Grateful Blogging

Grateful Blogging

I've been a blogging flake lately. What can I say? Job hunt, job acquisition, implications of job acquisition, end of quarter, and impending conference paper of doom have all mixed to make my world a very busy and crazy place. Anyway, I figured it was time to blog a little before another self-imposed semi-exile while I get all of my stuff taken care of.

On the job front, I've now signed the contract and returned it to SLAC. I've been sent all kinds of information on the department, accreditation reports, syllabi, course descriptions, etc. Each of my preps will be either a major overhaul or brand-new. Part of this is just the shift to semesters (yay!),and part is that I haven't taught upper division courses before. And (big surprise to me) the Modern Europe course is really new. Me, when I think modern, I think the long 19th c. Or even 18th and 19th. I've taught those. But this is Europe from the Great War to the present. That's like ... current events!

Despite the initial freak-out, it'll be fine. I'm just thinking that I will not have much of a break this summer. Also, I've received personal notes from the junior historians and dean, all offering help with realtors, a place to crash when I come out to look for a place, etc. And the numbers of the folks in IT so I can order my computer and people in the library so I can start to help build up the library. Can you tell I'm hugely excited???? I think I'll be really happy there. No lingering feelings of loss over not staying at my present job, either -- they cancelled the search on Friday!

That's not what I wanted to blog about, though. Mostly I wanted to say 'thank you.' I really don't know that I'd have come this far and got the job without my blogfriends and supporters -- I hope my RL friends who read this realize that they are included in this, too. You have all been incredibly kind and have made me feel a member of the larger academic community in a way that has really made me try to behave like a member of that community. You've helped me through a divorce, you've helped me to build my confidence enough to write again, and you've traded ideas in ways that make me feel truly alive. More practically, blogging actually made me the connections that have added me to two conference panels, got me a gig editing a list serv, and introduced me to a bunch of people who are now (and in some cases, again) RL friends and colleagues. It's funny -- one of the reasons I kept blogging and the place I made my first real blogfriends was through the Invisible Adjunct. She left the professorial track. I'm so very grateful that I don't have to make that choice. Despite the fact that women in general tend to attribute these things to luck rather than skills or talent, I still feel incredibly lucky. Thank you all.

Oh -- and from my student who asked about the Ottoman Turks? He says he's going to be doing some reading during the summer, and asked me to pass on his thanks. He was blown away by your generosity.