A solid hit

To extend the "job hunt" metaphor, I think it's fair to say that I made a solid hit yesterday. It's an exciting position - instructional design - and something I've not really done before. I'm not quite celebrating yet, but the interviewer said I was at the top of the list and he would call by middle of next week when he returns from Halifax to discuss the contract.

I am grinning though...

Job hunt

Why do we call it job hunting anyway? Usually the jobs I find aren't hidden anywhere, as the hunt in treasure hunt might imply (nor are they usually treasures for that matter) and I don't exactly run them down and spear them through my prowess with a weapon of some sort, since once you send off that resume, you're no longer in charge of the process. So why do we call it a hunt?

Regardless of the answer, my "hunt" is looking more positive. I got a call for an interview tomorrow - the shocking part was that the call came only one hour after I sent off the resume! In all fairness, I only submitted it an hour and a half before the deadline for submission, but talking to the interviewer, he sounded interested. And an interview is an interview, right? I'm not sure how the interviews on Friday went - each had a hiccough - but each also had moments when I felt like I shone, so it's hard to say without knowing who's my competition.

On an amusing note, some job titles struck me as funny as I read them:
1. syrup maker (not as interesting as it sounds)
2. assistant to the executive assistant (now there's a mouthful of nothing)
3. analyst for magic software (I can only assume this is a name, not a description...)

On the inside

So this is how it is on the inside... I've attended the PCA/ACA conference three times over my graduate career. Two years ago, I presented as part of the Stephen King group, and last year with the sf/fantasy group. The King group, and by extension, the members of the horror section, are a really welcoming group of scholars, and even though I wasn't presenting with them, they invited me to the group dinner last year.

So this year, when I saw that two of my new friends were putting together a panel, I decided I've love to present something with them. Last week, all I did was send a preliminary email asking if my idea would fit with their panel and they emailed back saying, "sure, you're in... what's the title of the paper so we can publish it?"

The first time I sent an abstract off for a conference, I sweated over it for a month, ran it past two professors, and got a reference from a professor in order to bolster my proposal. Now, I just email a couple of friends, tell them what I'm thinking, and they say I'm in. What a difference from that first experience! So this is how it works when you're inside... I gotta say, it's pretty nice!

Good thing there's subtitles

Best commercial ever.

Puppet shows

But not Punch and Judy. Last night, for youngest daughter's birthday, we all went to see Ronnie Burkett's Ten Nights on Earth. Burkett is an internationally renown local puppeteer whose work we've seen before. Last night's show was no disappointment.

The show opened in Toronto and is booked for international venues as well, and so far the reviews have been favorable. Canoe.ca wrote:

But art -- good art and, by extension, the people who make good art -- should always surprise.
Judged on that criteria alone, 10 Days On Earth -- the latest work from marionette master Ronnie Burkett -- is art of the highest order.

Surprise was certainly one of the features of the show, but I would add delight, empathy and plain old hilarity to the list of adjectives as well. But others have said it better than me.

It was preview night at the theatre, which I hadn't been to since I worked there (several years ago now). There were a couple of hang ups (or "tangle-ups") that Burkett handled with true style and which just added to the enjoyment of the audience. We enjoyed ourselves very much, and if you're in Calgary and like puppets, I'd definitely recommend the show.

Reverse culture shock

Was talking to my dad this weekend, who reminded me that the biggest culture shock is the one you get when you come back. (He remember vividly the culture shock of returning from Brazil, though I mostly was oblivious because I was young) Coming back is more shocking because you expect things to be different when you go somewhere else, but you're not set up with the same kind of expectation when you come back.

And it's always the little things. Like:

motorists who stop for you when you're in the crosswalk

The Tragically Hip (thanks to Canadian content rules!)

pockets full of coins that add up to more than a cup of coffee

needing a coin to get your shopping cart out (but you do get it back)

dual language video covers (though this is mostly new out west)

And then there's the shock of coming back to a city whose population has exploded in the last four years. The traffic is just a bit slower everywhere, there are neighborhoods I've never even heard of, and there are labour shortages everywhere. It's actually quite severe in the service sector.

We drove up to a Wendy's today thinking we could quickly run through the drive through, but there was a sign there instead that said "Due to inadequate staffing, the drive through window is not open. Please go to the dining room to place your order. Thank you for your patience" While the A & W across the street is operating on reduced hours for the same reason. It's absolutely amazing.

And how is my job search going? Well thank you for asking! I've had two telephone pre-interview screenings - one I didn't get a call back from and the other I'm still waiting on. I also have an interview scheduled for Friday. So it's slowly picking up. The telephone screening this afternoon was for a job I'd very much like, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up in case she doesn't call back. I'm just thankful that we're in the position that I don't have to jump at the first call I get but I can wait to find something I really like.

The cost of paper

I've been transferring my amazon wish list from .com to .ca (yeah, I know, I don't have a job, but it's helping me organize my dissertation thoughts). It doesn't make much sense to me to stay with the the US version of the site, but I'm very puzzled by the price differences between the two.

Take for example this book:

on .com it retails for $13.57 US
but on .ca, it retails for $131.50 CDN

That's one hundred and seventeen dollars and ninety-three cents more! Almost ten times as much!

WHY?

It can't be that paper costs more here... we're the ones with all the trees!

(lucky for me, the university here has a copy that I can get my hands on...)

Ahhh... the irony

As soon as we arrived here, I started seeing these smart cars on the streets. They sure stand out in a land of SUVs, half tons and Hummers, so we checked one out today. They are really fun to drive!

It's ironic that the place where I've seen the most of these little cars - which can get up to 90 mpg on the highway - is the place where the economy's been booming because of oil. The dealership has less than 10 left and are taking orders for delivery in March!

Box break

I'm taking a break from boxes to job search... but that's just making me realize how labour intensive that activity is in itself! I swear it takes me an hour to revise my resume and write a cover letter for each position! At this rate, it'll take me till tomorrow just to make it through the list of jobs I want to apply for... and then I suppose they'll be new postings!

It's also very weird to dust off my non-teaching skills as I prepare letters for non-teaching positions. I realize I've forgotten half of what I know, because I'll read a job description and it will suddenly occur to me that I worked a job where I did that particular kind of task seven years ago, and I'll have to add that into my resume so that I've at least got a shot at the position. It's a strange feeling because it keeps reminding me of my life before I started on this academic path, which feels sometimes like someone else's life...

There's tons of service type jobs around here - there are places that are advertising $1-2/hr. differentials if you'll sign up to work fulltime rather than just partime, and there are other businesses that have had to cut back their hours or actually close locations because they can't find people to work in their stores. But I'm not applying for those jobs. The ones I'm applying for are at about the same levels as they've always been, which means competition for some of them might be really tight, but if I send out enough resumes, eventually I'll get some bites. I just hope the ones that call me are the more interesting ones and not the ones that I sent a 'safety' resume to.

Not even remotely settled yet

Even though unpacking always takes less time than packing, it's taking forever this time!

We spent last Friday shopping for furniture and bought a few pieces which we picked up last Sunday when we had the moving truck. With the new furniture, we had to make two trips, but got it all done in one day, which I was impressed with. I thought it was some kind of sign that we'd be all settled in by the next weekend. But here we are at the end of the next weekend, and I'm still blogging surrounded by boxes.

It's taking a long time to get all this done. I've given up on setting a goal for completion, and am just going to take it as it comes. This house is bigger than any place I've ever lived before, and it's more than twice the size of the last place we were living in (which doesn't actually say much about the last place) so it's odd to get used to how much elbow room we all have. I haven't unpacked a single box of books yet, so that might change though!

My sister and family came over yesterday, which gave us the impetus to clear space around the dining and kitchen tables, which we desperately needed to do, and we had fun playing host to their family (especially since we ended up at their place for 10 days! My sister, she's a saint! Actually, her whole family is!). Oldest daughter came over too and stayed the night, and it was nice to have her around, even if it was just for a few hours.

I'm looking forward to the day when I wake up and my first thought is NOT about what I'm going to unpack today!

Roof over our heads

We finally found a place to live - signed the lease this afternoon. It's nice... very nice and I'm excited about moving in. We get access to it on Saturday and have a truck booked for Sunday, so by the end of the long weekend, we should be settled.

Well, we're here

We're in Calgary. We lost most of day 3 of the trip sitting on the side of the road and waiting at a mall in Illinois while the fan belt on the truck was replaced.

We're desperately trying to find a place to live. We managed to see only 2 places today, even though we called almost two dozen listings. We're hoping for a good dose of luck because it's risky not to take something right away because places are going in a single day. We have three possibilities to look at tomorrow, so hopefully one of them will be good and we'll unload our truck tomorrow or by Saturday.

Wish us luck. More later when I'm blogging on my own account. In the meantime, you can get an idea of how tense the rental situation is around here by reading the 'greedy landlords' thread on the local craigslist.

Enroute

Sitting in a hotel room in Buffalo, NY getting ready to start day 2 of epic trek back to Alberta. The UHAUL truck was smoking as I came through the toll booth last night, so keep you fingers crossed for us that it keeps running, or that if there is a problem, it's a minor one.

Northwest

Looks like we're Calgary bound! Those of you in those parts, look for us to arrive in a week and a half or so. Posting will likely be sparse till then. Wish us a smooth move, okay?

Changes

Happy civic holiday Albertans!

Unfortunately, because of your holiday, I'm still waiting to hear where we're going to live... but hopefully we'll figure it out soon! I haven't blogged much about moving because there's not much to say. We don't know where we're going, and there's not much I can do other than put things in boxes until I know where we're going. At that point, I have a huge list! Every day I think of another thing to add to it, which is a bit scary just because it is getting a bit long, particularly if our move will require crossing an international border, but I try not to think about it and just concentrate on putting stuff in boxes... I guess that summer job I had two years ago was good practice...

Rafting on the Bow

The other week while I was in Calgary, we drove across a bridge spanning the Bow River, and both of us caught our breath noticing everyone floating down the river.

Now that's a way to spend a Sunday afternoon! Drive one car down to the weir and park it - drive the other one up to Bowness Park, pull out the raft and let yourself drift downstream till you reach the first car. Such a fabulous way to spend an afternoon!


It's impossible to wear a watch or worry about the time, because you're at the mercy of the current. Sure, you take an oar, but it's not for propelling. You only dig it out if you get stuck in one of the shallow parts.

I've discovered that this seems to be a uniquely Calgarian thing to do. There's lots of other cities with rivers running through them, but very few that seem to have developed a river floating culture.

Of course Calgary takes it and makes it big with the annual Bow River Raft Race, which gives you some idea of what it's like when there are several other rafters on the river. You definitely don't want to forget the supersoaker at home!

Blogging in academia

This time, the shoe's on the other foot.

Certainly the blog has been a political force for several years already - I won't say since it's inception, since the earliest blogs usually focused on a filtering function - surfing the web for interesting items then linking to them - but the usenet group's politics has spilled over into the blog format for quite a while now. Guess it just goes to show how the ivory tower invades every aspect of academia that the political power of the blog is just now being felt.

Dog days of August

I am hiding in my house for the rest of the day. My weather page says:

Excessive heat warning in effect until 8 PM EDT this evening...
Heat advisory in effect from 11 am to 5 PM EDT Thursday...

Besides, there's still lots to be packed.

Ohio bound

I'm heading off to Ohio for a wedding tomorrow. When I first heard of the wedding, I was very excited to hear the news... oddly, I found out about it in the exact same spot as I'd heard about another wedding two years before. Strange coincidence that.

I'm nervous about this wedding. I've been asked to play piano for it. When I first agreed, I thought I knew what I was getting myself into, but a lot of details have changed, and now I'm a little nervous about it. I'll be on a keyboard, not a piano, which I know will sound different - I'm just hoping it's one of those high quality boards that sounds pretty close.

I'm also playing two more songs than I originally thought, and accompanying a singer, which I've never done before, so I'm a bit nervous about the newness of that experience. We haven't practiced together yet - we'll get the chance the day before the wedding - so I'm just hoping we both are on the same page re: pacing etc. The singer sent me a copy of the music she's working from, so at least we don't have to worry about transposition or instrument differences with the music we're each working from.

I've also got a head cold. It actually feels a bit better today, but yesterday I was so fuzzy headed I was really butchering the songs as I was practicing. I'm going downstairs to practice now - I hope today's practicing goes better. I'm also really hoping the head cold clears for the wedding and flight. Both will be miserable affairs if it doesn't.

The law can be fun!

I considered law school briefly as an undergraduate, but didn't think I had what it takes to succeed. Apparently, it's not quite as difficult as I thought it was...

I usually don't read legal judgements, but this one (link to pdf) is just too funny. A couple of excerpts:

Before proceeding further, the Court notes that this case involves two extremely likable lawyers, who have together delivered some of the most amateurish pleadings ever to cross the hallowed causeway into Galveston, an effort which leads the Court to surmise but one plausible explanation. Both attorneys have obviously entered into a secret pact--complete with hats, handshakes and cryptic words--to draft their pleadings entirely in crayon on the back sides of gravy-stained paper place mats, in the hope that the Court would be so charmed by their child-like efforts that their utter dearth of legal authorities in their briefing would go unnoticed.

After this remarkably long walk on a short legal pier, having received no useful guidance whatever from either party, the Court has endeavored, primarily based upon its affection for both counsel, but also out of its own sense of morbid curiosity, to resolve what it perceived to be the legal issue presented. Despite the waste of perfectly good crayon seen in both parties' briefing (and the inexplicable odor of wet dog emanating from such) the Court believes it has satisfactorily resolved this matter. Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment is GRANTED.

Ouch! Despite the legalese, it's worth reading for passages like this.

I suppose if this professor thing doesn't work out, I could go into law instead... at least I'd have the sense to use markers and construction paper...