Well many things, but mostly looking for work. I'd churn out application after application. The stats worked out this way for five months of searching. Less than 20% of the applications would receive a response. Less than 10% requested an interview. Of the interviews? One offer, and certainly not what I was originally looking for. A job as an adjunct instructor, teaching in the spring semester. That's what I get for searching in the off-season.
Not all was lost. It was the first time in years I actually had something akin to vacation, enough time to walk on the beach, be with family, and occasionally write or do something useful. So I was glad to have it. I was able to take the money saved from the Texas job and put it as a down payment for new vehicle, a shiny red Jeep Renegade with 4 wheel drive. A good thing, because it helped me get my summer job. But it's rough in limbo, not knowing how things are going to turn out.
After the holidays, the search was about a month and a half. Only 11 applications sent out. About 70% of the applications received a reply. About 36% of the applications resulted in an interview. Of the four interviews, I received three job offers. I took one, and am now all set to work in the summer field season. I guess December-January is magic time.
So, I've been teaching since January. Nice side effect about having a M.S. degree, it qualifies you to teach at a community college level. I've been teaching two classes the basic Environmental Science course at a local college. I like being able to introduce non-major students to a lot of sciences and issues. Biology, chemistry, ecology, energy use, pollution, politics are all part of the course. Maybe my students aren't the most studious (they have lives outside of school), but on the most part they show genuine interest and ask a lot of good questions. It certainly requires a lot of hard work, especially this first time around, but I find it very satisfying. It only comes out to part-time work and it pays peanuts, but I'm all right with that for now.
