications I've submitted for jobs, I've gotten exactly one rejection.  Everything else (so far, anyway) has been abject silence, which makes me feel less worthy of respect than even a rejection would.

My personal job search boils down to a giant quandary (which I'm about to explain poorly - my apologies).  As of now, I'm unemployed.  I started a beer blog (which I'm not linking to from here because there's a fairly limited number of people that need to know who the author of *this* blog is, given the amount of whining I do here).  I'm hoping that I'll eventually be able to use that to start freelancing the occasional beer article.  In the meantime, I would like an office-y sort of job with a vaguely respectable paycheck.  However, I have no idea how long it will take me to find one.  So I run into a problem:  there's a chance we could be moving halfway across the bleeding country again next year if Brownie gets a job somewhere.  Which would mean I would have to quit any job I were to get.*  So I'm not sure how long I want to spend trying to get a "real" job before I decide to put that on hold pending it looks like we will be moving.  Meanwhile, I applied to Borders, but I've heard nothing yet even from them.  I suppose Starbucks is next.  Or a liquor store. 

My dissertation is still a douchebag, and my relationship with it is still strained.

The good thing:  having nothing else to do, I've been plowing away at novel attempt number 2.  There hasn't been tons of writing, but there's been a ton of worldbuilding and storyboarding and at least 2 chapters worth of writing.  I'm playing around with point of view stuff right now and having a blast with it.  I think the fact that I can at least spend my nearly limitless amounts of free time working on writing has been what's kept me from going nuts during this umemployment phase of life.  I feel like I'm doing something productive, even if it ends up being only to amuse myself.  I will publish a novel SOMEDAY.  It may not be this one (it sure as hell won't be the last one - that was a disaster!), but it will happen.  Dammit. :D

Good thing #2:  I'm wearing BPAL Sundew today and it smells GORGEOUS.

* Brownie says that if I were to get a kick ass job and love it, that we'd stay no matter what happens on the academic search for him.  I think it's sweet of him, but a long shot - I really haven't the foggiest fucking idea what to do with myself, job-wise, so I think it's unlikely that we'd be staying because of me.  Not impossible, but definitely unlikely.

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