Busy days applying for a new job

Every time I sit down to write, something happens: Abraham needs me (most often the case), a boy needs help with something, everyone’s hungry, the kitchen needs cleaned up, it’s time to go somewhere, the phone rings, I have a deadline – or four, or [fill out other time consuming things here]. Now, I just finished a job a couple of days ago, and I probably won’t receive any new material for another week or so, hence here’s my chance to share a few thoughts! In between sending out job applications, that is. Courtney’s contract will expire next summer, and we’re looking for a new job, a new home town, and a new life somewhere else in the world. Since the academic world is what it is, the application process is already well under way. It’s a lot of work; keeping track of deadlines, materials to send, labeling, writing letters, submitting online information, and searching through databases. It’s time consuming.

It’s scary, for sure. What if he doesn’t get any interviews or offers? What if nobody wants him and we don’t have any work (read: ability to feed our kids)? Or what if he only gets one offer, and it’s some dinky little college in Far Away, Nowhere?

It’s also very exciting. Very! Looking at the universities we are sending our applications to, they all seem great. The towns seem great. There are Walmarts, Targets, Taco Bells, large bookstores, cocoa powder in the stores, fresh air, and all those other things they don’t even post on their websites but they should, because those things are making me want to go there. I dream of our new house with a yard – our new normal life in a nice university town somewhere. I even took my friend Joan’s advice on how to look for jobs:

1/ Go to the Chronicle of Higher Education and find a job that you want.
2/ Look up the town in a directory and find several real estate agents in the area.
3/ Spend the rest of the afternoon looking at houses around the university, make remodeling plans, study floor plans, and imagine where your Egyptian chest would fit, or how you would decorate the kitchen.
4/ If you’re feeling particularly inspired, go to ikea.com and pick out new furniture for the house you’ve chosen.

You see where this is going. Luckily, I don’t have a lot of time to do the latter. I’m mainly sending out applications and worrying that we won’t have anywhere to go next summer.