Turning 29 is kind of funny. It's that age that people older than 29 pretend to be turning when they don't want to embrace their actual age. It's so common, I kind of feel like I'm lying when I say "I'm turning 29 today." It's like: people who say they're turning 29 just aren't telling the truth. Because most of them aren't!! Anyway, I'm looking forward to turning 30 next year, because 29 is just awkward. It has this built in ageist angst to it that I just don't like. And I think I've always been spiritually in my 30s, anyway. Even when I was a kid, and especially when I was in high school. Not that I was all that mature or anything, it's just more how I've always seen the world. Or so I presume.... (Having never been in my 30s, myself.)
Many wonderful people have been wishing me a "Happy" birthday, and I've been doing my best to oblige! This morning I woke up at the usual 7:30am, but I awoke slowly, with the sunlight rather than with the alarm clock.
Geordi (my cat) jumped onto the bed and lay on my chest, pawing at my face for a few minutes, which is something I find very annoying when I'm trying to sleep, but which I found very endearing this morning as I lay there enjoying the quiet of the morning.
I decided to come into campus today and actually do a little work. I don't teach on Wednesdays, so I could've taken the whole day "off" if I'd wanted to. But one of my favorite things to do is to spend time with people, and since Jefferson had to go to work today, I wasn't about to sit around at home when there were plenty of cool people to hang out with at work. So I came into
the office and did some work, which was of course peppered by wonderful phone calls and
Twitter/
Facebook catching-up with people. I went to a tasty
lunch with my friend and colleague,
Caroline, and then to coffee with another friend and colleague (and fellow
Lew-hyphenator!),
Casey. Just a little while ago, yet another friend and colleague (and by "colleague" for all of these I mean fellow PhD student who studies language/linguistics),
Stacy ("
Stacina"), brought by some handmade cupcakes! I also got to chat on
Skype with
my dad, who's currently over in Guangzhou, China, for work. So yeah, I did do some work today (which I'm quite proud of myself for doing), but all-in-all this day has been more celebratory than anything else. And I am
totally okay with that.
It's been so long since I've posted here. I guess now's as good a time as any to tell those of you who don't know me in "real" life that I got recently got a job! It's a 2-year
Mellon post-doc at
Oxford, joint in
English &
Linguistics, with both research & teaching duties, starting this October. So yeah, I'm moving to the UK! And I'm gonna graduate this summer.
No more Ling"GradStudent"! It's been quite a journey; thanks to all of you for coming along for the ride.
Comments (7)
So happy for you about the job - that's going to be such an amazing experience!
You know, I never thought about the implied falsity of the age 29. Hadn't even considered it. I'm very blase about 29 - I never really thought about being 28, I think I just lumped 27-28-29 together as "late twenties" so I'm not anticipating a big change. How is it so far? ;) I'll join you in a mere six days!
@livibair Thanks so much! Though I've still got a few more months -- I'll be back in September to REALLY celebrate.
You know how it goes!
@Obsydyon Thank you! Yeah, maybe it's just the people I hang out with (or see on TV?) who say their 29 when they're in their 30s... it's probably not actually all that common. 29 is pretty good though, I have to say. C'mon down!!
CONGRATS !! Oh man; at OXFORD!! Now, you can't go away from Xanga; I'll have to live vicariously through you! And I'll have to tell you ALL of my favorite places!! I'm so excited!!! And Happy Birthday!
Oh wow! Congrats on the postdoc! And of course happy birthday. We need to catch up! I only just took the plunge and joined Facebook but I haven't even set up a profile yet...
Hey, congratulations on your post-doc. How exciting! I'm cantab, so I'm rather fond of Oxbridge and anything associated with it.
Thanks for post. It’s really informative stuff.
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