It'll Be Tomorrow Soon Enough

*** Don't forget, there's a giveaway going on HERE for $50 to The Leather Hide Store.  You can enter everyday. Mariah - Out! ***

Oh lovelies.  Tomorrow is coming.  Fast and quick and unrelenting.

In other news, if my dog doesn't stop whining, I might cause him murder.

Back to the point, tomorrow.  Tomorrow is big and heavy, I don't know if you knew.  Tomorrow, I hop on a plane and head to the Great Cold North (GCN).  And I do mean cold.  Super cold.  I recently acquired a handy little box that tells me the weather, and it told me that today the high here would be 56.  Chilly, but definitely do-able.  Then I looked up the GCN and saw the phrase "Near Record Lows".  

And then I cried.

Real tears.

Because while I've been hearing tale of your cold winter, you northern people, I haven't had the misfortune of experiencing it.  I'm totes not ready.  I need to find, like, pantyhose or something.  This isn't a trip for leisure; I've gotta be Business Mariah while I'm up there, which is a great segue to my reason for taking on such a harrowing journey.

Job interview.

GULP.

For those of you not in the Academia bubble, this isn't an "be here at 11:15 sharp" kind of thing.  Nope.  I'm locked in for 24 hours, although there is some time penciled in for sleeping/power point revisions, whatever seems more important at the time.  After dinner the night before, we've got breakfast at 7:30 (for the love!) and then back-to-back meetings with other faculty members, until I give an hour-long research talk, followed by lunch at the school (managed expectations: check) and then more meetings until 3:00 when I give a 40 minute sophomore-level lecture to a room full of PhD's (potential for awkwardness - moderate), to be finished with an exit interview, a drive to the airport, and a quick "don't call us we'll call you".  But hopefully, they mean it.

Just the right size for my cards and phone.
I call it the Airplane Wallet.
If I close it, it looks like a bad eye-glasses case.
Because that's how I do.

Its tiring just to think about.  I'm combating my rising level of nervousness by sewing myself a new wallet for the trip, cleaning my house for my in-laws (who are driving down here as I'm flying up there, take that two ships passing in the night), writing to you, and thinking about getting around to packing.

My biggest concern is that I have to brush off a language that I haven't used in a good long while.  After years of fighting my predilection towards talking math in public, I now have to re-become fluent in Nerd.  Apparently I undersell when I give research talks, shooting more for "relate-able" and less for "impressive".  While this has served me well in the classroom, it's not what potential employers are looking for.  They want the academic version of lady on the street, freak in the bed (which makes me blush just to write, but you know what I'm saying, right?).  They want simple talk in the classroom, but fancy talk for research.  My game plan is to watch that John Nash movie on my first flight tomorrow, then channel my inner mathlete on my second flight and revise my slides.

I've talked about this a little bit before, but in that vague way.  There is so much changing, so many different options and shades of options.  I've discovered that there is a thin line between trusting God and apathy.  I'm flirting with it.  I'm definitely going to give it my everything this week.  I'm going to Nerd them so hard in the research talk, and I'm going to charm them with my examples and wit when I lecture.  I'm going to be pleasant and excited and congenial, because I do think this would be an awesome job.  And then I'm going to let the chips fall.  Because God's got this, and after I do my part, there's nothing else to be done for it.  Apathy or faith, I'm not sure, but is it important?

So now I've procrastinated long enough for the diapers to be done in the washing machine so that I can switch them to the dryer before bed.  I still haven't packed, which is growing in importance in my mind, but still seems like it could wait a little bit.  Think of me tomorrow, dear ones.  And then tomorrow's tomorrow, because that's really the big day.

<3 M.