Straight Dish

So many of you were wondering what the bad news in the de la Paz household entails.

It's bad.

Meredith was laid off and then replaced at a time when Western Washington University's President called for campus-wide hiring freezes.

We went to the union to see what our options are and basically because Meredith is a non-tenure-track faculty member she did not have sufficient union protection.

I do want to thank all of you who've e-mailed me via back channel. We're working on our financial situation and we should be okay. We'll just need to cut back a lot.

I go up for tenure and promotion next year, so that may provide a bit of a bonus in salary depending on the situation between the union and the administration.

Additionally, some part-time work is cooking up here and there in the English and Linguistics department for Meredith.

We'll be okay.

I must say, though, that I'm composing this note using a great amount of restraint. . .