Accepted again

What a difference this 2 weeks have been compared to the last year or 2. Two weeks ago one of my articles was accepted and..... Now my second article (the one with the 80 revisions) is accepted as well. That means I now have 3 published articles, of which 2 experimental, so I am definitely eligible for defending my PhD. Now I only have to wrote three more chapters, a general introduction, conclusion and thank you section, and I can pick out a dress. And apply for a new job. Oh how I long for another job. This teaching job is nice and though m many practical things for any career in any industry: I have (re?)learned a load of writing skills. I know ho to wing a class without preparation. I know how give a talk to 50+ people without a moment of stress. I also know how it feels to be paid 50% when working 80%. I know how it is to be paid a wage that is insanely low. Why are they paying uni teachers that small amount of money. Only the passionate people will remain, and these people are burning out as we speak... How it is to correct tests, essays and reports for 4 weeks in a row (still busy on the last 23 reports). I know how it feels to teach a class that the responsible senior staff person did not care enough about to write a teaching guide. So you have to find out all sorts of relevant stuff out yourselves. Such as when is the final test. Do the teachers have to be there. Are rooms reserved so I can actually teach etc etc? This person also takes 2 weeks or more to answer questions on for instance these essays that needed grading 5 days before (s)he answered e-mail, so junior staff fixed the problem themselves...well sort off. Feels like constant tip-toeing through a mine field. I also know how it feels when the senior is in fact determined to commit to the junior teachers and hands you a complete booklet on who/what/where plus a mobile number in case of problems, and fixes problems and answers emails in less than an hour. Plus sends you power points for you to work with on the hardest parts of the courses without you asking. And answers questions on some general stuff you needed to know in order to solve issue in another course you give. Feels like a warm bath, and gives rest. Deadline for the draft of thesis is 3 months. 3 weeks per article. I still need to do all the data analyses. Sigh. Again a deadline I can not make :( But I will try, oh how I will try...

in the end

What better way to end this clusterf*ck of a year with all these things going wrong (family getting cancer twice, family addicted, family rehabbed, family suicide attempt, hubby gets hernia, closer family depressed, personal misery due to miscarriage, family getting two herniae (hernia's?) and hubby getting robbed [and I have this feeling I am missing something horrible that should have been on this list, well a good thing that I can not remember what]): ONE OF MY ARTICLES IS ACCEPTED. This means that I can start writing the other chapters of my thesis, and I guess it is safe for me to say that in 2012 I WILL DEFEND :) (*knocking off on wood. Please reader, do the same, let's not jinx this, I have not enough room for bad things left to continue this epic cluster of trouble in 2012, so let's knock on wood together, okay? Promise me you knock...)