Relishing in the sheer pleasure of it all

I can't even begin to tell you how good it feels to be done! At this point all I have to do is finish printing the "good" copies of the diss for my meeting with the Grad School lady on Monday. She may tell me that I have some minor formatting adjustments to make, but I can handle that. Yesterday, I spent an eternity making 6 copies of the whole thing and took those to Milner Library to have them bound. I even ran my signed oral exam sheet over to Diane in the English office. I just have to get the good copy formatting done and I am home free!

Oh, and here's a picture of a bridge in Manassas where part of the battle of Bull Run took place. Ken, Mom, and I drove around the Bull Run 1 and 2 battlefields when we were in DC. I didn't even know there were 2 battles of Bull Run -- isn't that terrible? Anyway, I thought the bridge was a rather fitting metaphor for this time of transition in my life, so I included it here.

So, Ken came up this weekend, which is really nice. We're going to do some running around today and just have fun. It's such a weird feeling to not feel the urgency of needing to "get back to the diss work." I think I could get used to this! Of course, I'm still in the process of looking for a job, but that's going ok. I sent another application off this week and even got a call last week for an interview at a community college in Iowa. Fingers crossed. Claire keeps telling me that I'll probably get an influx of interviews all at once and then I'll be sorry I complained about not getting anything. :) Here's hoping!

I've been trying to get my summer plans in order. In addition to moving home, finding a home with Ken, and looking for a full-time job, I may be doing some summer (and possible fall/spring) teaching part-time for the University of Phoenix online. I applied to teach with them and I'm now in phase 3 or 4 of the interview process. Who knew it would be so rigorous! First, I had to send in application materials, then I had to answer online interview questions via email, then have a phone interview. Oh, so I guess I'm in phase 4 because now I have to do some practice online exercises to see how nicely I respond to students. Then there's a co-teaching/mentoring phase, during which time I work more intensely with the online system. After that, I get to co-teach a course with a mentor and get paid for doing that, and then they decide if they really want to keep me on as a faculty member or not. I'm actually kind of impressed by how detailed the whole process is. It appears that they really do care about bringing on good teachers.

Other than that, I'll be doing my yearly trip to Daytona Beach, FL for the AP reading in June. Another job that will help tide me over until full-time work comes my way. I'll be rooming with Jan N again this year, which will be fun. We had a good time together last year, so I'm looking forward to that again. Plus this is the last year in Florida (Kansas City next year), so I'm going to enjoy the beach!

Here's another DC picture. This is a shot of the ceiling in the Capitol building in Washington, DC. As you can see, I'm into taking black and white pictures. Though the ceiling is really pretty in color too, I like the contrast this shot provides.

Ok, we're off to do some running around this morning. Must get thank yous for the committee members and others.