also:

I cut off all my hair again!

And for free as well--hurrah for loyalty cards.

To be honest, I'm mostly excited about not having to use so much shampoo and conditioner now; it was getting a bit excessive.

well, it's begun

I had a fantastic time back in the States, going to J's wedding, partying and catching up with old friends and meeting new ones, and then going down the California coast before relaxing a bit at home. But now, it is back to work.

I have sent in my first postdoc applications. I hope I did an okay job on them. The opportunities are very exciting! And start very soon, so at least I will find out whether I'm in or out very soon. One of them is particularly intriguing, and will let me work on exactly the things I want to work on, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that one.

I'm also flagging up applications for things starting up next fall. It's all very...daunting. The pressure of more immediate deadlines is at least keeping me distracted from the vast amount of competition that exists in the States.

...LOVE ME, UNIVERSITIES, PLEASE LOVE ME.

Other than that, it's article-writing time! I've got a thousand words down on Danny Boyle and the London Olympics, and feel cautiously good about it. It's very refreshing to be working on something that doesn't have a huge canon of scholarly attention looming behind it. I can actually read all of the things do with it in a reasonable amount of time, which is strange and wondrous. I am rediscovering the pleasures of working in cafés. Also, journalism is generally much easier to read than long tomes on Goethe.

Also, I just booked tickets home, and for the first time, registered myself as 'Doctor'. British Airways immediately sent me a confirmation email addressing me as Dr K. This was disproportionately thrilling.

Ta for now--I went to Hadrian's Wall this weekend, which was good fun, but I haven't processed all the photos yet, so those will be up as soon as I get a chance to do that.