#31 - Get a Full-time Job

I really missed city living, so as I was finishing my Ph.D., I focused my job search on Chicago, New York, DC, Boston, Philly, and San Francisco.  Working in higher education, the further advanced in the career path, the fewer positions there are at each university and thus in each city.  So while it might seem like searching in these six large cities would give me a big enough net, I think I only applied to three positions in those six cities.  I (begrudingly) applied to 20+ positions outside of those cities.

(Quick pause: Yes, I understand San Diego is technically a big city.  But it doesn't have the big city
feel.  It's not quite "urban."  Even downtown is flooded with tourists who have heard how cool the Gaslamp District is.  It's not that cool.  San Diego is great.  It is.  I get to surf, play beach volleyball, sail, and wakeboard year round.  I cannot tell you the last time I checked the weather before deciding what to wear.  It's all kinds of beautiful.  The beach.  The mountains.  The desert. The sunsets.  I mean... damn.  But I miss public transit and walking between neighborhoods and world class museums, art, performance and music.)

Alan and Jesse met me for pre-interview dinner.
Yay friendship!

During the application process, I rested my hopes of moving back to an urban area on two faculty positions and one collegiate recreation position.  While the faculty positions seemed great, throughout my search process, my heart has stayed in collegiate recreation, specifically student development.  I'm still a little in awe of that the perfect position for me actually worked out.  I'm the new Assistant Director of Training and Development at Northeastern University in Boston.  (Not to be confused with Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, which was my previous full-time employer.  Just like University of San Diego, my doctoral institution, is not to be confused with San Diego State University, my part-time employer while I finished my Ph.D.  Maybe good things come in confusingly named pairs for me.)  In the position I get to supervise the student facility staff, which will be a great complement to my programming experience, as well as collaborate with all staff, professional and student, for a department-wide student development plan.  I literally get to take all of the leadership and organizational theories I studied in my doctoral program, collaborate with colleagues and students, and work in collegiate recreation to promote learning and community.  I am so excited for this next step.

#17 - Apply to a PhD program

I did it.

Not just one, but I applied to 3. And I plan to apply to 2 more next month.

I applied to the University of San Diego, University of Michigan, and Loyola University of Chicago. Next month I plan to apply to University of Texas - Austin, Vanderbilt University (Nashville), and Oakland University (Detroit).

If I get into any of the schools, I'll visit them and then decide. Well, I've visiting UM. That one was easy. Loyola would be a quick visit too. But the rest... if you live there, expect a weekend housing request!

Thanks to Rebecca Low and Nader Elmasri for this one. Rebecca has actually gone through all of this... including the whole dissertation and all of the stuff I can't even imagine right now! Impressive, girl! Nader is applying to his own program, so we did some chatting and I didn't write his essay.

#9 Go to a State I've Never Been to

I went big for this one... or at least NIRSA did! This year's National - Intramural Recreational Sports Association Conference was in New Orleans, Louisiana, a state I have never been to.

I'm not sure I have more to say than "Wow, New Orleans is a really cool town." (But I'll try.)

Great food everywhere. I ate fried pickles, a crawfish po boy, crawfish etoufee, seared scallops with watermelon carpaccio, a BLT (at a Best Thing I Ever Ate Place where I was supposed to have boudin but didn't realize it until later), a fried soft-shell crab po boy & fries, bread pudding, fried shrimp salad, crawfish-cheese bread, steak sandwich, poached eggs with crawfish sauce, fried alligator, fried mushrooms, more fried pickles, Mother's breakfast with fried eggs, grits, housemade sausage, and a biscuit with housemade rasberry jam, 3 beignets, half a dozen oysters, red beans and rice, and a crawfish boil. Yes, I remember all of that. I may be forgetting one meal. Such good food. I must have gained at least 5 pounds. We did notice that the only people don't don't seem to be loving life there are the food service workers though. We did not figure out why.

Beautiful weather. We were told it was freakishly nice, that it's usually warmer and stickier, but the whole week it was just beautiful upper 70's or lower 80's. I even got a little "tan."

Live music all over the place. It reminded me of Austin, Texas, in that way, but it was jazz and blues everywhere. Just lovely.

The architecture. We stayed in the Warehosue District, which was kinda cool. The French Quarter was just beautiful, particularly the little streets with those ornate balconies. Just really cool.

The shopping. The French Quarter was filled with little shops. Really neat little shops.

The art. There were local artists and street artists everywhere. I love that about some cities. I don't know why why don't have it in Chicago. There were some boring paintings, just NO scenes, and then there were quirky pieces that had a touch of voodoo to them. Here is a guy who painted doors. Loved it.

Bourbon Street. That place went from zero to hot mess in about... well, the time it takes for the sun to set. What a good time. Just smiling people drinking and dancing in the streets. It made for a disastrous first night for me but the other nights were late and just fun. 4am there felt like 1am here. I wouldn't say there were any really crazy stories, but then again, I have a lot of mysterious cuts and bruises, so who knows. Once place I really enjoyed was the Blacksmith Shop, built in 1712. What a cool place.

Lovely people. Go to New Orleans. Yearly if possible. It is amazing how this city has recovered from Katrina. It's just full of life and grit. The people there just seem to love everything about the place (except maybe ALL the tourists) and will talk your ear off about everything... if you ask. It was weird to get used to having people greet me everywhere. Once a pair of chatty homeless guys stopped Claudio & I just to say hello. People there were so friendly but had that toughness they would have needed to survive there.

The pictures here are just of people I know but they all contributed to a great week as did many, many others!

UPDATE: I managed to hit a few more new states, mainly Colorado. When Nader Elmasri and I drove to San Diego, Dan Lynch was nice enough to host us in Denver. (David Frantom tried but we didn't quite time the trip back correctly.) Denver was nice but smaller than I anticipated. The 16th Street Mall was quirky and fun... and I swear I can play at least a few songs on a piano! It's just harder when it's not my main instrument and it's completely out of tune. Boulder was full of hippies, just as I anticipated. Nader got to slackline there for some fledgling hippies who had just moved to Boulder from Battle Creek. Also, western Colorado is BEAUTIFUL.