Good News Day

Tonight's first photo is of the self-portrait LB made at daycare. The wild hair looks just right. Our girl LB received some good news today at daycare when she learned that she'll no longer sit in the highchair at mealtimes because she is now big enough to sit at the communal table with all the bigger kids. She's still in a booster seat, but Miss Pam said that she sat up very tall and looked very pleased with herself during today's meals. And when it was time for afternoon snack, she marched proudly into the dining room and stood next to the table, not next to the babies' highchairs.

And I also have some exciting news: I have another interview! This one is at Peninsula College in Washington, and this time it's in person, which means I'll be heading up north. My interview is scheduled for March 21st, which is a great day because it's the first Monday of UCR's spring break. So I'm planning on staying most of my spring break at GG's house!! Lilybeth is coming along and so is G. My interview is at 8 AM in Port Angeles, which is about three hours north of Gramme's house, so I'm thinking we'll fly into Portland on Saturday, and I'll drive up to Port Angeles on Sunday and stay the night there. G and LB can stay at Gramme's house (don't worry, Mom, I'll be fine by myself.) Fortunately, I do get a travel budget, so hopefully my ticket and the rental car will be at least partially covered. I'll have to work all the logistics out later, but it is definitely exciting.

The interview, however, sounds like quite the task. They only have one round of interviews, so it will be five and a half hours long. I'll have one interview with the search committee from the department, one with the Dean of Instruction, and one with the college's vice president. I'll also have to do a half-hour teaching demo, and the search committee members will pretend to be my students. Yikes. I mean really . . . yikes. But, at least if it doesn't go well, I'll still have a week at Gramme's!

Peninsula was actually the first application I sent in, and when I was revising the cover letter for another school, I found a typo. Gasp! I accidentally left an "a" in a sentence. As you can imagine, I thought that little "a" would send my application straight to the trash can (I mean I am applying to for a position as an English professor; at the bare minimum, I should be able to proofread an important document.) But . . . I guess the committee decided to overlook my "a."

Today, I also met with my dissertation chair, and my deadline has been pushed back to August. This is great news, and I feel like I can now balance all of these applications and the dissertation. So, the revisions for my first chapter are due on 2/28; the revisions of my fourth chapter are due on 3/28; the revisions of the third chapter are due on 5/10; and my second chapter, which I haven't even started, is due on 6/10. Introduction and conclusion by 6/30. She'll have all of her comments for final revisions done by 7/20, and that will give me about ten days to complete those revisions before I'll have to send it to the other committee members on 8/1. Wheee! The pressure is on!

And in other news, it is now Girl Scout cookie time!
As a former-Girl Scout and as a great lover of cookies, this makes me very happy.