I dragged myself out of the house and into the bitter chill, overcome by the desperate need for a walk. The sky was cloudless and brightly sunny. My need to leave the house was incentive enough to go to campus for a workshop which the Italian department was sponsoring, entitled "Getting that job!" They'd invited five of their past graduates back to campus to share their job-finding experiences and respond to questions. Despite all I've been reading on job-finding, I did learn more about the process from this workshop, which certainly made it workwhile. Tips included the tactfully appropriate way of finding out what kind of letter your referee will write for you, especially when there are several people in a given department applying for the same job; the realization that I could look through MLA job postings as well as the history posts; and a great deal more information on hiring from the perspective of people who have been on many hiring committees.

I've been meaning to have more to do with the Italian department for as long as I've been here, but never did more than attend the occasional talk. This time, I chatted with a number of people, including panelists. My business cards even came in use! One of the panelists said she would investigate the possibility of inviting me to her (relatively nearby) university to give a talk! I talked to people working on Ariosto and hypochondriacs, among others. It was time well spent.