Red State good things...

A week from tomorrow hubby and I will go to Big Red and only I will come home... in order to try to stay upbeat about this, because hubby is excited, nervous, scared, happy and sad all at once -- I'm going to write post about the good things about him being gone... this one is about the good things connected to Red State.

1) Traffic -- they think they have traffic jams there when it takes them more than 20 minutes to cross town. They really don't know what they are talking about. We plan our trips according to missing rush-hour. We watch the news for word of construction etc.. and avoid those areas. I lived in Red State for 9 years, they don't know traffic jams... I commuted diagonally across the whole metro area in 30ish minutes. It often takes me longer than that to get to BNCC, which is on my side of town. I'll put traffic in the Red State wins category for sure.

2) Friends and family -- This is kind of a wash as both of our mothers live here, but we've only been gone for four years, so most of our friends are still around. I have a wonderful aunt and uncle who live in Red State and another uncle who visits a lot because his sweetie lives in Red State. We have lots of friends down there -- and they are people I miss hanging out with and bumping into... so getting back there will be good. In Red State you bump into people much more often simply because the city is so much smaller -- there are only so many things that people like us like to do, so even if we don't plan it we end up seeing people often due to concentration... here we almost never bump into pals because the area is so spread out.

3) Hair --- I have "challenging" hair... it is curly and wild and going gray even though I am only 37. I hate my hair and dread getting it cut because I'm perpetually afraid it will get worse. In Red State I can get a good haircut from people I know have been trained well -- because I scheduled their training (someday I'll write a whole series about the beauty salon industry...). A really good friend of mine is also a fantastic stylist with her own place... so I know I can get a good cut and color from her. It will cost me about $120.00, but it will be well worth it -- if only she needed philosophy tutoring or something we could work out a trade.

4) Restaurants -- even though BNCC is in a much bigger metro area, most of my favorite places to eat are in Red State. The best Indian food in the world yummy , my favorite innovative pub food delish.., and several really good Chinese places that don't have websites... These places are also easier to get to, easier to get into etc...

5) Money -- basic stuff is often less expensive down there.. .and big things are usually less expensive. For the rent we pay for a big but very basic apartment we could rent something really nice down there. The housing market up here is really inflated, so our slightly lower salaries will buy a lot more down there. Also, we have lots of professional pals we can call for some free advise.... I can think of lawyers who specialize in almost everything we'd need, a couple of doctors and some other assorted profesisonals who would help if we needed it... and not charge us a buckt of money. Also, hubby will be making an actual salary down there instead of the gradstudent stippend. I have a feeling that at the lower tax rates, lack of union dues and other things, even though my gross is significantly higher we'll bring home the same paycheck. This will be nice -- really nice. if I can get a similar job down there, all will be VERY nice -- but that remains to be seen.

6) My departments -- I can't quite say this is comletely a Red State wins scenario as I'm tenured at BNCC, but I think once I have my dissertation more fully developed, I'll be likely to get interviews as positions come up. I was an adjunct down there at one school for about 3 semesters and another school for about two years. I was there long enough for them to know that I can teach without causing uproar among the students, but not long enough that they know they'll be able to keep me as an adjunct forever.

I was finishing my grad classes when I was teaching there, so I'm not the perpetual adjunct in their minds. Further, I won't move to be an adjunct --- or, at least I'm going to make them think that -- so if they want me on faculty they'll have to make me a good offer. If I can generate a dissertation (long distance) while teaching a full CC load, they'll realize that I can both do research AND teach their lighter loads and not freak out.

It also doesn't hurt that hubby's department is owed a favor by my department at hubby's school -- and that I was also a good student of the department chair of the other major school... (i.e. the only student to finish his course one semester). This scenario is really odd, because both hubby and I could easily end up teaching at our undergrad schools...