Nest rhymes with Breast (revised post-hangover)

I suppose it is natural to find one's self a bit reflective after the turn of a new year. Though I offer no resolutions, I can say that, after thinking through the trajectory of this last year, I do have some plans and re-adjusted foci for '07.

Work:
I sent out 45 applications and received no interviews. Though I do not feel demoralized, I do think that I need to up the ante even more this year. JD reminded me that her first two years on the job market did not yield a single interview, and she came out of Duke! That said, she and I are devising strategies for the coming year: publications, finishing the diss, continuing to be active in my fields, etc. I am meeting with her on Monday. We will talk about my plan to finish the first draft of my next chapter by mid-February and will work on getting two separate publications out for consideration before my research fellowship begins in April. Dane and I will walk in June and I will submit my diss then if not in August (I can still walk in June even if I submit in Aug).

Home and Nesting:
I've been thinking a lot lately about how the digital age allows all of us to distance ourselves from one another; the internet offers an avenue for human contact that does not necessitate emotional intimacy.

This is not for me.

I say this, of course, with a keen awareness that this blog allows others to know what's happening with and to me without actually having to engage me in any way. I also acknowledge that I love reading my friends' blogs and look forward to new postings! So, I am not saying that this type of medium is "bad" or should be scrapped, but there needs to be something to balance it all out. Rather than relying solely on the internet for interaction, I hope you know that it is your calls and letters/emails and visits to my little space that I most look forward to.

And so I feel nesting coming on. Not as a defense against anything, but as a way of cultivating interiority that includes inviting good people to move about in my space. Dinners, movie nights, scrabble matches....No anxiety, just the ease that comes with drawing good people close to you. The desire to nest is very much in the air, I think. Perhaps it comes as a natural progression out of lives that are far too packed with work and expectations.

I'm reading like mad and starting to shape my chapter on Eva's Man. I'm also reading this great biography on Edie Sedgwick (and realized that she is related to Catharine Sedgwick, of " A New England's Tale" fame) and slowly getting through Foucault's Pendulum, which now feels so overly Sisyphisian that I am not sure when I will ever finish it.

I had a fantastic New Year and I hope all of you did, as well!