Sunday, May 30, 2010

Hello Bakersfield

This past week I got a job offer from Bakersfield College. It is a tenure track (permanent) position, pays really well, and is located two hours from my family, the beach, the mountains/snow, and Disneyland. Some folks don't think much of Bakersfield, and it has the worst air pollution in the country, but we are quite excited. The population is 320,000 so it is big enough to meet any needs (and close enough to Los Angeles for any eccentric wishes) and like any town that size there are good and bad parts. The community college looks to be in a nice part of town, i think, because I found a massive country club nearby and lots of other parks. Maybe somebody who knows Bakersfield can tell us more. I've also been looking at the cost of housing and found that it is actually VERY cheap to buy a home there, so that is a double plus. I'm so excited to settle down a bit--no more moving town to town every couple years. Of course, I'm still working on publishing my dissertation and other articles so that I will have options to go to a university when the market recovers, I hope. But if we like it there, we could stay for a long long time.

This offer came by phone while Jen and I were taking Abby and our niece Brynley to Disneyland. I already had an offer from Brigham Young University to teach for one year, but that position would not be permanent so we were pretty nervous about the uncertainty of the next year. This position in Bakersfield is a real blessing.

Also, Jen has been dutifully making a photo book of our trip to Mazatlan (last month), so she has been too busy to get new photos on the blog. Rest assured, she is nearly done with that project and will soon get photos posted here from our trip to Mazatlan, graduation, and this most recent trip to California.