The Happy News thread

[justTripn]

I've been stuck at home for 5 days!!! The snow started Friday evening. The snow is up to my knees undrifted. It is really hard to clear the roads when the snow piles fall back in the road and make slush and ice. And now it's snowing again. Our office is CLOSED! We are having three snow days in a row at work: Monday through Wednesday!

[Alelou]

That's a blizzard with second helpings. Hope this one doesn't pile on too much more.

I remember in NJ that after the blizzard of 96 (I think it was), it was three days before many things opened again. (Luckily we didn't get hit with storm number two at that point.) But not my job, unfortunately. Bless your office for staying closed. We re-opened on day two. I remember it took an hour and a half to make what was usually a 10-minute commute. Just getting my son to his day care was traumatic, never mind getting to the office.

[honeybee]

I was a twenty-something living in NYC during the blizzard of 96. I hiked from my little Lower East Side apartment up to Gramercy and met my bff for coffee. No cars on the road. The bridges and tunnels were closed. So you got a real sense of how few people live in Manhattan as opposed to come there every day for work. It felt empty. Very good times.

This morning the sun is shining and the storm is gone. Skies are clear. The city is still shut down, but I hope I did my last walk shove for awhile this morning. It's going to be a mess when this starts to melt, but at least the worst seems to be over.

[Linda]

Wow all you 'thirty somethings' are making me feel way old! Yeah, but I can still outrun my teenage granddaugther to the ice cream vendor in July when he comes rolling down the street playing Turkey in the Straw (til you're sick of it).

Of course right now I am shuffliing over ice patches on the sidewalk, hoping I won't take a fall - just like all the other old ladies are doing.

[justTripn]

Linda I am very jealous that you can outrun your teenage granddaughters. No grandkids yet, but the kids overtook me pretty quickly in every single sport.

I got into work today! I dug out my car yet again amidst a new snowstorm still in progress. *shakes head*

[Alelou]

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010 ... l?hp#/all/

If you like to see snow pictures, here are 482 shots the NYTimes has collected from readers. They're mostly very lovely (but I gave up at #182).

This seems to be a new trend that's really taking off. ABC News seems to end all the exciting weather days now with excerpts from the more exciting youtube videos out there and youtube-style videos from their own snowbound correspondents. It's charming, but it's a real departure from what the news used to be. I suppose it's a kind of attempt to provide a national Facebook experience...? Is this a good thing? Or is Peter Jennings rolling over in his grave?

[Linda]

Those photos of the N.Y. region are lovely. Every time I visit relatives in upstate NY I think it is the loveliest place on earth. Maybe that is because I grew up there. I am beginning to wonder if humans have a built in homing instinct like salmon do.

I think we need the Vulcan Science Academy to send a team to investigate this idea.

JT, um, your kids are male and Vulcans to boot, remember? Of course they can outrun you. They are taller than you, but my granddaughter is only a quarter of an inch taller than me.

[honeybee]

So, thanks to being plowed in - I took a personal day off work today. I'm now plowed out - but wow, it's a MESS out there even though the snow stopped Wed and it's been bright and sunny for two days. At least mail got delivered.

BUT the GOOD NEWS - is that my panel proposal was accepted for LONDON, baby. I'll be flying off to London on my school's dime (partially at least, I think the trip will cost more than the cap) but then I'm going to hop on the train and head to Paris for a few days. I haven't been to Europe in years - so this will be fun.

[Alelou]

That's wonderful! You'll have a great time. So is that a whole semester? A year? Will you be teaching?

[honeybee]

No! I wish. It's just a conference for a few days. My university does have a summer program in London where profs can teach. I didn't get my act together to apply this year - but in two years when it's offered again I'll give it a shot.

Teaching for semesters can happen, but only after you are tenured.

[Silverbullet]

Honeybee, enjoy London. I did but that was 43 years ago. Lot has changed since then. But still there will be Hyde Park and Speakers Corner. You can go Heckle with the rest. Royal Albert Hall, British Library and Museum. Of course you will wnt to go to Oxford and Cambridge. You might want to go tourist and watch the Changing of the Guard at buckingham Palace. Look for the Flag if you do. That means the Queen is there.

Of course, when I was there London was the place to be. Worlds biggest Paarty was going on. Mini and Micro skirts, Carnby Street, Chelsa, Dance all night, work all day, sleep when you could. I was 30, single, hd my own apartment and my litle Red Wagon (64 1/2 Ford Mustang) Jingle in my pocket. I honestly thought I had died and gone to Heaven.

[Alelou]

Eh, even better -- all the fun, none of the hard work.

Judging from my paycheck today, they overpaid me last semester or something else is screwed up. It's down a hundred bucks. That's not fun when adjunct pay is already so shitty to begin with.

I really should just work at Target.

[honeybee]

Silverbullet, you might have run into my parents in swinging London. Before I was born and they were first married, Dad did a year at LSE. Mom, who wore the go go boots and micro minis with a hair flip. I've spent some time there, so I'm going to hop on the chunnel after the conference and go to paris.

Ah, Alelou, the hell of being an adjunct. I remember it well. I was in Mississippi, which has one of the lowest costs of living in this country, and I was suffering. BTW, do you live anywhere near PA? The state colleges in PA have unionized faculty - so instead of adjuncts they hire salaried temps. I moved here BECAUSE of that. I miss being a temp. No annoying committee work, decent pay and benefits. Time off.

[Aquarius]

honeybee--when do you go to London?

So jealous...

[Alelou]

I doubt I would get hired at a state college, with no publications to speak of. And cc adjuncts in PA have just as rotten a deal -- one of my good friends is a former prof from one.

Any rate, I'm fortunate that 1) my husband has a decent state job, and 2) I refinanced the house. So we can afford this sucky pay. It just pisses me off. At least HVCC does hire from the adjunct pool, though I'm probably too old to have a real shot at it. A lot of colleges would never even consider it.

My best shot is probably to get a staff job. I applied for a marketing communications job on campus last year and they couldn't believe I'd be willing to settle for less than $35K a year with my salary history. Maybe after they see me working for $16K for a year, they'll finally believe it! Though I'd still rather be teaching in the classroom than anything else.

What this really all comes down to is that I have to publish a friggin' novel. Which probably will never happen, but that's what I'll turn back to over the summer. Maybe when it's just for job security instead of any actual literary expectations, I'll be able to handle all the near misses (and wide misses) more philosophically. I think I also need to fit in some more feature articles for the local paper. Of course, that's probably the only thing around here that pays even worse than adjuncting.