26 March 2006

even rock stars have moms

the good news: I've been shortlisted at two jobs, which is great, validating, hopeful, and very exciting. I've done the job search thing enough to know that at this point it's the little things and political stuff that decides it, and so I plan to perform well on the day (this is the phrase they use here in the UK: "performance on the day" which really does sum it up) and try to secure an offer. and then, as Liz says, we will burn that bridge when we get to it.

but initially one of the interviews was scheduled to take place tomorrow, and this past week I had my mom visiting, followed by my good high school friend Mona, whom I haven't seen in almost 10 years. and the thing is, it's hard to be the rock star that you know yourself to be when someone who saw you sing "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" at full volume in the kitchen when you were 3 feet tall is around. likewise, it's difficult to retain your connection to the current person you've become when someone is visiting who still calls you "Red" based on that semi-disastrous henna dye job you managed in 12th grade. I mean sure, these are legitimate elements of who I am and what I have become, but they do make it difficult to conceive of oneself as an academic rockstar with books and seriousness and poststructuralist epistemes and the like.

so it's good that the first interview is postponed. I'll report back once I'm again in rockstar form.

When dukes and maharajas ask the time of day from me....I say my special word and then they ask me out to tea!

1 comment:

Transient Gadfly said...

Dude, sorry about the 'Red' thing, I had no idea you were wishing it gone (I realize you weren't talking about me there, but I do still use it from time to time).

Assume, also, that I've said something to the effect that true rockstardom involves embracing the art produced by the screaming child in the kitchen along with the book you published last month, and that I said it in a somewhat more articulate way than I actually did, just then.