A close call

A policeman yelled out to me on my way to work today. I think I was doing somewhere between 40-45 mph on a 35 mph speed limit. I slowed down, of course, and luckily he wasn't on his motorcycle. Still, I better find a job soon before I get a speeding ticket.

Speaking of which, I had an interview at MIT for a position to teach undergraduates how to write. It was a strange interview. I previously had a conversation with the director (although it was mainly comparing our experiences in California and Oxford), and my PhD is from MIT, so there wasn't too much more to say or ask. And since I know one of the lecturers (the husband of my former advisor, Tania, who is on the faculty committee that oversees the writing program), I kind of expected to be challenged in order to rule out favoritism. But I wasn't challenged. The question of why I wanted this job didn't even come up. One thing that struck me was their encouragement of new ideas on teaching writing to engineering and science students who are more used to problem sets. Encouraging new ideas - that's something that is certainly lacking at J&B. They actually want to get rid of the ability of downloading pdfs on the website!

I haven't heard from Cell yet - they'll be making final decisions this week. MIT will get back to me in two weeks. If by some freak chance I actually get offered both jobs, I'm not sure what I would do. The position at Cell is unique yet familiar - commissioning and editing review articles (kind of like what I do now! Only I would be at the cutting edge of science) - and may open up other career options. I don't know whether such an opportunity would arise again. But then this morning, I realized that the MIT position may offer the same pay for only NINE months of work. Plus I would have the flexibility of writing my own stuff (not that I have anything lined up right now, other than this blog) AND making a cafe my office! A no brainer?

Whatever happens, I hope it happens soon because this road rage is going to get to me one day. Just when I bypass an infuriating slow car at a light, I feel like I race to the next slow car or traffic light. I've gotten pretty good at remembering which lights have lanes wide enough to do that. This is almost as sad as recent lunchtime conversations about the best route to take to and from work.