Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Updates

So,this month has been a mixed bag so far. One of my main stresses--and there have been many--lay with my health care termination. This weekend, I received a package from GHI. I got COBRA! So, hopefully, the big bills I received will now largely be paid. Still no news from my prescription drug plan (that can run thousands of dollars a month for IVF) but at least some of the news was good.

Still no news from the job I interviewed for last month. After a week of mourning, I've realized I likely came in second and will not be hired. So, I'm putting that one behind me and hoping that the future brings something even better. In the meantime, my classes for the fall are pretty much full, so that's pretty flattering.

Meanwhile, the weather has been alternating between spring and fall. After 78 degrees and sun on Saturday came thunderstorms and cool winds yesterday. My Mayle Vera coat is still drying out on a chair after I got caught in the rain on the way home from class last night.

22 comments:

patrickstar said...

Yay on getting Cobra! That must be such a relief. :)

I just saw that Dailycandy posted the Mayle sale so it might be a mob scene. They also said it starts at 10 vs. 11. Wonder if that's right...?

erica said...

Hooray for Cobra! I hope that more good news follows...

I'm sorry to hear about the job. It's such a crap shoot, though, isn't it? I'm glad that your fall classes are filling up, though.

I'm cooped up inside again, watching the skies for more rain and wishing I could wear my sandals.

I hope you have an amazing time at the sale this weekend. Leon and I will be rooting for you and your finds.

Moya said...

Thank you! I am relieved. The job thing is a crapshoot--I had been told it went really well but I guess somebody else offered something that I didn't.

I wish Daily Candy hadn't posted 10 am. It is 11 but that will mean people will get there way too early. I think they confused it with last year when it did open at 10 am.

Moya said...

Hey Patrickstar--where did you see that? I just checked Daily Candy and didn't see anything. Last year, however, Mayle had their sample sale on the same days and it started at 10, not 11, so you may have seen the old posting (of course, I could be wrong).

But the Mayle sample sale absolutely starts at 11. And given that it's Mayle, I bet the doors don't open until 15-30 minutes after that.

patrickstar said...

whoops i think i made a mistake! i typed dailycandy and my browser probably dropped down to one i visited that was old. funny that it connected it to mayle. :) whew, that's a relief. i was afraid it would be crazy with people lining up early!

i wonder how early to get there?

Moya said...

I didn't think it had been posted at all. I don't know how early is too early to get there--maybe an hour beforehand? That's what I did last time.

Cindy said...

Good luck with everything Moya! BTW, you might want to look at http://www.needymeds.org/ if you want to find add'l coverage for drugs - I advise my Medicare beneficiaries of this resource.

mel said...

Moya - that's great news! you must be so relieved. i'm glad it worked out for you.

sorry about the job though. i was on the market this year and didn't fare so well myself. everyone told me it was a really bad year, so i'm chalking it up to that.

hopefully, i can meet up with you ladies after the sale.. if you're still out. happy hunting!

Moya said...

Yes, it was a terrible year. Most of the jobs in my area were canceled as administrators see no value in humanities these days and would rather exploit adjuncts, I'm afraid.

I really did think I had an excellent chance at this job, though. I got great feedback and while I am naturally pessimistic, I actually thought I had got this one in the bag. It's been quite painful waiting and finally realizing that I must have been the runner up. No word, at this point, is not good. It will be four weeks tomorrow and I think that's about the time you know someone else is in salary negotiations.

I hope both of our searches go better next year--I'll definitely see you on Friday too.

mel said...

moya - why don't you contact them? it won't hurt to see where you stand. i know it's not much of a consolation, but i think it's great that you were top two. that in itself is a difficult feat these days.

i've always heard about exploitation of adjuncts in the humanities, but it's now also affecting the sciences (i'm in math). due to the saturation of phDs right now, most people are willing to find anything right now. let's hope the market improves next year, along with the economy. apparently, obama has some sort of stimulus for the sciences, but we have yet to see the effects.

on a mayle note.. are you getting excited/pyschologically prepared for the sale tomorrow?

Moya said...

I guess I just don't want to hear them tell me what I already know over the phone. It's like calling a guy when he hasn't called/emailed and you suspect he's not into you. I just feel I'd rather not. When I've been on search committees in the past, calls haven't been welcomed either and have got the polite "this is an ongoing search and we cannot comment" line. At four weeks (today) I know that I've got no chance at this point and calling would just make me feel worse.

I just wish I had the job and nothing is going to change that.

The humanities gets nothing from Obama's package, which annoys me no end. Students can barely write these days, and we can't offer sufficiently small classes to correct that, let alone teach our subjects and critical thinking with the necessary depth. Obviously, the writing issue is a flaw with K-12, which seems flooded with money despite what I think are terrible results, but it seems that this country sees no value in humanities.

Hearing that math is now traveling down that path is disturbing too. though the saturation of Ph.Ds was a humanities problem. I know that its one way that universities also keep down our salaries and it is a problem of supply/demand they could easily rectify.

I'm nervous about Mayle tomorrow. I feel I'm going to waste a lot of time I should be using to write and end up with nothing. It's been promoted everywhere and I hope it won't be mobbed.

Cindy said...

The academic market is super scary right now. My partner was lucky this year and ended up with a lot of fellowship offers, but his counterparts didn't fare as well (and they are coming from a highly competitive math grad program). To give you perspective, each grad applied to 25+ fellowships and were told to not bother with any junior prof/tenure track jobs; with the exception of my partner, only 1 other person had more than one offer. There are 3 students in his class that have NO offers, which is unheard of. The math job market was cut in half this year.

As for the sciences, the fed money is only going to stuff earmarked by certain people with special interests (I'll tell you about it tomorrow when I see you) - and it's going to be an interesting crapshoot as to where it's headed...

leanne said...

Cindy - I'm interested to hear your perspective on the fed money.

erica said...

i hope everyone had a good time at the sale! we're off to the pediatrician for the first round of vaccines. poor baby...

Christina said...

http://racked.com/archives/2009/04/24/lineblogging_last_mayle_sale_predictably_nuts.php

looks like fun...I can't imagine what it will be like saturday morning!

Biscuit said...

goodness, that was a crazy sale! the line was out of control; people started lining up at 7:30. i'll let moya blog the full story, but it was so nice to meet so many of you in person and i hope to see you again in the future!

Christina said...

susie, what did you manage to find?

Biscuit said...

i got:
-jacinthe in lavender
-jemeen in black and white
-adela in cream
-hilaire
-bibi in sand
-another dress from spring 08 whose name i forget, but it is the same fabric as the paz camisole/dress and has embroidery at the collar
-anahi (this is way too big but i'm committed to finding a way to make it work)
-annelise pants

the first three girls in line were all my size, so they snagged a lot of the smaller sizes. they bought my beloved lilly dress! i was so bummed about that. i think moya might have snagged you a couple of things, but i'm not sure. it was a total madhouse in there. maryam and loretta scored big with the snakeskin clogs! they are amazing.

joyce said...

ladies -- please tell all! i can't wait to hear what you were able to score. the photos on racked look like an orderly mob scene, if that's possible.

Moya said...

It was nuts. I'll blog fully later on but I am wiped out. I was there at 7.50 and there were people already waiting.

It was great to see everybody but the sale itself wasn't that much fun--too much stress and a real shortage of good quality items in sizes 0, 2, 8 and 10. Also a surprising number of damaged pieces, particularly a Ninel and a Mirabelle that were blood stained...

I got a few nice pieces, but not so many that I had coveted. No archival pieces there at all. I ended up with a lot of 6s and I hope they will work.

Elena said...

Moya, can't wait to read your full account. I'm so sorry I missed the sale, but I'm on vacation with my best friend, so I can't really complain. If any of the size 6 stuff you got doesn't work for you, please let me know. I'd be interested in buying them from you! Would be nice to have something from the sample sale...

lorochills said...

i agree one of my favorite parts of the day was hanging out with the ladies cindy, julie, moya and so many more...i hate that i do not live in the city
i am a 6 so i made out pretty well...i am working today so maybe monday i will post some pics

the racked picture looks crazy