Long, crazy days...

It's been another long day here at the office. And a random day, too. Among things I accomplished: sent out invitation letters for possible new members of Sigma Tau Delta, graded a bunch of stuff (what else is new?), read, read, read, and read some more, sent about 100 emails (okay, a slight exaggeration), met with students, went to a meeting, taught a class, and...

...sent out formal rejection letters for the two searches I chaired this year. Human Resources actually handles the bulk of these, but I had to send letters to anyone we actually interviewed. What a strange and depressing exercise. I know I've said before how weird it is to be on the other side of this process, but this part--sending these letters and having HR sent the other notices--has been one of the hardest.

One thing the job search makes very clear (from this side) is how very lucky I was to get my job. The thing is, if my school were to re-run the search for my job next year, and I was thrown in with a whole bunch of new candidates, would I still get it? (This assumes that my department could experience a mind-wipe and forget the how awesome I've been since they hired me. Ha ha.) The answer: Probably not. That's just strange to think about, isn't it?

One other Herculean task accomplished today: I got some shoes for Erin's wedding. Believe me, shoe shopping is NOT something I enjoy and I had to take to the internet to find what I was looking for. The only requirement from the bride (the least Bridezilla Bride out there, for which I am so grateful!) was that the shoes be gold. My requirements? Comfortable! So I went with these. What do you think?

To recap, my day started off with online shoe shopping and rejection letters. Not an ideal way to get going.

But a few bits of humor helped me make it through. First, the "Academy's" Awards. The last three are my favorites:

Best Supporting Actor, Faculty: Professor Who Manages to Act As If There Are No Dumb Questions

Best Supporting Actor, Student: Student who Manages to Laugh at Every Joke by Professor, No Matter How Awful

Costume Design: award retired in honor of the MLA convention

Second, on a related note, this year's batch of "Honest Movie Titles." The line at the bottom of the Precious poster made me laugh out loud ("Don't Bring a Date, Seriously"), which probably says something bad about me. I also loved the Up poster: "This shit comes to us in our sleep." Man, I really loved Up.

Okay--back to work I go! I've got some Poe to read before heading home. And yay! Lost is on tonight!!!