The one where I remember I have a blog

I had this realization on Monday that Thanksgiving is next week. NEXT WEEK! How did that happen? I have absolutely no idea. I just finished up my last lecture before the break, which means it's 9am and I am DONE!!! (Except that I'm never really done...I always have something I should be doing.)

So what have I been up to in the last, oh, month since I posted? Most of my life is consumed by teaching and trying to stay on top of lecture prep, grading, homework/test writing, etc. Even though things have gotten a lot better since the beginning of the semester, I've still been snowed under most days. (Actually getting access to the instructor resources and changing my physics class over to the online homework system (=no grading!) made my life SO much better; that was the time I got to start sleeping again.) It's been crazy, but I'm loving teaching, so it's not all bad. Let me give some random updates.

1. My physics class. I still love it. I love it more all the time. I'm strangely surprised by how much I love it. I can hardly wait for next semester.

2. My GSci class. It's going okay. I'm realizing that I tried to cram WAY too much in over the course of the semester. And teaching things I'm not an expert in (e.g., chemistry and geology) might not have been the best idea I've ever had. I'm actually looking forward to that class being over.

3. My physics students all want to take the second half of the class (E&M) from me. My section was the first to fill up, and I still had 19 of my current students request overrides. (The department admin was awesome and let them all in.) This is in addition to at least 5 or 6 students I help in the learning center who talked to me about wanting in, but might not get in. (At least not right now; maybe at the beginning of the semester when everyone is shuffling again.) This makes me feel good because I've put so much into the class that it's rewarding to know the students appreciate it! And that they like me.

4. Science Math Learning Center. I tutor there 2 days a week (3-4 hour shifts) as a part of my teaching load. This is a total throwback to my days in the tutorial lab as an undergrad and I really love working there.

5. I almost lost my perfect schedule for next semester. There was a scheduling snafoo and they had to do some last minute shuffling and almost took my physics class away from me. I almost cried. (Literally.) I convinced them to let me keep it. (I mean, having taught the entire physics series DOES help my CV and I AM looking for jobs.) After I convinced them they almost switched me to teaching a different section. (After all that trouble of getting all my students in my class?!) That change would have had me teaching everyday again, instead of my now-scheduled T/Th. But in the end, it all worked out and my perfect schedule is in tact. Whew. Next semester is once again awesome: teaching non-major astro (second half, JUST stars, galaxies and universe, awesome!), and physics. Both classes T/Th, done by noon. I can't wait!!!

6. I've never eaten out more in my life than I am right now. And it's not good eat out, it's like fast food eat out. It's terrible. I don't even like eating fast food that much. (Okay, that's a lie. But I don't like the way I *feel* after I eat fast food that much.) Every once in awhile is fine, but I prefer to eat real food that I cooked myself. Especially given how much I like cooking. But my brain is mush most of the time, and I can't even remember what I like to cook. And actually taking time to cook something? Yeah right.

7. I'm trying to have a social life, kind of. My social life tends to revolve mainly around my church friends, and there aren't many people here in the singles group that are my age. As a result, I'm outsourcing to Charlottesville where the LDS singles group is bigger, and people are more like me. (i.e., not 18.) I've been going to the family ward (congregation) here, but driving there for Institute each Wednesday night and other random activities on weekends.

Two weeks ago I decided to take the plunge and officially transfer my records to the ward there. Since Charlottesville is still in my stake, it's totally allowed. When I talked to my current bishop about it, he said, "I understand and I support your decision." Ha! Anyway, it's a lot of driving (about an hour each way), but it's worth it to have some semblance a social life and to actually be able to meet people. Sometimes people are surprised when they hear that I drive that far and they think it's not worth it. But those are also probably the people who haven't lived very far from the singles ward epicenter. (Like me, previous to this.) It's actually not that big of a deal. The drive is beautiful and it's nice to have some chill time.

8. I'm still working at the temple in DC every other Saturday. I really love it, although it also adds up to a lot of driving. (I usually drive there in the morning, work 12:30-5:30, then drive home that night. It's a 2 hour drive each way.) Good thing I got my car fixed before moving here! It's been running like a champ.

DC temple at sunset last weekend:

9. I love my apartment. It's perfect for me right now. Sometimes I miss having a roommate, but I probably wouldn't be a very good roommate right now anyway. I'm actually amazed at how well I do at keeping my place tidy. It's almost fun to keep an orderly house. Or maybe it's easy because I'm not there all the time. I don't own a TV and I don't have the internet. I'm actually amazed I've lasted this long without the internet. I have my phone to check email and Facebook at home. I'm getting really close to giving in though, especially with all the job apps and stuff coming due, and not wanting to stay at work to work on them.

I haven't posted any pictures of my place and I need to! So here are some pictures. Sorry I don't have more.

Kitchen:

Bathroom (this is the first time I've bought a fun shower curtain and I really like it and want to show it off):

Living room, including my couch!

Better shot of my couch. I've fallen asleep on it more times than I'd like to admit. (I'm sort of pathetic/ridiculous right now.) It's so comfortable.

I haven't decorated yet. I'm hoping to get to that over the break. I am going to try and continue with the National Park Series of photos and blow up some pictures from the adventure Michelle and I had this summer in Utah.

10. The sister missionaries serving in my ward here are like my bffs. Ha! I have them over for dinner every other week or so. The first time I did, I chattered on and on, you'd think I was stressed and deprived of human company. (That's probably true.) They thought it was a great time though, and came back. One day a few weeks ago I came home (late, as usual) and was surprised to find they had heart attacked my door. It made me day.

11. I finally went hiking in Shenandoah, although it was a quick hike on a Friday afternoon. The fall colors were stunning. I have no idea why I haven't been living there this fall. And I get to use my National Park annual pass, which is so awesome. I love having it so much that I might buy another when it expires in April, even if I only live by one national park. I just really like being someone who has a National Park pass.


12. The shelves in my office are still completely empty. I haven't had the energy yet to drag all my boxes of textbooks up here. It does make for a convenient excuse when those people come by my office trying to convince me to donate and/or sell my old textbooks. (It happens more than I expected.) "Hi, do you have any textbooks you don't want?" *pause* "Oh, I see you don't have any textbooks." Ha!

Most boring office ever. I'm actually getting embarrassed when students or colleagues come by. Goal over the break: bring up my books.

13. Right now I'm not good at doing things that I used to be really good at. Examples: I've gone to the gym roughly 3 times this semester. (I've been a faithful 5-days-a-week gym goer for at least the last 6 or 7 years.) I don't drink enough water. (The water fountain is just SO FAR AWAY. And I forget to drink it when I have a jug of it on my desk.) I'm a few days behind on writing in my journal. (Will catch up over break.) I often fall asleep on my couch at night while working, waking up in the middle of the night and then going to my bed. (Except Wednesday night when I slept on the couch all night, because when I woke up, I didn't feel like going to my bed.) I'm kind of pathetic. But what can you do?

14. Jobs. Oh man. Applying for jobs is the bane of my existence. And here I am, in the throes of it again. Why does it feel like I just applied for jobs? Oh yeah, because I *did* just apply for jobs. My job here ends next August, so I need a job for the fall. The department is hiring a tenure-track position, but they seem to really want a computational theorist, which is not me. They're also hiring another temp position (2-3 years), but after a recent conversation I had with another prof here, I don't know if the department would actually hire me. He wasn't purposely discouraging me from applying, just advising me to "be careful," since being in a temp teaching (not research) position for 3-4 years might look bad on my resume when I try to get a permanent job. (I know, academia is weird.) So one of those, "we're making you leave for your own good." I don't really know.

The learning center here is also looking to hire someone full time to split time between being the physics faculty tutor and teaching classes in the physics department. (The current guy just got hired full time as the planetarium director.) My supervisor told me about the job opening and I think they'd love to keep me working there, and it does sound awesome. Although I don't know, because it would mean no time for research and it's not tenure track (but likely not going away). I just haven't decided yet if that's a track I want to jump on. Or rather, I haven't decided if the full professor track is one I want to jump OFF. I actually really love working in the learning center and sort of wish I could have it both ways.

I'm applying for a mix of small college/university teaching jobs as well as a couple post docs. Sometimes I think doing another post doc would be good for my career, so that I can gather research momentum again and form some more collaborations. But....I don't know if I really want to. But it might be what's best for me in the long run. Sigh. Don't know! We'll see how things play out this year.

Since I've been so buried with teaching, I'm behind on applying and I've actually missed a TON of deadlines. But I've finally combed the job listings and now have a solid list to work from right now. I'll be working hard over the break to get things together.

15. Research. Yeah, this so hasn't happened. I'm still mad at STScI for wiping all the software off my laptop. I've lost a LOT of time trying to get up and running again. Anyway, I have this awesome data set on a globular cluster that I need to publish, but I have to redo all the photometry measurements since HST released new flats (calibration files) right before I left. Blah. And the data go public soon and there's a real threat of being scooped. Double blah. I imagine my supervisor at STScI is going crazy. He emails me sometimes to check in on how it's going and I never have good answers. Triple blah.

16. I'm addicted to frozen yogurt. I'm not even kidding. This semester they opened one of those self-serve fro-yo type places between my house and work. I go there several times a week. Sometimes I eat frozen yogurt for dinner. My favorite flavor is cake batter because it makes everything I put on it taste like cake. Oreo cake! Brownie cake! Chocolate chip cookie dough cake! Kit kat cake! (And if you know me, you know I kind of love cake batter, especially dry cake mix.) A couple weeks ago they ran out of punch cards, and so they've been giving people a punch on their receipt to be transferred to a card when they come in. It's been like 3 weeks. I haven't counted how many I have, but I'm almost too embarrassed to turn them all in for real punches once they finally do get the cards in. Before that I filled up two punch cards.


17. You know how I love the Cracker Barrel? ("Where comfort meets food!") Well, on the two long drives I do regularly (i.e., to Charlottesville and DC) I pass THREE each way. (Three different ones.) I've been wanting to go for like 3 months. Finally I broke down and went two Fridays ago. I put my name on the list, and they would call people over the loud speaker as so: "Cracker Barrel would like to welcome Carla, party of three." Or "Cracker Barrel would like to welcome Daniel, party of six." I thought, oh man, how lame am I going to look when they announce that I'm a party of one? Well, the hostess realized that and said, "The Cracker Barrel would like to welcome Elizabeth!" Awesome! I wanted to tell her thanks, but she was talking to someone when I went by. And my chicken friend chicken and biscuits were awesome, by the way.



Okay, well that's about it. I literally have no plans for Thanksgiving, and the funny thing is that I can hardly wait. (I have gotten an invite or two for the actual Thanksgiving day dinner though; don't feel too sorry for me or anything.) Last night I wrote on my fridge white board my goals for the week. I will get lots done! I will be a productive, balanced person again! If only for a week.