It is official!

I have accepted a position as a tenure-track assistant professor at a small liberal arts college!  My years of hard work have finally paid off :)  Mike and I are very excited to be starting this next phase of our lives together and we will be moving to the Midwest.   Don't worry, it is in an urban area near lots of stuff so he should be able to survive there.  The decision to move there does show me how much he loves me and is willing to give up his dream of moving back to CA.  Maybe someday we will get to CA but not in the foreseeable future.

We will be sad to leave NC this summer and I guess this means I need to change the title of the blog.  Perhaps new titles could be "Life post-NC", "Surviving the tenure-track", or "Why did I think this was a good idea?"  I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Lots of Jens

Mike's undergrad is also named Jen so occasionally I'll get emails from him about "what we are doing today" or a protocol for X or primer pairs for the next project they are working on.  His email auto fills my address in as soon as he types Jen.  I do like knowing that his email recognizes me as "the most important Jen".

When it rains it pours.

Still waiting about the job...
Meanwhile, we have to decide if you are renewing our current lease by Wed and I likely won't hear about the job until next Friday or even the week after.  Should we hope for the best and not renew and then move somewhere else in town or in the next town over?  Do we sign another year and then potentially have to find a sub-letter?

Also, the used car we bought last year broke down last night.  It is going to cost us the same price to fix it that we paid for it a year ago (maybe more..) Clearly we got a lemon.  But now we can't decide if we go without a second car until we move (?) or buy the "family" car we want for the future.  Now don't go getting excited about the "family" part-we aren't ready to move on that aspect which is why we didn't buy the car last year but since we don't have that 3rd person to feed and cloth right now we can put some $$ into a car.  

I'm starting to feel like this.

Waiting

I'm back from my interview.  If I had written this post 48 hours ago I would have said that the interview was great, the people were warm and friendly, the atmosphere for teaching was supportive, their expectations are balanced with what they have to offer/going on, and I was awesome.  Today, however, I am writing all the same things except the last part.  Was I awesome?

I don't think I was bad by any means but as I've had time (usually early in the mornings as I just wake up) to think about this conversation or that presentation I begin to wonder "should I have said that?" "I can't believe I didn't take more time to explain that".  Self Doubt.   I'm horrible about self-doubt.  As I repeat the interactions with people in my mind I agonize over whether that was the "right" answer.   I'm comforted by the fact that I almost always say "Yes, that was how I feel/felt or how I would teach X".  So I think I put my best foot forward and I was true to myself.  And now we wait....

Luckily I have some awesome friends who are helping me wait by fun dinners out, afternoons in the city, and food clubs to socialize at.  Which might actually make things way harder if the answer I get from this school is "Yes."

My graduate advisor

Many of you know my graduate advisor, whether because you have also worked at UNC or you came to my graduation party at his house or maybe you just came to visit me and of course I took you to the lab "just to do one thing".  He is a pretty remarkable guy, both as a scientist but also as a person.  I have never had a boss (and likely never will again) who cared about me as a whole person as much as Keith.  What I mean by this is that of course my work and my progress in the lab was important to him but he also got to know me, asked questions about my family, talked basketball and dog training, and still is helping me with my career by writing countless letters for my job applications.  I'm always welcomed into his home for a cup of tea or a beer and find myself there way too long because talking with him and his wife and daughter is such a joy.

What you may not know about Keith is that he also a playwright. He had one of his short plays performed in England a few years ago,and just recently here in NC he had his most recent play "dramatically read" (no costumes or set but real actors reading the play).  Unfortunately we were in CA when this happened so we couldn't be there to see it ourselves but UNC made this nice piece on him so I thought I would share it.

http://news.unchealthcare.org/news/2013/january/real-doctors-real-people-keith-burridge.
Or try this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_j3LAo6LD8

Click on the YouTube video to watch it.  

Another Chance

Remember that "other interview" I mentioned? The interview is a week from today. I'm super excited about this school because 1) I would get to teach the subject areas I really like 2) they have the equipment I need  and 3) are in a geographic location that would work for Mike too!   I might uncover some things that I won't like when I am there but I'm going to be the optimist and assume it will be great! I only have a 1/3 chance of getting this but I'm going to try really really hard to "wow" them and get them to make me an offer.  I'm hoping that they don't already have someone in mind for the job (remember last year's experience on the west coast).   I'll keep you posted although I likely won't know until the end of January.

No regrets...

One of the job offers that I got was really hard to turn down.  I enjoyed the people I met so much and it would have been so much fun to work with them.  I sent the chair an email thanking him once again for the opportunity to interview and to let him know how difficult the decision was for me.  He sent me a wonderful email back and now I'm sad.  It would have been such a great place to work.  <sniff sniff>

No regrets but I'm going to read the email one more time.