20140121

So many changes, so little blog...

*blows dust off again*
*coughs violently*

Do people even do blogs anymore, or has it been replaced by Instagram and Twitter and other things that I no longer understand but prohibit my students from using in class anyway?

At any rate, here I am again, blogging away in my "spare" time. Things have changed significantly since the last post. First of all, I got married to a wonderful woman who is my complete equal, "stormy heart for stormy heart." Second, my position at State U ran out of funding/was deleted/I got kicked out by an uncaring administration (which story is true depends on how bitter I'm feeling). As we are all too aware of these days, the job market for white male medievalists untenured donestres is especially low, so I despaired of a job for a little bit until a friend at Charter High school in "Saxella, AR"  suggested that there might be an opening in English; I applied, interviewed, and took the job, and began teaching 10th, 11th, and 12th grade English this past August. My department chair left in November, and the Dr. in front of my name merited a quick promotion, so here I am: English Department Chair at Charter High in Saxella. So it goes.

Some of my students are smart--it's nice to finally meet the kids who will test out of your intro classes--and some of them are... well, fair warning, State U: you're getting some uninspired seniors. It's a job, and some days it's a good job, and some days it's what I call "subbing for myself" and one of my colleagues called "academic detente."  But I get to teach Arthurian legend and Chaucer and Shakespeare, as well as Maus and a whole host of other things, and when it's fun, it's fun. So there's that.

But I miss all my old friends in Faytown and State U, and I'm really not sure that this is what the rest of my life is for. My wife got a job at Resort Town Community College teaching people how to do what she spent nine years getting paid to do, and there's talk of an opening in their English department. So who knows--I may well have an out. Pray to your gods I do.