I am in Cleveland

So, watching a stupid movie while I pack: View from the top

Donna: So, I've got one year in Cleveland and then I can reapply. Plus, I have already been here for like six weeks and it's not so bad, you know?
Ted: No, I mean that's like, well you are basically half-way there if you're just really, really, really bad at math.
Donna: So, why did you go back to law school?
Ted: Well, I had dinner with this incredible woman who charging after her dreams and not hiding out and I thought to myself, you know what, I could do that. So I am here now-for a year and it's flying by. Plus, I really miss my family which is really uncool so please don't tell anybody I told you.
Donna: Promise. Okay, here's how I look at it. Cleveland is like this really big waiting room so all we have to do is put in our year and someone is going to call our name.
Ted: Cleveland's like this great big dentist office and we are next on the list.
Donna: Exactly.

So I am in Cleveland. I need to be the woman charging after her dreams and some school will call my name. Also, dating Mark Ruffalo wouldn't be a bad way to kill a year.

Want to laugh

Check out the following blog/cartoon/website: http://xkcd.com/

It is cracking me up and it is where I found the following:

People that make me feel good....

So, I just got off the phone with two dear friends. Two men that I absolutely adore. The second is one of my favorite people in the world. I am so happy, I almost forget how little I laugh here. I am so sad, that I rarely laugh. It is nice to talk to a friend, a person who gets me and makes me laugh. We were supposed to be in the same city next weekend, but he can't make it. Which is probably a good idea because typically...us + booze = drunken making out.

Revising my teaching statement

So, in the very limited time that I have had today (Most of Monday is teaching, office hours, and today, meeting with 7 students so far), I have been working on revising my teaching statement. When I was in graduate school, PFKA made me feel as though I couldn't write at all. PFKA heavily edited everything I wrote. While this over-editing helped me improve grammar and stylistically, it took away from my voice. I was so afraid going out on the job market that no one would hire (or even interview me), I let him take a heavy hand to the style and voice of my teaching statement. Well, that time is over. I am a big girl. Today, I am re-writing my teaching statement in my voice, saying mostly the same things (my teaching philosophy isn't vastly different than it was 2 years ago), but in my own voice. I have a spin to it that I think I really like. It needs polish and cutting, clarity and flow, but it is on it's way--and I feel good about that.

My only regret of the day is that I didn't have more time to put into it. Talked to a friend who's teaching style is very respected (she gets off the charts good evals) and shes going to give it a read once its cleaner. Found two quotes I like (that I cannot use in my statement, so I share them here). The first:
"By learning you will teach, by teaching you will learn." - Latin Proverb

I would alter a bit to say: My teaching informs my research and my research informs my teaching. My main reason for not being at a R1 school, is that I wouldn't get tenure with the publication standards, but I also want to do both teaching and research. Here at TBU, I am limited in what research I can accomplish and so I am hoping this years job search will help me find a place where I can be the complete version of me (teacher and researcher).

The second quote:
If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn't want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher's job. ~Donald D. Quinn

Just too funny. And true.

PFKA is actually alive

Heard from PFKA. Responded to email (without doing what was asked). I am a bit frustrated the task I would like PFKA would literally take 5 minutes. It is a matter of attaching a file that PFKA has to me via email. The fact that PFKA has ignored this request for a month is maddening. The fact that a follow-up request was responded to with a "been very busy, hope to get to this request in next few weeks" response could make head explode off body. Finally, PFKAs institution (my alma mater) is hiring and PFKA is search committee chair which means that I will probably never hear from PFKA again. How does this fair for my job search status--not so good.

I am desperately trying to dig myself out of a hole. I had a partially sick, partially pity party two days last week where I accomplished nothing. I though it would allow me to start refreshed this week, but I only feel massively stressed and unmotivated.

Really?

“Saying ‘I’m sorry’ is the same as saying ‘I apologize.’ Except at a funeral.”
-Demetri Martin

How can some people be so funny and so eloquent while I have students who today said, "I be having trouble remembering and stuff."

Somehow, I think this kid's memory is the least of his problems.

Quotes I am loving right now

My boys:
Maybe they say 110% because life isn't about perfect math. The effort you put into different parts of your life doesn't actually add up to 100%. It fluctuates as you focus on different parts, as you strike a balance which is why I am know going to try and give 453%.

Before you make these big life decisions, consult your soul in a cool quiet hour.

How I met your mother (After Lily and Marshall gets married--she keeps her name):
Lily: Oh.. Does it make you kind of sad that we don't share the same last name?
Marshall: You know, in a totally evolved 21st century kind of way, a little.
Lily: Oh.. you know what we should do? We should come up with a whole new last name.
Marshall: Oh that's easy. Lily and Marshall Skywalker.
Lily: Lily and Marshall Hasselhoff.
Marshall: I got it! You ready? You ready?
Lily: Yeah?
Marshall: Lily and Marshall Awesome. Have you met the Awesomes? Marshall, Lily, their son Totally and their daughter Freakin?(Both giggle)
Lily: I love you Mr Awesome.
Marshall: I love you Mrs Awesome.