Friday, October 14, 2005

change on the horizon

well, it finally happened. Lafayette College called. i actually had to listen to a voicemail last night because when he called I was on the phone with John Curtis who I have only talked to maybe twice since Katrina.

i called them back today to talk details, and i've been weighing my options since. i'll let you see what you think:









Current job Lafayette job

work from home -

  • wear whatever i want

  • no commute (except into the next room)

  • flexibility to run errands, do laundry, etc.

  • lonely and lack of creative cynergy

  • isolated (esp when Tim's not around)



pay - same as current

benefits - same as current

professional development - not much if any

maxing out my abilities at a distance

mostly Blackboard support

mostly support faculty

larger school; Michigan name recognition

go in to an office -

  • must look "professional"

  • only 4 mile commute

  • work normal 8:45 - 5 hours

  • people to bounce ideas off of

  • potential to meet new people, make community connections



pay - slight increase

benefits - .5% difference in retirement

professional development - highly supported

opportunities for building new skills and using more of my creativity
than now

more "academic" technology

work with faculty, staff and students

smaller, liberal arts; back to my roots

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

toenails red as skittles

not sure about the title of this post other than i just spent a few minutes of my work day giving myself a little pedicure. i've been noticing that because of this work at home thing i've been letting myself go a little. got to stop that.

it's been a long boring day. i know it's my fault since i do have lots of work that needs to get done, but i just couldn't bring myself to do much of it. i did get caught up with grading for that faculty training course i teach. that's another thing i've sorta let go. it's really hard when there are just two people. and the other issue is that i've been spending lots and lots of time with my Baker class. they're so needy. i just can't figure out why it's so hard to read something in a book and copy it to your computer. but they seem to be having a problem with it. i think maybe it's the attention to detail that they lack.

they offered me a contract to teach this same course two sections each term for winter. i'm not sure how i feel about that. i mean, don't get me wrong $6200 in 12 weeks sounds grand, but it's a hassle. so i have to make a decision what i want to do. i wish i had heard from lafayette to know if that's a go. if i knew, i might could make a better decision. but still i wait.

nothing very exciting to report. it rained all weekend. we did go buy a deep cleaner for the carpet. kelvin used it in the living room on sunday afternoon. it works nicely and the cleaning stuff smells great so that's a plus. i just wonder if the little spots will come back or if they're gone for good.

on another random note, i do love the cold weather. it makes hairy much more of a lovey. basically, she's cold and i'm warm so she endures sitting on me and sleeping near me in exchange for some additional warmth. she's just a user.

well, i think my friend Oprah is calling...

Thursday, October 06, 2005

a nice new sticker

well, i didn't have to let loose any deamons on the heads of people at the car dealership who did my inspection. luckily they didn't have to order any parts to put the new sticker on. i guess now i can stop cursing their name. i was so looking forward to them saying 'well, it's been over 30 days, you're going to have to pay again'. At which point i had practiced a manouver to leap over the counter and unleash some of my "southern charms".

other than that lack of excitement this morning, nothing really going on. still working from home. still waiting to hear back from my interview. i knew it was going to be at least a couple of weeks so i'm not super anxious about it yet. i do however, keep thinking of things i wish i would have told them or answers i could have given. isn't that how it always works though?

well, back to the salt mines...

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

girl power!

I spent less than half an hour today doing some light mechanic work on my car. I felt so empowered. I had finally had enough of this tail light drama so I went to Auto Zone and ordered the part. It was delivered to their store about 24 hours later and I picked it up last night. Getting my hands a little dirty was so worth the $50 saved and the lack of hassle.

I'm not sure that's I've shared the tail light drama on here so some of you may not be informed. See, here in the lovely state of pennsylvania they require two different inspections: a general mechanical inspection and an emissions test. I took my car in mid-August for both of these. I paid them the $55 and they passed my 10 year old car on emissions but said to get the mechanical i would need to have my right rear tail light replaced. They said they could get one from a junkyard and it would be $140 with labor and everything. I said sure and had them order it, or so i thought. The suggested 3-5 days passed and no call so on day 8 i called them. Seems no one told the parts guy to order it so he assured me he would and would call when i came in.

So another 8-10 days pass and no call. So I call again and this time it was a 'oh, the junk yard didn't have it in when we called and we didn't know what you wanted to do.' What i wanted to do was go up there and stangle them, but instead I asked that they order the part new and give me a call when it was in. It was only a $10 difference so I was going to be flexible. My flexibility gave out last week when kelvin called for me and sure enough, no part.

This is when I took matters into my own hands literally.

So the word to all my female friends is to put it to the man next time and just do it yourself. It's a great way to waste a half hour. And i think i'm going to use the $50 saved for a really nice pair of shoes.

Monday, October 03, 2005

a fun weekend

Other than grading all day yesterday I had a fun weekend. Saturday Kelvin and I escaped to the mall for a few hours. I picked up some nice thing including a brown suit. Hopefully I won't have to wear that other than for maybe the presidential inauguration at Lafayette (am I wishful thinking?).

We drove down to Wilmington to meet up with friends for the evening. It was nice to dress up for a change. We ate at this place called Pharohs. I don't advise it if you're on a schedule. Then we went to this new cool club. I highly recommend it to anyone visiting the northern Delaware area. It's call Lux and it was very nice. I recommend the drink "Sunset on Normandy". I'm sure we'll be back there soon. Kelvin had called a few days before and spoke with one of the co-owners. She was super nice and hooked us up with a nice loungy corner for the evening. We did a little dancing, but mostly talking to the THIRTEEN of us that ended up there together. Kelvin and his entorage...

Saturday, October 01, 2005

the morning after

This morning after I awoke from my light coma I watched a movie and just relaxed. It was such a long day yesterday, but I feel like it went well. I think it would be a great opportunity to move in a slightly different direction than I'm currently headed. I hope if they make an offer it's quite attractive so the decision will not be difficult.

The school, and especially the newly renovated library facility where I would work is amazing. They certainly don't cut many corners; everything is top of the line. I think I wouldn't be disappointed with a 21" studio flat screen connected to a G5 on my desk :)

One member of the search committee is going to be out of the office for two weeks (how's that for vacation and personal development time?) so disappointedly, I probably won't hear anything until mid to late October. Once they meet, they'll decide if the "need to bring in another candidate."

So again I sit and wait.