Home, tired... some news

We're home, finally. A long, long day. The Painter has decided that he doesn't really like taking three-leg flights, and he'd much prefer just to fly one airplane between two cities. That's his request. I concur.

Got an email that an abstract I sent off a few weeks ago, for a regional conference (local chapter of SOD), has been accepted. So, I'll be presenting at their meeting in Berkeley next month. It's a good way for me to step back into the conference circuit. I've never presented at SOD, so this is also a way for me to test the waters (which is the whole point of these regional shindigs, I suppose).

Then, I have my host department colloquium talk a couple weeks later. Also, received an email with a final call for abstracts for an upcoming conference in Scotland, that would be right up my alley with the work I'm doing at the moment (connected to both what I'll present in Berkeley and to my colloquium talk). A couple people I'd like to rub elbows with are already among the confirmed speakers, so I think I'll draft something up in the next few days.

That and an NEH grant proposal, if I can figure out how to cast my present ideas in a way that might attract their support. I think I can, but their deadline in May 1. We'll see.

Meantime, I also have to finalize my syllabus for this application to [Tough Commute U.]. I suspect the new edition of the textbook will be in my mailbox, awaiting my return to campus. I got an email this week from one of the professors at TCU in the hiring department, in response to a missive I sent him. 1) Yes, there is "considerable interest" in their department for the sort of work I feel most aligned with; and 2) re: whether this is a sabbatical replacement or an anticipated vacancy, the reply was

At the moment this is difficult to answer. We're certainly hoping to make an appointment in the area of [interdisciplinary subfield], but our department has just undergone a comprehensive academic review and we need to await the conclusion of that process before the Provost will release money for appointments. We are hopeful, but that's the best I can offer for now.

So, it's still a promising opportunity. It's silly how I expend so much energy on a job even before I've applied. But that's the way it is, especially when the post could potentially turn into something really good, and in consideration of the fact that I have not only the "two body problem" but a "four body problem". I simply don't wish to apply for a job entailing such a logistical nightmare, unless I'd seriously be interested in suffering it. It looks more and more in this case that I would.

I'm babbling now. Slap happy from the time zone shifting. Good night.