Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Worry


Lefty & I have moved a lot. Heck, we have lived in three different states and four different houses since The Kid was born. Most of this moving was job related. My husband is an academic and there is often some moving around involved, particularly in the hard sciences, particularly with junior (non-tenured) faculty members. Then, I suppose, when you get your magical tenure gold star, you can stay put and unpack those odd boxes stacked up at the back of the closet. So being faculty of the not yet tenured kind, Lefty looks at job postings in his field on occasion and on occasion applies for other jobs. This is called exploring your options and everybody does it and it didn’t bother me much until yesterday.

Yesterday is when a USDA researcher from Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania called and said Lefty had made the first cut for a microbiology position. Lefty called and told me, his voice full of awe for the wonder that is a research position with the USDA and the legendary salary and benefits a government job can bring.

Oh.

We talked about it a little, hypothetically, and mostly I said, move? again? And then fought the urge to hide under the covers for the rest of the evening. We talked some more and Lefty mentioned the impossible hours and how hard he’s working and how things are never going to change at said small private college until my teeth began to hurt and I said, um, can we watch House please? Watched House. Drank wine. Slept.

This morning the USDA people called and wanted to do a telephone interview with Lefty with about an hour’s notice. Now we wait and see if he gets called to come out for an on-site interview. And now, I am befuddled and freaked out about this hypothetical job that he might be offered.

And there’s not a thing I can do. I can’t be worried about something that hasn’t happened yet.


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