I See A Thousand Points of Disogranization

Hola Non-Divas,

Here I sit in the central sitting area of a conference hotel. I am attending one of the two big daddy national conferences in my field. I will affectionaltely refer to this conference as, "The National Conference of We Cannot Get Our Shit Together to Save Our Ever Loving Lives". Every year I come to this conference, and every year it never fails to amaze me that such a gigantic national conference that has been going on forever has yet to figure out how the hell to get organized and actually become user friendly. . . . or even user tolerant . . . or that there are actually users here . . . Anyway, I arrived yesterday on a jet plane filled with PhDivas and students from my University. They were all nice and cordial and here for themselves and for the most part not terribly interested in the student users who are coming here so that they can evenutally become frustrated faculty users. I shouldn't say all . . . their were certainly a couple of faculty members who went out of their way to tell me that they would help me in any way they could . . . Strangely, I have not heard from them today . . . I'm sure I will . . . right :)

Funny Story: I was standing next to one of the aforementioned faculty members at check in. He successfully checked in to his lovely suite [for which he will be fully reimbursed and I will not despite the fact that I also represent the University - my bitterness makes me digress]. Anyway, he got his room number, and then they turned to me. Apparently, they were still cleaning all of the other available rooms, so they put me on the top floor . . . the concierge floor . . . it was all they had available. The aforementioned prof was none too happy that I, the underling, was getting the royal treatment. Sometimes, karma is a bitch that I heart hardcore.

Back to the disorganized mess of a conference . . . I, and a few of my fellow students, are here to try and whore ourselves out for a job. However, when we got here, we were told that all mass job interviews were held from 12-5 . . . prior to our arrival. Now, there was no mention of said event in the conference schedule . . . and no one at the registration desk knew what we were talking about when we asked about it. Later, we found out that there were about 20 schools interviewing for positions, and, funny enough, very few people showed up . . . they were so confused. UGH! So, I decided that we needed to go sit somewhere, have a drink, allow ourselves a time of communion and bitterness, and then reformulate our plan of attack.

Post drinking and bitterness, we decdied to hit up the opening ceremonies and all of the many booths for all of the many universities that are representing hardcore at the conference. We rocked . . . I cannot even tell you . . . I currenlty have appointments/interviews with Rutgers, Boston College, Syracuse University, and Cal State Long Beach. I plan to hit them up hardcore again today before preparing for the reception hour tonight [read: very good time to talk to people as they are drinking and will be more receptive to the future faculty seduction that will ensue]. I will update tomorrow about the reception experience. Trust me, it will be a freaking hoot. I'm tickled about it.

Trying to catch some of that inspiration!

Well, life has intervened in MUCH too large of a way for me lately - reminding me that while many things that I am doing are very important - none of it is of that much importance if you don't have your health, family and friends. There have been some very sad/stressful times over the late summer and early fall. So a much needed shout-out to K for being the wonderful partner, love and friend in my life, and to J my friend, colleague and partner in all of this PhD craziness. Thank you both!

My progress has been in tiny fits and starts - but I am guessing some progress is better than NO progress. I am following J's idea of working on regular work-a-day stuff weekly and then creating a 'retreat' of sorts on the weekend to work on my dissertation work. So far so good! Finishing corrections on Chapter Three, a draft of Chapter One is done, and outline of Chapter Two is in progress.

It is an interesting time of the year - in addition to the stress and (hopefully) joy of finishing this thing...we have been receiving the constant job announcements from every possible source! I do worry a bit about future employment - am I a good fit for any place out there? Are there going to be jobs that will be interesting and fulfilling? Are there jobs that will allow me to pay off this massive student loan debt and still pay bills? It has been a long time since I was 'just' working....what will that be like? Can I really afford to be thinking about this now? I probably HAVE to think about this now.....yikes!