Wednesday, December 23, 2009

It's official

I just canceled my reservations for MLA. There will be no trip to Philadelphia for me this year. This sucks, and then again it doesn't.
It doesn't suck for the following reasons:
  • I don't have to pack up the entire family the day after Christmas and spend 8 hours in the car.
  • I can spend my holiday in my own home.
  • I don't have to figure out what to wear to an interview.
  • I don't have to worry about the possibly wasted expense of a trip to a major city with a $500 hotel bill.
  • I get to go visit some dear friends (Bear's godparents, in fact) rather than sit in a stuffy hotel room talking to stuffy people.
But it does suck for the following reasons:
  • I have no interviews.
  • I sent out over 40 applications and got nothing in response.
  • I have to do this all over again next year (and quite possibly the next).
  • I'm not in any sort of position to bargain for a t-t job at CU Land.
  • I don't get to see all of my MLA bound friends.
I told myself at the beginning of this process that it was going to be a difficult year. I'm not published, although I have extensive teaching experience and can teach in multiple areas. I just finished as well. That said, I was hoping for at least one interview, even just for the experience of it. Oh well. I'll troll the spring list and hope that gets me somewhere. In the mean time, I'm sending out letters for summer teaching at CU.

5 comments:

supadiscomama said...

It does suck. And I've come to the conclusion that teaching experience counts for squat without a shiny little article to go along with it.

But I'm jealous that you get to 1) get out of town for fun and 2) visit super-fab friends! You guys will have a blast :)

Lilian said...

Oh dear... I'm sorry for you, but I hope you can concentrate on the bright side of things. Maybe it's best for your family to stay put for a bit longer before you have to move again.

And if it's any consolation ("Pollyanna style"), at least you're one half of an academic couple in which one of you does have a t-t job, both of us don't. And K finished back in 04 and I in 08.

In any case, I'm secretely glad that *I* won't miss seeing you there in Philly while I'm here in Brazil! :-)

Enjoy the holidays with your wonderful family and friends!

P.S. I hope you're feeling better. I had mastitis too, during a period I was uninsured (i mean, had a sky high deductible and never went to the doctor), so I just took tylenol and used a hot showerhead like crazy (every few hours) and thank God it cleared out by itself.

Lilian said...

"Errata:" I should have written "neither of us has a t-t job" not both. Sorry!

rented life said...

Here's too all of us getting T-T jobs in 2010!

Anonymous said...

Sorry, M, I know this must feel disheartening for you. Try to remember what I believe your advisor said, "You may not have the job that you want, but you do have a job." And it's a good one in so many ways. Hug!