More Developments

Things are happening fast and furious. I received a call yesterday afternoon from my dean that the contract was ready for me to sign. It specifies that I am to receive a one year sabbatical at 75% pay, as well as be eligilbe for COBRA for a year and a half after. I got the call when I was working at Barnes and Nobles. Just before I had been contemplating the possibility of keeping my on line course, which could under the worst case scenario provide me with a small yet steady income. So after the call I sat out and wrote a letter asking, no demanding, I be given the on line course. In retrospect, I could see it was a foolish thing, that put that way once the agreement had been made, he was going to say no, although I think if I had made that a stipulation when the offer was originally made last spring it might have had a chance. So after receiving the call and writing the letter I went to the doctor and got some xanax.

Anyway, I received a letter from the Dean this morning (it was actually written yesterday) flat out refusing the offer. My instinct was to write him back a short reply, "Then I am sorry to have troubled you" and showed up at school on the first day of class. What was it Camus said: "There is not fate you cannot overcome by scorn." So this is a question I have to consider. Do I really want to do this, and by this I mean quit? I think subconciously I made the offer because I knew it would be refused and it would give me a reason to back out. And speaking of backing out, one interesting thing is that the contract itself has a 21 day clause that I can back out of i, which is nice.

So these are the thoughts that fill my mind as I sit in Starbucks. I spent last night camping out by Anderson Lake in Ogden Canyon. I have no place to stay right now, the few things I own are in storage. So I plan on alternating between camping and getting a (cheap) hotel until I make my decision, which had better be pretty soon.