My Chickens Have Hatched

As promised, the big news: beginning with the Fall 2007 semester, I'll be joining the faculty at Amherst College, as Assistant Professor of Spanish! The signed contract is being whisked Eastward by FedEx as we speak, I've begun to purchase more sweaters, and I've dusted off my dissertation in the interest of filing it in May. The long process of moving, blood-thickening and, oh yeah, starting down the road to tenure, can wait: for now, I've been indulging in counting my chickens, not knocking on wood, speaking in the indicative tense (instead of the subjunctive "If I were on the East Coast I would..."), not checking the job listings and my email every 15 seconds, not waiting for the phone to ring, and general merry-making in honor of my good fortune!

And, as promised, a visual tour of the last couple of weeks:


Here I am not paying any attention to LA traffic as I speak with the Amherst chair, with whom I'd been playing phone tag for a very agonizing six hours. He offered me the job, and then said many things that I found very difficult to remember... According to my friends, I just kept saying "great... great... great..."



Once I hung up the phone, the news begins to sink in...






And last night, after ten days of intense negotiations (ok, they weren't that intense, just nerve-wracking), here I am signing the contract, for those who need photographic proof (ahem, Dad).








So, to recap: two years, one interview suit, 2 trips to the MLA, 18 MLA interviews, 2 phone interviews, 6 flybacks, 5 teaching demos, 4 job talks, a gazillion hours fantasizing about life in Iowa, or Pennsylvania, or Vermont, or San Francisco, or Massachusetts, a gazillion and one hours fretting about what's next later and I've got a job!