What is New With Joe?

I know you are all wondering, what is new in Joe’s life? And if you aren’t, then I guess you don’t have to read this, but I will try to make it as brief and interesting as possible (Teaser: There is a surprise twist in #3 that I bet you didn’t see coming!). So without any more waiting, here are 3 three exciting things currently going on with me:

1) I am going to Cleveland to see the family at the beginning of July. The more exciting part of that is that Abby is coming with me, and this will be my parents’ and extended family’s first chance to meet her. I know they will love her as well, but it will great to already have that first encounter behind us. Furthermore, I love you FL, but we are in that 6-8 week period where Ohio weather is actually better than Florida’s. So I am going to soak up that mild sun with medium humidity!

2) Academic job openings are start to come out again, so I get to check the posting websites everyday and imagine the places that I may live. This portion is particularly excited because it doesn’t have any of the work that the application portion has or any of the anxiety that the interviewing portion has. Right now it is all about the possibilities of what I could teach and where I could live, and not the “holy crap I really need to get hired somewhere” that will likely come later.

3) Finally, I have an exciting announcement to make: I am going to attempt to do standup comedy. It is definitely just going to be a hobby at first, but I have started to put together what I think is a pretty decent routine. I think it is something that I could be pretty good at, that will be fun for me to work at, and actually includes some skills that I think will help me with my teaching. I am tentatively looking at some open mic nights (prob either July 9 or Aug 6, depending on how ready I feel), so I will keep everyone posted. I may also be asking some of you to attend a special first screening so I can practice in front of an audience.