Rest and Relief

Dr. J is back tucked safely into the mountains of University Town. I had a great night's sleep. So good in fact that I slept right through my alarm and into my office hours. Whoops. Hopefully my work with students outside of class yesterday means that none of them are looking for me today. But as it turned out, Dr. J and I got in about the same time last night and once we finally connected on the phone, it was close to midnight and we talked for a few hours. Given how long both of our days were, we should have been a bit wiser about going to bed, but there was so much to debrief on.

All told, he had a great visit. It was real--he got to see some of the good and not so good of the school. There were rumors that Top School was snobby and there were a few people who proved that, but all in all I think he had great interactions with folks and the Dean seemed positive about the visit. He had the opportunity to meet with some top scholars on my side of the ivory tower and it sounds like they are as spectacular as I know their work to be and that potentially there could be a place for me there. I didn't really expect that to come out of the visit. While Top School is known for being top in just about every field, it does not have a department in my primary area. But it sounds like they have some intriguing slightly related field options. Top School was on my list of postdocs when I was thinking about that so I have much respect for their humanities programs. But back to the point. I think Dr. J did great. It sounds like he handled the little bit of hostility he received in the proper fashion. He had a great talk and made some great connections with all of the "power" people he met.

I'm so excited for him--he said he could hear me beaming through the phone. I'm so glad everything went well and I know that if for some reason he didn't get the offer, it is only because they are looking for someone how does something completely different. But I'm still believing that the best is going to come out of this situation. The difference now is that there are at least things to think about. Before, an offer was a no-brainer, but now seeing some of the ugly (real) sides of the department, he'll have to think a bit more about this. Now we wait. It could be at least two weeks as the faculty is not scheduled to meet until then, but the Dean indicated that he would try to be in touch in the meantime. So we wait.

As for me, of course, it was good to just have our time back too. I missed him and can't wait to see him this weekend!