First of all, good-bye UT! It took me (with the help of my amazing sister) 2 hours to clean out my office at UT after 9 years of employment. Enough said.
After my experience at UT, I have been looking forward to life outside of academia - getting more massage training, moving into lymphatic drainage work, doing work that tangibly helps people. One of my friends died of cancer last year, and I was giving her massages through the end of her life. While it was one of the most difficult things I have ever done, I felt truly humbled and honored by the experience.
So that was the plan. I bought a house (while I still had a job on paper) - yeah!! - and was getting ready to file for unemployment. Then a week after I closed on the house, I got a call from the University of South Florida in Tampa, inviting me to work as a Visiting Assistant Professor for this coming academic year. It took me less than a day to decide to take the job :)
Here are all of the great things about it:
*my dear friend Michael Foley teaches there
*it's a great program with really talented dancers, strong in both ballet and contemporary
*I am somewhat familiar with the program since I have taught master classes, and performed in the Tampa/St.Pete area in the past (thanks again to MF)
*it's a 10 month contract - at this point, I have major commitment issues with academia -
*I'm getting paid more as a visiting faculty member than I got paid after 9 years at UT - without having to negotiate
*I get to be a part of a new (to me) and thriving dance community, and start dancing for myself again
*I get to hang out with Jim Reese et family
I also found a really great apartment about two hours after I got off the plane when I came apartment hunting - with an original Murphy bed!! For those of you who know Tampa, it's on Davis Islands, in a quiet building built in the 20's. I can't wait to get on my bike and discover what my new neighborhood has to offer!
What has happened to my newly purchased house in Austin? My friend Olivia is moving into it with her husband and Mr. Snoops while I am gone - pretty amazing timing actually. They are returning to Austin from LA, and at least I got to spend a few weeks with her before I took off. BTW, if anyone needs a Pilates trainer, let me know and I'll give you her number. She's awesome!
My last weeks in Austin were crazy - having to move out of my apartment that I lived in for 9 years, organizing what to keep, what to take, and what to throw away. Thankfully I have an AMAZING sister who came down (without her three kids - thank you Alfredo!!) and saved my ass. There is no way I could have done it without her. Truly. She not only helped me pack, but organized everything so well that I could say, "Where is the corkscrew?" and she would pause for a moment and reply, "It's in your blue packpack." This happened a number of times with little items like that, and she was right EVERY time. I keep telling her that she should go into business moving people - she's that good. I even asked her last night, "Did we pack the light from my bedroom nightstand?" And she said, "Yep. It's in one of the boxes sitting in the closet in your bedroom." In Tampa.
So we packed up her SUV and my car, and headed up to DFW for a few days so I could hang out with my mom and some friends before leaving Texas, and she could take some more Tang Soo Do (Korean martial arts) classes before we headed out for Florida. Part of the reason she was driving to Florida with me, with her three boys, was to attend the international Tang Soo Do competition being held in Orlando the weekend after we arrived. She and my two oldest nephews were competing in forms, breaking, and sparring - she's an orange belt and my nephews are green belts. So we drove two days to Florida, unpacked the cars, and had a day to chill before their competition.
The competition was AWESOME! I was taking care of my littlest nephew while they were off competing in their various events, so I didn't get to see it all, but my oldest nephew won 1st place in all of his events, my middle nephew got 2 golds and a silver, as did my sister. Amazing!! There is nothing like seeing little kids begin to understand how hard work can lead to success - they were so excited and we were all so proud of them!!!
After the competition, I drove back to Texas with the family, spent one more day with my mom, then flew back to Tampa on Thursday.
So here I am, officially a Tampan for the next 10 months.
