The Beginning of Summer Freedom (and Penilessness)

My last class at U#2 was Monday and my last one at U#1 will be tomorrow. But I still have five exams to give and grade (three starting tomorrow, two next week on Wed & Th), that's why I'm saying this is "the beginning" of my summer break, but not quite yet.

rant coming:

It's really, really irritating that people (acquaintances) always make a point of saying that teachers/professors have "all this time off" in the summer. I tell every single one of those commenters that, sure, it's great to have time off, but I also don't get paid a penny and I'm pretty much "unemployed" in the summer. And since my kids are off school, it's hard for me to get a job (which would probably be teaching a language class somewhere -- Ive given up offering summer classes here at U#2 -- no students register).

Another reason why I cannot get a summer job (because of the kids) is that my husband, who is the "real" (tenure track) professor has to work all summer because that's when he can get research done, grants written, etc. Most importantly, his students do research and he needs to supervise them  -- even if he has no grant and no summer salary to speak of like it happened last year and this year. He can take two- three weeks off in August (and a few days here and there), but he's busy the rest of the summer. If I ever get to have a "real" job too, I'm also supposed to be writing and doing research all summer too -- hopefully I can get grants and go travel and do research somewhere, but it's not "free" time -- it's research and work time!

So, yeah... hopefully someday I'll have a real job and maybe even summer job or a research grant summer thing... something! Someday! In the meantime I just have to resign myself for not having a paycheck until the end of August and the very end of September (U#2). I get pretty sad when I get my last paycheck in May -- it's pretty depressing. Sigh...

I know, first world problems. I know I'm lucky I at least have a 9 month a year job, right? or two  almost-jobs...