A very serious question...

Would you leave your tenure-track position to be with your spouse/partner? Say your partner would always be making twice again as much as you would. After trying to be together for a number of years, would you finally just leave your position and try to adjunct where they are?

Are you ready for the switch?

Thank You!

Belle was her usual lovely self and gave me an Inspiration Award, despite all my bitchin' lately! Thank you so much!

The obligations are those that extend the compliment, which I am delighted to do.

* Please put the logo of the award (above) on your blog if you can make it work with your format.
* Link to the person from whom you received the award.
* Nominate 7 or more blogs.
* Put the links of those blogs on your blog.
* Leave a message on their blogs to tell them.

Hopefully none of you have been nominated yet, but here goes!

heu mihi - who is a wonderful blogger and grad school friend!
Flavia - wearer of awesome shoes, writer of great blog (which got me into blogging), and dispenser of bad-ass-ittude.
Dr. Virago - who crept with me on Welsh battlements and put a new word in my vocabulary: murder-hole.
What Now? - whose transition through many professional and life changes inspires me to keep going and be with the one you love (so you can truly love the one you're with).
Highly Magnified, Thoroughly Educated - whose future transitions from academia into ??? I continue to follow with excitement.
Contemporary Troubador - fellow-commuter and wonderful photographer, my bloggy doppelganger with husband of Lowlands heritage.
Pantagruelle - wonderful French Canadian blogger of whom I hope to read and see more!

Craptastic Day

(*grumble, grumble, grumble..*)

No longer up for a job I was hoping for....

Leverage power reduced....

(*grumble, fume...*)

Just found out that I need to file my taxes "married filing separately" which basically means that my deduction is only slightly greater than the 4 crumbs remaining from my grilled cheese sandwich from lunch....

GODDAMN IRS!

(*grumble, sniff*)

I'm going to have to pay over $3K in taxes this year because of this! TD has no US income and I can't get the married tax deduction without filing jointly and declaring his worldwide income. I called H&R Block and the lady said, "yeah, that's, like, the worst status to file as. You get basically no deduction".

Apparently the government didn't think I was quite aware of how crappy it is not to live with one's spouse. So, they're punishing us further.

Thanks.

Got it.

Random Bits of New Year's Fluff

Wow, it's been a while since I've blogged! We had a wonderful time in Napa and then back to San Francisco for a few days (Alcatraz is fun!). By the time we got home last week I was going stir crazy from living out of a suitcase for 2 weeks. And then the very next day, TD left to go away to Dutchmanlandia, so I sank into a slight depression for a few days realizing that our lovely summer and fall of cohabitation had come to an end.

The job dance continues - one of TD's jobs really wants him and they're looking into a t-t job for me. B/c of this fast-moving opportunity, I've gone to my Chair and Dean and told them the situation. I even wrote up a 3-page memo outlining what they lose if I leave and what they gain by hiring TD. I feel like I gave them good ammo and I really hope something can be worked out. But, I'm actually going to try to remain on an even keel this job season and not count my eggs before they're in the pudding, and so on...so, I won't blog about each little change, but will let you know the outcome eventually.

School starts next Wednesday and I'm sort of prepared - it's all CTs all the time, so it will be fun. Having a hard time getting into work-mode, however.

One of my former colleagues (he's no longer at Dream Academy but was still in town) died suddenly a week or so ago. A very aggressive and swift-moving illness and he was found in his apartment after he'd been sick only a couple days. I didn't know him well, but some friends of mine in the department did and it's very upsetting all the same.

We received 3 cases of wine yesterday from our frolicking in the wine country. I've had to order a wine rack just so we can store it all. But it wasn't nearly as fun opening up the boxes without TD here...

More later!

MLA Closing Arguments...

It was so good to see everyone last night at the blogger meet-up - Morgan, where wert thou? I'm sorry we had to flee before 8pm - we had reservations at a tapas place with some friends. But I was so happy to meet some new folks and to see old ones I hadn't in a while! Sisyphus, you're just as cool in real life as I imagined - Flavia-Flave: I'm sorry we didn't get to chat more! Dr. V, What Now and heu mihi - great to see you all! And SEK, lovely to meet you and your wife and Horace, nice to see you as well! Rebel Lettriste - sorry I had to run just as you sat down, but we'll meet up again soon I hope!

MLA this year was completely fine - because I basically didn't attend. I had three interviews and then fled the hotel for the city (wharf, sea lions, seafood, trolleys, etc.) TD and I had fun exploring. This was also a year when tons of friends happened to be in the area, so we had a lot of meet-ups as well. 2 of the 3 interviews were lovely, but the last one seemed to be populated by aliens. They were weird! It's not that I felt like I flubbed anything, I just felt like these beings from another planet were still trying to learn our "human ways" so the reactions were....completely lacking. Very odd.

So, today is Golden Gate park and then we're off to Napa for New Year's - we've already bought so much wine! But there's more to be had...I hope everyone's New Year is wonderful and that everyone gets good news soon!

Going off the grid and a blogger meet-up reminder

We leave tomorrow to head west (hopefully we'll get there and not end up sleeping in an airport somewhere) - so, I'll catch you guys on the flip side - 2009!

If anyone needs a quick reminder on the date, time, place, etc. of the MLA Blogger Meet-Up, just send a quick email (medievalwoman1@gmail.com) - I'll be checking email regularly, 'cause that's how I roll. And Morgan, glad to hear that you'll be there and on someone else's dime! Looking forward to meeting you all for the first time, or again.

If I haven't yet sent you the info - and Rebel Lettriste and The Swain, I'm thinking this might be you guys! - send me a quick email and accept my apologies for flakiness!