Wow, what a year. I know I say life has been very busy every time I slack on blogging, but it really has! As noted in the earlier posts, this year I was consulting on social media in IN, and teaching in IL. Needed a bit of a break, so I spent a week in Paris with Liz in the spring.
Got back and finally finished and defended my dissertation. I submitted an article for peer review (later summer/fall), got two other co-authored articles published (summer), and wrote three articles for conferences (spring and fall). I walked in May, and received the degree in August.
This fall I started a Visiting Assistant Professor position at University of North Florida (where George is an Associate Professor). In the summer, we moved from IN to FL, bought a house, and set up our new offices. This fall I have been teaching and writing, and scoping out the academic job market for a tenure track position (a permanent position as opposed to the 1 year position I currently have), and have been getting apps out and have heard back from a couple. We’ll see what happens.
So now that we are up to date, I realized today how late is was in the year. Last week I went to MA to see my family and friends for the holiday and today I was back in the office getting materials ready for Spring classes. I was looking at the calendar and realized classes start in two weeks. I was hoping to get more writing done over the break, but I don’t know how much time I’ll have to do that. I have the graduate class syllabus almost done (I had a lot of revisions to do from the last time I taught Nonprofit Management) and I have not even started on the undergrad syllabus (well, I started, but it is void of any substance yet). I hope to complete them in the next day or so. Once they are done, I have a book proposal to complete (got some of it done on the plane trips to and fro MA), another article to get out for review (once I collect a bit more data to add to it), and start working on another project. Like I said, busy.
Even though I have been busy, I have really been enjoying the new house and Jax Beach. It is absolutely wonderful to be living by the water again. I don’t know how I got through the last five years in the Midwest! When I first moved here, it was hot, but not as bad as I was expecting. Of course we had a record number of days (45) where the temperature was over 90 degrees. That record was for Jacksonville though, and it was cooler here at the beaches. But it was still hot. You just have to stay out of the sun, go out in the early morning or evening, and drink lots of water (or margaritas, depending on what time it is). This winter has also hit a record low once (possibly twice) but it is nowhere near as bad as it is in the north! I chuckled the first couple times I saw people wearing wool coats and ear muffs when the temps got into the 40s. Too funny!
In regard to local activities, we went to a couple city council meetings (wanted to go to more, but was still on campus when they were taking place), a minor league baseball game (Jacksonville Suns) with George and Nick, a colleague at UNF who is in his first year), watch the Bruins/Sabres hockey game with Nick (a Sabres fan, grrr), and went to a Jacksonville Jaguars game with George and Nick.
This Thanksgiving was the first one in the new place. I cooked a turkey and sides, and we packed it up and went to the beach to enjoy our dinner and a bottle of wine. It was in the low 70s. Did I mention that I like it down here?
So here I am, 5 days before Christmas. Shopping is done, tree is up and decorated, waiting to see if we will be grilling our Christmas dinner, and drinking a glass of wine trying to figure out how the year is already almost done. All and all, it has been a good year and I am looking forward to 2011! Wishing everyone a Happy Christmas and a Very Merry New Year!
Georgette's musings 