San Francisco

Lordy, this is a great city. Every time I come here, I rediscover how lovely it is. And how expensive! We got here last night, and spent a relaxing evening in our hotel, recovering from the long flights. Today? Well, today was our play day.

We touristed the city: did the hop on, hop off bus tours of both the city and the Golden Gate Bridge, with Sausalito thrown in for kicks. I started noticing that my camera didn't work very well (or at all, after a while), so when we got off the bus, we dropped into a camera shop on the corner. Lovely shop, great guy, excellent salesman. He fixed my camera, then showed me how to make it better. And then better. And then he showed me a new camera that made mine look like something Fred Flintstone would like. And then he offered me great deal on the new one, and I thought "how can I possibly go back to that when I can get this for $500 off???" So I did it; bought self a brand new camera with a 60x zoom AND a fancy smantzy lens that i still need to learn how to use properly. He made it look so easy. Going from 8x zoom to 60x? Gah. Makes me want to go back down to Pier 39 and take even more pictures of the sea lions. These were with the old one.

With the new toy, I should be able to see whiskers...

Definitively Done, and On Track

On track to a new life. Still in Old Town, but that's drawing short as well. Wednesday we leave for our Alaska cruise - very exciting - and then, once that's over, a mad rush to the big Moving Day.

Alaska is going to be a joy. Three of my favorite people are going with me, we've got nice cabins with balconies (for leisurely morning coffee and evening wine), a full list of activities (none of which, for me, include the fancy-schmantzy doings on board, but do include hikes, wildlife walks, whale watching jaunts, etc.).  We leave from SFO, have a couple of days at sea before the activities on shore start. I'm hoping that those two days allow my friends to relax and get past the last couple of weeks which have, for them, been filled with trauma, stress and plain hard work. Me? Hell, I've done so damned little over the past two weeks that another two days of rest will be more of same.

Which, in itself, is rather lovely. Friday we did my garage sale; an experience I intend to NEVER repeat. Yeah, I made some money, but not enough to justify the hassle. And I still have stuff that has to be donated to some good organization - can you believe nobody bought some really nice bookcases? How odd.

There are boxes everywhere in my house; the stuff that hasn't been packed will be packed by the pros.  So there's nothing there that needs my doing it. So the pros come June 23 to pack, the truck will load on the 24th and J and I will take off for PNW Retirement Haven bright and early on the 25th with the dogs and bird. The cat will be flown up on July 9 by former critter sitter. By which time, if I'm very luck, all my stuff will have arrived and at least the cat box unpacked and readied.

Between Alaska and Move Day, I'm taking a SCUBA class, getting re-certified. That's been an interesting study as well: how things have changed! When I took the class in my 20s, it was all about formulae re: gas exchange and compression/decomp rates, reading dive tables, learning the dangerous wildlife we'd be encountering in a tropical fishbowl. This time, it's learning that the computer does all that stuff (except the dangerous wildlife), the jargon has changed, the equipment has changed a lot. So it's interesting and challenging. Really interesting to find that similar things still challenge me; I really thought that the physics would be easier for me. Wrong. However, I do know how to learn, and that'll get me through. The physical requirements are also doable, but will be harder on a body now 40 years older and following a long period of inactivity. From what the book says, all that I have to do is prove that I can exchange a regulator underwater, clear my mask, ascend/descend safely, swim 200 yards (no time limit) and tread water for 10 minutes. Know the hand signals. I can prep for all that.

I still consider myself an academic, just a temporarily displaced one. I do intend to keep up some scholarship, but to focus more on the aspects of it that truly interest me. I don't have to deal with scholarship funding committees, justifying how my research impacts my teaching. I don't have to attend faculty meetings, deal with venal deans and shortsighted students and misguided and rude administrators. Instead, I'll find all of that out In the Real World.

O. Joy.

Done. Mostly.

Okay, I am now semi-officially done. I've done my last class meetings, finished the presentations that I do instead of finals. All that's left is grading of (useless) exams and crunching/posting final grades. Then I am finished with Unnamed University in Unnamed City in Unnamed State.

I've gone public with this blog, hoping that some previous readers/commenters will find me again. I've missed that community so much.

Retirement from UU feels weird. Anti-climatic. After giving so much to them for 16 years - and getting very little except from the students - walking away feels both lovely and odd. UU is going through a hellish process now, which has effectively killed my department; down to 2 aging faculty members who've not changed the way they teach or what they teach in 30+ years, there is no way that they can offer a major or a real minor. Imaging a liberal arts university without the foundational fields, and that's what UU is doing. Closing language programs (can you imagine a SLAC without a French program???), core LA fields (sociology, history, etc.) and slashing both faculty AND staff. Half of the existing staff positions have to be gone by June 30. Nine faculty lines, plus the non-fill, non renewal of the visiting positions, non replacement of retirees - slash and burn the liberal arts. I am so damned lucky to be getting out.

My new house in PNW closed on time (wonder of wonders) and I'm moving up there at the end of June. It's gorgeous and civil and so different from life in the reddest of the red states. See?

Yes, those are snow-capped mountains AND a sunny non-cold marina. The snow and rain stay on the south side of those mountains, and I'm on the north side. Less rain than we get here in Unnamed State, no tornados, no 105 degree summer days, no -5 winter days. I'm super excited to get up there and into my new life.

I'm still doing lots of glass - nearly all fused these days. Here're some of my recent projects:

Making lots of earrings, pendants and sets. Anybody want some? I have a good sized inventory, good prices, and I can do special orders for colors, settings etc.!

I'm hoping to sell this stuff for some extra cash once I get moved. I love doing it and it's an incredibly fun medium to work in. I'm also thinking about doing some lamp work for special beads. I've done a couple of switch plates, trying to work out methods and limits. I'll be setting up something like Etsy, and will post that link here in case anybody wants to explore possibilities!

It's an interesting project, this move. Very different from what I've done before (and I've moved about 50 times, I think, since I was 18). For one, it's on my schedule instead of somebody else's, and that's a very strange thing indeed. Purging the personal library is another weird thing - I've always taken all my books, because I never knew what I'd need in the new place. I've spent 16 years here building a teaching resource library - won't need that anymore! So far, I've shredded nearly 100 lbs of documents; did you know that you can take things to places like FedEX and Office Depot for shredding? Yup. Very handy indeed, and it saved my poor little personal shredder from a death by over-use. I'm also purging personal items - furniture, clothing, dishes, unmatched glasses and cups, all kinds of things. Moving more animals than ever before as well; the dogs and bird will go up in the car with me, but the cat is going to have her own personal escort and go up by plane. I got a good price on a professional move - complete with packing - so most of the ugly stuff will be done by the pros. Packing the kitchen and studio are going to be somebody else's problem! But that also completely simplifies my life, because they'll do all that the day before they load the truck, so I can live fairly normally until then. 

So I'm ready to move on. Getting up the interest and energy to grade those last bits is a bit beyond me right now; I'd much rather do other things (like glass, read, nap, play with the pups...). 

Will I miss academia? Probably. I will certainly miss teaching, and am going to try to find some adjunct spots up in my new area. I won't miss the petty politics, the power plays. I will miss my friends terribly. My house and garden, the latter of which has been just spectacular this year. But part of the enjoyment I'm having with the garden is that it's my last spring here; what I've done has come into its own, it's what I wanted it to look like when I started - and that feels lovely. Time to move on.

Happy end of term everybody!