The Process Begins?

The spouse found a job listing that actually matches up to the incredibly specific field he's been working in, is in a foreign (but English-speaking) country, and for more than one year.  He is actually applying!  I will admit, I'm really fucking horrified that this is the first thing he's applied for.  I know that throwing out resumes willy-nilly isn't the best strategy, but it sure does make your spouse feel good.  I need to see/hear progress, even if it's not really anything.  But I shouldn't get excited until he actually sends it off.  I'm married to Hamlet-- think, think, think! I wish he was a little more do, do, do! but I love who I married. 

The end date for applications is really soon (end of the week) but he found out they are looking for someone at least before mid-spring.  That gives him plenty of time to finish up his PhD.

Have I explained this problem? You have a person who could finish a degree, but once he's got his degree, he loses the income from his teaching assistantship.  So he persists, languishing a bit, until he can get his hooks into a job and quickly defend.  It's a horrid limbo for him, too. Not yet finished with his degree and not yet job-holding, but having to do both at the same time.  Lucky for me, an English degree is an automatic launch into the same waitressing job you've been holding down. Voila!

I have freaked out about prospective job prospectives before. I thought we were moving to the East Coast and started looking at apartment prices, then California, more East Coast.  For a long time I was so sure we'd be going to Europe.  I look up jobs, housing, how people dress. It's just a coping mechanism, though, I don't get my feelings hurt.

Because he never actually applied anywhere.  I hope this is his slumpbuster and it gives him some renewed confidence.  It's hard to see the person you love and admire start to burn out.