Omphaloskepsis

Paella is not the same as Polenta.

Thanksgiving is over, the in-laws and the parents are all home and I have replaced buckets of turkey in the refrigerator with buckets of turkey broth in the freezer (buckets = Tupperware).

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I have a few very minor dyslexic tendencies. I am not saying I have a learning disability, or anything close, but I'm beginning to realize how careful I need to be about certain things. I do not have dyslexia, but when you look-up these "symptoms," they fall into the dyslexic spectrum.

1. I confused names that are the same length/start with the same letter. For instance, I interchange "the Ritz" and "the Roxy" in one chapter of my dissertation. Ahhhh. I called George Martin (Beatles producer) George Michael in front of my class last year. I struggle to read books where more than 2 characters have names that start with the same letter and are about the same length.

2. When I get tired, I start losing my nouns. Bowl becomes thingy, car becomes thingy in the driveway, glasses become, and I quote, "the see-through things I use to read." One memory:  asked MT if something was "in the place above the thingy out back." (In the storage unit above the car in the garage.)

My mom is like this too, although to a lesser extent. I think I inherited this from her and its exaggerated by my "dad's" tendency to skim/go quickly through things that should be taken more slowly. It is VERY frustrating to not know what something is called, and know what it is called at the same time. I do occasionally combine #1 and #2... for instance I always call polenta paella. Both are tasty, but one is made by combining cornmeal and water, the other is a more complicated mix of rice and seafood. MT knows what I mean when I say "maybe I could make paella for dinner."

Also, it's a boy!

Large groups are great!

I'm beginning to realize that I'm much more comfortable talking in front a group than I am with most kinds of one-on-one or small group interactions. When I gave my talk at the Big Conference, I was able to relax into my presentation, providing appropriate asides and stopping to explain when needed. (There is a point where I write about something "resembling" something else, when its really a direct quotation. In the written format, this is fine. In the live format, it just sounded/read silly. So, I explained what I meant and moved on.)

This is something to think about for my career, whatever that may be. More specifically, it's making me think more about my strengths and weaknesses as a teacher. I can facilitate good discussions when I think of myself as a facilitator, getting students to talk to each other. I'm not as good at leading discussions. I hope that distinction is clear. More importantly, my strength is in my lecture style. There is a lot I need to improve on there, but I can do it. The chair of the department I'm interviewing at got his degree from a sister department at Urban State University. It wasn't that he was impressed that I had led my own class in front of 500 students last year, it was just that he knew what kind of accomplishment it was and attributed to me a group of qualities as an instructor. This past summer, I had to do a mock lesson in front of 8 people as part of a (failed) job interview. By simply pretending that it was a lot more people, I think it went pretty well.

Anyway, I'm preparing part of my job talk right now. Part of the difficulty I'm having is not knowing how much time I will have (probably either 40 minutes + 20 minutes discussion or 30 minutes  + 15 minutes discussion). I could do my Big Conference talk with some extra padding about my research. However, I know that at least one member of the search committee is interested in another aspect of my research, so I'm trying to figure out how to fold that into my Big Conference presentation. I don't think I should discuss just the other area, though, because it really doesn't represent my research, just an important aspect of the larger whole of my historical period. Ah, I'm running into the limits of writing semi-anonymously, aren't I.

It's time to start figuring out exactly how much stuff we have to do this weekend. Among other things, I want to get us both new phones! And curtain rods and maybe curtains for the kitchen. And a swim suit and some professional grooming related to swim suit wearing. And a full menu planned for Thanksgiving, which includes figuring out what to buy when and where, when to cook what, etc. And lots and lots of raking.  MT "lost" the "argument" about how my in-laws are getting here, so we'll actually have a lot of time on Wednesday to prepare before they get here. I guess that's a good thing, although it would be nice if they could/would get here earlier.

Gasp!

I have been traveling a lot, and just when I thought I would be home for a month or more... I get a call about flying to the Left Coast for a job interview. It's been kinda crazy, and not exactly blog-update friendly.

The Big Conference was really nice. Host city was really, really expensive and hard to get to. As a result, it was a smaller group than past years. I schmoozed, I did not booze. I think my presentation went really well, but I had no questions. The moderator and I had a nice conversation, but he teaches at the same school as MT so we've actually talked about this topic before. My topic is one where graduate students often know more about the "facts" than established scholars. Notoriously Scary Professor came to my panel just to see my paper, which he seemed to enjoy.

The Big News is the on-site interview, my first of the season. It's also my first tenure-track interview in the US., a whole different kettle of fish than the UK job or the one-years. Two days of interviews and lectures. Two days of being on. I'm excited about the job, the department is a good fit and the location is primo. However, the teaching load is scary, especially considering the impending arrival of little Octavia/Caesar. Still, there is almost nowhere else in the US where we would be near so many different schools with good programs for MT too. Childcare. I have no idea how bad it will be, and I'm so scared. So very, very scared.

Also, my health issues are getting weird. Lately, I've been gasping. It's not shortness of breath, because that would be a normal symptom of pregnancy. No, I gasp randomly. Sometimes it takes me by surprise and sounds like a horror-movie gasp. Usually it's just a deep inhale, and sometimes it's connected to obvious signs of indigestion. I think I need to see a specialist, because the consensus is that it's probably related to reflux. Since it's not a threat to the pregnancy, I don't think the midwives care (much). I, of course, am worried that I will randomly gasp with food in my mouth, but no one else (other than MT) sees this as an issue. Well, at least we already know the ENTs and GIs at the local hospital.