I think it would be fair to say that I am in a bit of a state of upheaval at the 'mo. I'm sad and out of sorts due to some major events occuring around me. I will be back soon, though, hopefully buoyed by shopping for back-to-school supplies and the crisp taste of fall in the air.

Leaves have started falling outside my door

In two weeks, I meet my first class ever for the first time. All of a sudden it's getting cool at night, and the tree out front has started dropping little orange leaves. It's almost the end of summer and I haven't had a swim or a picnic yet.

As I suspected, I didn't get the job. They wanted someone to teach both units of the course, and I could only do one because of my current teaching commitment. I suspected as much, but was a bit steamed to get a note saying "oops, sorry, we actually decided to hire your colleague a week ago, but forgot to tell you". Yeah, great, mazeltov and all, but you called me! Out of the blue! To offer a job interview! And then left me dangling like a silk worm in an oak tree for a week. I don't much mind not getting the job, the cash would have been fantastic, but prepping a whole course in two weeks and trying to juggle current commitments would probably have done me in. The major upside to all this is that the department rep now owes me. There is a power imbalance in my favour because of the communication screw up, so it augers well for discussing future job ops. I'm going to follow up and suggest a quick coffee during the term to discuss my future in the department. Cheeky, I know.

Okay, so I did it. I excitement blogged, and it cursed my prospects of a new job. Or something like that. "I'll call you tonight or maybe tomorrow about an interview" turned into "I may be a department representative, but I've dropped off the face of the earth and it's been a week since I arrived in Off the Face of the Earth, and really my view is quite pleasant but there's the minor complication of not having a phone in my room".

So I sent an email, when I should have called, because I wanted to jump the gun, and maybe department rep would check email before checking phone messages at the office. But that strategy didn't work, and I want to call, but I hate that whole "Hi, I just emailed you and you didn't respond, so I thought I'd call, even though it's only been 12 hours since I sent the email and really, most of those hours you'd have been sleeping anyway".

Now I'm all "I didn't want the job anyway", and "this is a good opportunity to focus on my writing" (again). I'm off to the library, settling in to research magazines I'm pitching to this week. I'm getting excited about writing prospects, planning research trips, making lists. Which means I'll likely be offered the job teaching afterall, which will throw me into a neurotic state of option paralysis and fear of failure. It's all very confusing. On the upside, I just made a killer cup of tea. Fair Trade Assam, with a splash of cream and some local honey. Bliss.

Where are my good pants and my power top?

I'm trying to keep the screaming excitement to a dull roar, but I can't sit still: the head of my discipline's department at a local college just called to see if I would be interested in filling in for him due to a medical emergency. I'd be teaching a whole course for the fall (to prepare for in three weeks, ai ya) of My Discipline 101. He's throwing together a quick hiring committee, and there are two other possible candidates. The only thing that might make someone else more attractive is that I can only teach one of the two sections, but that's because my other teaching commitment conflicts with Section 2, so it kinda looks good anyways, right? Department Representative doesn't know how come he has my CV, but he does, and would I be interested?* God, I love jobs that (potentially, don't get ahead of yourself, m'dear) fall from the sky at random.


*I applied for a marking position there, like two years ago, long before finishing my MA, and with my non-spiffied CV to boot!

I'm giggly, sore in every part of my body - I'm talking sore from between my toes, to the full circumference of my hip, from behind my knees to the connector between arm and shoulder - dehydrated, beyond exhausted and antisocial, and this is Day 2 (!) of rest after Wedding Week Marathon 2006. Getting off the couch, scratch that, thinking about getting off the couch makes me nauseous.

I will be back, but for now, know that I had fun, my strapless dress didn't fall down, I made a good speech and executed some sweet tackles. If you need to reach me, I will be drinking lemonade at home.