The Last Minute Crowd

Anastasia has an interesting post up that describes her frustration with colleagues that procrastinate on tasks that directly affect her job. I can sympathize. We probably all can as there is always someone who has a task that is high priority for you but low priority for them.  However Anastasia is talking about a real clash in work personalities and she finds herself in the minority.  While I don't think I can match her organizational abilities, I've lived my life getting tasks done ahead of time and have found the rest of the world doesn't.

Many people can get some work done on time.  It is interesting that for some it is the high priority tasks and for others it is the low priority tasks, but either way they aren't late with every deliverable. And I will admit that there are times when I procrastinate.  For example, there are times when I could get grading done in one week but choose to take two weeks.  I also tend to complete my reviews for journals the day they are due when I've had them for several weeks.  Sure I could have done them early but they are rather low priority for me.  I am rarely late with a deadline.  Instead I tend to feel that being on time is being late.  

I was the type of kid that did her homework at lunch or on the bus/train going home from school.  I was surrounded by people who did their homework on the bus/train going to school.  These are the "last minute crowders" [LMCrs].  They are everywhere and they drive us crazy.

I worked for one for many years.  He wrote a lot of grants.  Grants have very hard deadlines.  Those of us who worked under him used to beg and plead for him to at least start the process a month before they were due.  Often he would have me develop a budget for something he hadn't even conceived of yet.  It was busy work.  If we were lucky he would start a week before the due date.  I pulled a lot of all-nighters in the job.  This was back before there were electronic submissions and we would need to hire special (very expensive) couriers to make sure the multiple copies arrived in time because we had missed FedEx's last pick-up.

I gave birth to a LMCr.  Angel and I rarely fought when he was growing up but when we did it was almost always around getting his homework done.  It is very hard for me to understand why someone would wait on a task, particularly a task they don't want to do, instead of getting it done right away. I don't like the feeling of having a task hanging over my head but Angel seemed far more comfortable with this feeling.  He was often able to forget about the task completely or at least until the night before it was due.  And maybe that is where the difference lies. 

Touch Typing

I was thinking about the post I wrote last month where I listed the five most important decisions of my adult life. While these are certainly the monumental decisions, it feels like there have been dozens of small ones and each of those have ended up making a large impact in my life.  One such decision was to learn how to "touch type."

I had the opportunity to learn when I was in middle school.  It was one of the electives we were offered. I remember at the time thinking there was no way I'd want to type.  It was so secretarial. Instead I took sewing.  I'm not sure how that was any better but I ended up making a toy daschund, which I gave to my sister.

Fast forward a few years and I landed my first job.  It was in retail and I was a cashier.  I was only on a register for a few months when they promoted me to the "back office."  Most of my responsibilities revolved around counting money, making change and answering the phone.  Still it was fun.  I liked my colleagues, was usually pretty busy, and felt important.  There were some internal politics and I ended up getting highly offended.  I quit in a fit of righteous indignation.  The next day I realized I didn't have a job or the money to pay the bills.

So I found another job.  It was also in retail and I was again in the back office.  This time I wasn't counting money but doing even more meaningless tasks.  The owners were horribly racist and I was miserable.  I decided I needed a real job, which to me meant an office job out of retail.  However all of those jobs required I pass a typing test first.

This was still in the days before personal computers so typing as something you did on a typewriter. I had an old manual one I used to henpeck out my papers for college but that wasn't going to cut it. So I enrolled in a class at the local YMCA.  I remember sitting in a dingy room with banks of big clunky electric typewriters.  The instructor would have us type some inane sentence (the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog) and you would hear everybody's keys clacking away.  I tried hard to get a rhythm for it in the 4 weeks of the class.

By the time it was over I wasn't fast or particularly proficient but I did have the keyboard memorized.  I applied for many jobs, went on several interviews, and did really poorly on all the typing tests.  I finally did well enough to land a job in a manufacturing department of a publishing firm. Ironically, that job eventually opened the door for two of my sisters to get positions and each of them met their husbands in the company.

My boss was incredibly patient with me.  I typed all of 40 words a minute and most of the words contained an error.  The bulk of my job was to type up orders, which came in sevenplicate.  This meant that when I made a mistake I had to white out all seven copies.  My boss would look at my mangled orders, sigh and sign them. I was supposed to practice my typing during my down time and I usually did.  We had a lot of down time and I made friends with the woman across from me.  She was a writer and we would each type out long letters to one another (or she would type stories and I would type letters) since we were supposed to look busy and not talk too much.

Eventually I improved but by the time I did was promoted to a position that didn't require much typing. I kept it up anyway. When I finally left that job, my speed and proficiency at typing tests landed me several other administrative jobs.  In most of them my typing tasks were minimal but my accounting skills were well utilized.  I was now counting money on spreadsheets.  It is interesting that I never had to take a math test.  My bookkeeping skills were always assumed.

Of course now it is completely different.  Everyone has computers and everyone types.  All the typing I do know is straight from my head to my fingers (a far more efficient system to be sure).  But it was that silly typing class and overcoming the obstacle of the typing test that set me on my way.

On Being A Committee Member

I am on way too many committees this year.  While my service committee membership has increased substantially with the award of tenure, that's not what's dragging me down. Unfortunately the real problem is all my own doing: doctoral and masters' thesis committees.

At the beginning of the year I thought I was on 10.  This seemed like a lot to me and when I mentioned the number I was met with looks of shocked disbelief, pity, and humor by my colleagues.  Turns out I'm really on 12: I miscounted by one and then discovered one I had forgotten.  The one I forgot is for a student in another department.  I agreed to be on the committee my first year at SouthLite.  The student was ready for the proposal defense and was in a bind.  She had to scramble to reconfigure a committee due to a number of situations outside of her control.

She defended and barely passed.  Her topic is interesting but her proposal had several gaps. I gave feedback on revisions and then never heard from her again.  I honestly thought she had dropped from the program.  Fast forward 4 years to this past weekend when I received an email while I was on vacation requesting availability for the final defense in 2 1/2 weeks.  I've yet to see a finished product but have been promised it 2 weeks-to-the-day before the defense.

Two weeks is, in my opinion, a bare minimum for sending around a proposal or finished dissertation, especially one I haven't looked at in 4 years. Today I got a request from another student for a proposal defense date two weeks from today.  Again I have not seen a draft and it looks like the earliest I could expect one would be the end of business tomorrow.  I find this unacceptable.  I think I would have allowed it previously but in the next two weeks I need to: route my grant, review a manuscript, review two sets of internal grants, and participate in a doctoral defense in addition to my normal teaching and administrative duties.  My days are so chock full of meetings I literally have no time to review anything in between them.

Of the 12 committees that I am on, I am the outsider member for 7.  This, I now realize, is insanity.  I mistakenly thought the outside member would have less work, or at least no more work, than any other member, excepting the chair.  In most cases this has not been the case. Worse yet, for the committees within my department, I am chair on 4 out of the 5.

I find being the outside member particularly difficult.  It takes me several hours to really review a proposal or finished product and give good feedback.  Often I end up questioning the methodology, not because it is outside of my field but because it is incorrect.  I am never too sure if the advisor/chair left the student to his/her own devices without proper guidance or if the advisor/chair thinks the methodology is appropriate.  My university is one that is "growing its research abilities and infrastructure" and, to be blunt, some of the departments are weaker than others.  In my own department I (a) am more confident of our methodological abilities and (b) know what to expect from my colleagues in terms of how they do or don't mentor their students.  As the outside committee member I am uncomfortable being the person that needs to hold the student to a higher standard of rigor, but have ended up there several times already.

I know one of the reasons I am asked to be on committees is because I take the job seriously. Students know if they give me something to read I will give them thoughtful and detailed written feedback.  I'm not saying my colleagues don't take their roles seriously.  I think it is more likely they aren't very good at giving feedback and/or when pressed for time they read drafts quickly. I've been singularly unimpressed with some of the questions that are asked during comprehensive exams and defenses.  I am not mean and I don't ask trick questions but I am thorough and I press students to think through issues.  Most of the time it is appreciated and I enjoy doing it but it takes a lot of time to prepare for an oral examination or a defense.  I don't think students have a clue just how much time and effort it takes and if I had only one student a semester I wouldn't think about it either.

RBOC: School Daze

• The semester officially starts next week which means this is the week o'meetings.  Monday I had my first committee meeting.  Tuesday we had our full day faculty retreat.  Today was: the Chancellor addressing the faculty and staff (State of the University); an awards ceremony (where I officially received my Teaching Excellence Award); and then a school-wide faculty assembly.  Tomorrow I host my first orientation as the Doctoral Program Coordinator. Friday I have a lunch meeting with students.
• In addition to meetings, one of our doctoral students is taking his comps and part of my new responsibilities is proctoring the exam.  It is not a lot of work but requires me running across campus several times a day.
• I really appreciate getting the teaching award and everyone's heartfelt congratulations but standing on stage in front of the entire university while my merits were read was really painful and stressful for me.  
• I also had to dress appropriately and now have blisters on my feet.
• I ended the day with a pedicure and felt much better about it all.
• I spent last week moving into my new office across campus.  I've moved in with two of my favorite colleagues.  We went "shopping" at the university surplus warehouse and picked up some cool furniture for our offices and the main reception area of our suite.
• Except for hanging my prints, everything is unpacked and fixed up.  I haven't had much chance to actually WORK in my new office, but I'm enjoying it immensely. 
• b and I are continuing to get up every morning and workout at the gym.  This, and the fact that I already have a reservation at the beach for Fall Break, may be the only things that keep me sane.
• There is much drama going on at the university, school and department levels this year.  It is all about changes in leadership and structure and much of it is tied to an upcoming budget crisis.  
• Most people really don't do change well and academics, in particular, make it a point to resist change on principle. 

Assessment Workshop

My summer break is starting a little late this year.  I volunteered to participate in an assessment workshop for our General Education Program. By volunteer I mean I'm getting paid.

The workshop runs for two weeks.  We meet from 8:30 to 4:30 every day (actually most days we get out by 4 at the latest) in a remote campus that is outside of SouthLite city limits.  This means I need to drive to the workshop every day.  Normally I walk to my campus and rarely am I on campus 5 days a week.

We have completed the first week and already I have learned a lot.  Here are some highlights:

1. I am grateful to be an academic.  This business of having my work and time scheduled for me and being in the same room with the same people every day really bites.  Yes I know it is the reality for the majority of people employed in industrialized nations and for many years it was my reality but now I know better.  While academia is far from perfect, we have a pretty sweet deal and I can't wait to go back to it.
2. Assessment is not grading.  Ok, so I actually knew this before I took the workshop but the Powers-That-Be don't seem to realize that I know this and feel the need to say it every few hours.
3. It is really hard (but not impossible) to assess students' writing when you are not allowed to mark the page.
4. Assessing 20 student papers a day--from assignments you didn't develop and in disciplines you know nothing about--blows.
5. Just because I am now eating meat again does not mean I should refrain from ordering the vegetarian option on a catering menu.  I am amazed how frequently I forget that saying you eat meat means saying you eat bacon when you live in the south. (And yes they are feeding us at this workshop, something I know does not happen for the majority of the workforce.  Nor are the majority of the workforce being paid at the daily rate that I am receiving--yet still I complain.  That, my friends, is what academics do.)
6. People believe you can teach someone how to write in a class or two outside of their major and then students will magically come to you with the ability to write clearly and concisely, display critical thinking skills and correctly use and cite the literature in your field. This is convenient because then all you need to teach them is the content of your field.
7. My friend (who thankfully volunteered for the workshop with me) and I can solve all the problems in our department just by taking daily walks at lunch.
8. Stag beetles are quite unattractive and a little scary looking.

9. The remote campus is really lovely but not as large as I had imagined. 

Seeking Help

I never cease to be amazed at the difficulty I have asking for help. I know it is a huge stumbling block for me, both in my career and personal life. I don't know why I hate it so much but I will do anything to avoid it, even when I know ultimately I can't.

I just spend two days procrastinating because the only next logical step for my grant application was to ask for internal and external reviews. I get asked to review work all the time. I know it is a given in academia and that people generally do it if they can. No one likes being pressed into service when we all have our own work to do, but we all do it. But it took everything I had to compose the emails and then hit send.

sigh.

At least its done. Now the worst case scenario is they say no and I'll have to find other people to ask.*

*Actually the worst case scenario is they say yes but don't do it and then I have to nag them.

It's All Over Except For The Certified Letter

Wednesday I got the notification that my tenure decision has sailed through the Provost and the Chancellor. All that has to happen now is for the Board of Trustees to rubber-stamp it and send me the official notification--through certified mail. That should happen sometime this month.

The tenure process is so long and drawn out that each milestone seems uneventful. I barely mustered a smile when I read the email (it didn't help that I was courting a migraine). However it seems this particular milestone is the one that "counts." The head of my department send an email to all faculty stating that both myself and my colleague are now tenured. I've been congratulated several times over--through email and in person--ever since.

Don't get me wrong, it is great to have job security (especially in today's climate) and to have the support of my colleagues. I treasure both and I love my job but the news is anti-climatic and it is hard to celebrate. My life is no different from one day to the next. It feels less like an event has happened and more like an event has been avoided. Nonevents (not losing your job) are hard to celebrate.

It will be interesting to see how much and in what ways tenure makes a difference in my life. I do believe it will, as I have seen it with others, but I don't think it affects you the way you think it will when you are working towards getting it.

In other news, Angel is supposed to be coming tomorrow to move out the last of his possessions. So April begins with me officially becoming an empty-nester with tenure. It seems like I should now have enough time to do something really remarkable. Is it wrong that all I feel like doing is lying in the sun with a Guinness and my hubby?

RBOC: Update Edition

• Work for the next two weeks will consist of nothing but meetings, reviews and grading. Ugh!
• My department is beginning an assessment of our doctoral program. We have not yet reached the 5-year mark with the program but have noticed several ideas from our initial proposal have not panned out the way we expected. Mid-course corrections are important and good but it's getting hard to stay committed to the process as the semester rolls to a close.
• The potential third piece of family bad news did not come to fruition. We are all relieved.
• Unfortunately that doesn't take away from the crapification of the other pieces of news.
• Most of the trouble has resolved around finances and employment. The majority of my family can be classified as the "hidden unemployed."
• Hidden unemployment has been discussed as a indicator of the nation's financial health but I haven't found as much discussion on the lack of resources available to the individuals themselves. When an entire family is hit social capital is destroyed.
• We had a wonderful time with Angel on his birthday.
• Last night we bought our Christmas tree. It is a particularly lovely one this year. I'm hoping Angel can come up next week to help decorate.
• Pumpkin has been accepted to graduate school for the spring semester. She'll be moving to a neighboring state on January 2nd. We are very excited for her.
• While cleaning up some files I realized I have 12 manuscripts under review. This may be some kind of record for me.

RBOC: Migraine Edition

• Woke up this morning feeling really awful. I was convinced I'd finally caught whichever of the nasty bugs that are going around SouthLite: my body ached, my throat was scratchy, and my head was both foggy and hurting. I took some Vitamin C and Motrin and headed off to the office. About halfway through the day it occurred to me to take my migraine medication. It worked.
• I have a bunch of posts that have been running through my head this week but with a migraine the best I can manage is this RBOC post.
• One of the posts I've been thinking of involves my love of a certain tea. I drink this tea all winter long. I drink this tea whenever I'm on a diet. I drink this tea when I get migraines. It is currently rainy and yucky outside; I'm on a diet and I have a migraine but I have no tea.
• I've been out of tea for almost a month. b has been valiantly checking our local natural food coop for the latest shipment every week. Two weeks ago he tried to order it online for me (I also take this tea with me when I travel and desperately wanted it for my conference trip) but no luck--distributer is all out.
• I fear my tea is being discontinued.
• My favorite bra was discontinued many years ago and I have not been the same since.
• Pumpkin, b and I got into a conversation about being particular. I am convinced I am the most particular of the three of us. b agrees but Pumpkin does not.
• Angel got negative feedback from both this classmates and his teacher on his poem. He has to revise it and both he and I disagree with the suggested revisions. While the poem can use revising, my feeling on the suggestions is that they show a lack of understanding of the poem.
• One of the suggestions was to not label the man in the 4th stanza as "black" but to find another way to describe him. It was implied that to describe the man by his race was racist. I find it disturbing that college students do not understand the difference between racist statements and descriptions of racism.
• Tomorrow is the last day in the semester that I actually have to teach my classes. I will still have another week and a half of class meetings but they will be spent listening to presentations. The thought of not having to prep another class until January is very comforting right now.
• This entire week has been taken up with other people's needs. End of the semester is a very needy time and while I'm less busy then most (due to how I plan my classes) I don't want to spend the time I have on other people's agendas.
• Pressure is growing on me to take on an administrative task in the department. I've effectively put it off until tenure is official but I'm seeing that it will be close to impossible to avoid it completely. Soon my strategy needs to turn towards negotiating compensation.
• Having administrative talents does not equal wanting to do administrative work.

Conference Bound

I'm sitting in the airport, enjoying free wifi, and waiting to board a plane to the City of Brotherly Love. I think I'll be renaming it the City of Sisterly Love as I will be seeing all my "girls" at this conference. This is the largest conference in our field and it is pretty big. Not only are many of my colleagues from SouthLite going but so are a fair number of my students. Two students just left on an earlier flight that was delayed but my flight is on time and filled with 4-5 undergraduate students from my department.

I have a lot going on at this conference this year: 3 posters (2 being presented by students or former students) and 3 papers. But more importantly it will be an opportunity for me to spend some quality time with A-Girl, Sparkle and leaningtowardsthesun.

Looks like we're boarding. I hope to keep you posted on all the conference excitement.

InaDWriMo 2009 Begins

InaDWriMo 2009 begins today and I haven't written a single word. InaDWriMo is the academic equivalent of NaNoWriMo and you can learn more about it over at Brazen Hussy's place. The rules are pretty simple: pick a writing goal (most choose number of words but there have been other ways of quantifying your writing in the past) and track your progress through the month with a handy-dandy writometer (see above). Each Saturday we post our progress over at Brazen Hussy's blog.

Last year I failed pretty miserably. I had three encyclopedia chapters due by December 1st for a total of 7500 words. I forget how many words I managed but in the end I pushed the deadline until January 15th. This year I have one encyclopedia chapter due on December 1st for 1500 words and 3 papers to finish. You are allowed to count revisions but quite frankly that seems like a lot of work. Also not all my "writing" results in written words, therefore I'm going to set two goals and hope I can make good on at least one. The first goal, as depicted in my wordmeter, is 5000 words. My second goal is to engage in the academic writing process (including analysis & reading of the literature) for 21 out of the 30 days in November. The 21 days covers the number of weekdays in the month this year. Of course I'll be allowed to write on weekends (in fact that's when I normally do the most of my writing) but this will force me to spend a lot more time writing during the week, since I'll never accomplish my second goal by just writing on the weekends. It will be particularly difficult since I'm going to a conference for 5 days in the middle of the month and I rarely write while I'm at conferences.

Wish me luck.

Survived Another Thursday

Thursdays are my killer days this semester. Today started with a 9 am meeting with a consultant (paid by the training grant that is funding me this year--which is a godsend in many ways) to give me feedback on my grant application. This was my first meeting with this woman. Several people have told me how wonderful she is and I'm happy to say they were absolutely right. In half an hour she gave me more concrete and helpful suggestions (along with an edited hardcopy) on the application than anyone else has given me in the past 6 months I've been working on it. What she suggested made perfect sense and completely solved a problem I've been struggling with for a while now. She wants another draft by December, which is totally doable. Due to changes in NIH guidelines I have to cut the grant in half. She told me to only cut what I think is absolutely necessary (about a third she said) and she will tell me where to cut from there.

She also confirmed that the grant is going to hinge upon me and my partner getting several papers out and accepted. She feels this needs to be a push in the next month (along with the grant edits and you know, my normal work). I have two that are pretty close and my partner has another that is also almost ready, so its doable but we're going to be busy. The good news is that this woman also edits papers and encouraged me to send her a draft.

I was supposed to meet with my student research team directly after the first meeting. However I cancelled it the day before because I wasn't prepared for them (which makes me feel awful since they did all their work and were totally prepared for me). Worse yet I was supposed to use the meeting time to get ready for them but had to use it organizing the papers I graded last night and getting back-up for all of the plagiarism.

I then taught my doctoral class at noon. This class has been going well. I have a really enthusiastic and bright bunch of students. Luckily I had prepped a class with a lot of individual and small group work, so I did some of the work for my student research team while they were doing in-class assignments. The bad part was that this was also the day their papers were due, so now I have another stack of grading.

I teach my undergraduate class immediately following my doctoral class. We actually had a fairly interesting discussion that ended with Roman Polansky. Believe me when I say it was relevant to the topic. However only 2 of them were aware of the case and I believe only 3 or 4 even knew he was. Undergraduates have a way of making you feel old right quick. At the end of the class I had to read them the riot act about the state of the papers in general and the plagiarism. They all looked generally shocked and, even my A students looked nervous until I actually handed them out. I told them I would be posting mid-term grades this weekend and that more than a handful will have to decide if it is in their best interest to stay in the class. Needless to say I had a line of students waiting to talk to me at the end of class. I think I may have busy office hours next week.

Dealing with the line of students and the fact that I had no cash to pay for parking (I don't normally drive to work so often forget about the need to pay when I do), made me late for my childbirth class. Fortunately/unfortunately this turned out not to be a problem because for the second week in a row it started approximately 1/2 an hour late. I have to say I love the idea of being a doula but the training has mostly been painful. It makes me really sad that this is a model program for teen moms but even so it is not the program they deserve. To get through it I put on my researcher's cap and take mental notes.

I'm finally home, waiting for b who is working late, drinking a beer and ignoring the fact that I have no dinner plan.

The Agony of Grading

Just finished grading papers from my undergraduate course. I required a first draft and gave them extensive feedback. Here are a few stats:

• 5 out of the 35 felt handing in the draft was optional (it wasn't)
• So far it seems 4 out of the 35 think handing in the final is optional
• 2 students fit categories 1 & 2 above
• Of the 31 I received, 6 were plagiarized
• Approximately 1/3 of the papers were either excellent in the draft or improved--maybe not to excellent but still substantial
• Not counting those who plagiarized, a handful actually got worse and many stayed the same.
• I offered extra credit just for visiting the writing center between the draft and the final--6 took me up on it.

Tomorrow they get the bad news. The last chance to withdraw from the class without penalty is fast approaching and I'll be encouraging several to do just that.

The Single Life

b is away this week. He is UpNorth with his family. We email and/or IM daily. Angel is at school and I assume things are going well because I haven't heard from him in a while. Pumpkin is obsessively studying for the GREs--although not a day goes by without a text message, phone call, IM, and or brief face-to-face visit with her. So I am quite connected through technology but otherwise quite alone. I have to say that so far its been rather enjoyable.

Unfortunately I am completely swamped at work and had a computer snafu this week that set me back even further. [I VERY stupidly upgraded to Snow Leopard without checking for compatibility first. For those mac users out there, Snow Leopard is NOT compatible with SPSS 17--or 18 that is coming out soon--or Parallels. I need both of these to do my job so I had to go back to Leopard and, while I thought I backed up everything first--yeah I didn't. Luckily I am able to recreate everything that is important but it is a pain and time-consuming.] So a lot of my alone time is spent working to catch up, with no real chance of getting a head.

But what am I doing to entertain myself? Mostly I am watching TV (Netflix has brought TV back into my life in a way I totally didn't anticipate). I'm catching up on old seasons of Brothers & Sisters before Season 4 begins next week. I'm working my way through Dead Like Me, which unfortunately won't take too long. And Survivor started this week. I also visited my local used bookstore and I'm currently reading Anne Tyler's The Amateur Marriage. It has been raining here for most of the week but today is actually cool and dry (so far) so I'm off to take Pupzilla for a trail walk. Its been a long time since we've done that together.

Observations At The End Of Week 3

• I can talk for an obscenely long time and with great passion about research methods.
• The workload generated from having a doctoral program multiplies exponentially each year.
• There are some students I simply adore and admire so much that it is extremely difficult for me to be objective. This probably does them a disservice.
• The line at the "Starbucks-Friendly" coffee shop will not decrease until all classes cease. At that time I'm sure it will be closed.
• Being a "favorite" professor is detrimental to one's research career.
• When you give good feedback, people want more feedback; when you don't give feedback, people want feedback. People are feedback hogs.
• A week without faculty meetings is sweet but does not necessarily increase my productivity.
• Overhead while walking across campus (young man talking into his cell phone): ....to relieve your anxious little mother mind....

Getting Back To It

I've been back in SouthLite since Sunday and its been difficult getting back into the work groove. Its been a very long time since I went 10 full days without working. I didn't even think about work throughout the vacation (ok maybe a little on the last day or two). I left everything in good shape so I wasn't coming back to a mess or any problems. In fact, I've come back to a number of projects I am really into and only one or two that are a chore (cough-tenure packet). However I find myself procrastinating in front of the computer. I'm reading blogs, following tweets, and looking up obscure questions on the web (btw, no one has a good answer for why men are warmer than women).

I finally made it into the office yesterday. My students were scheduled to come in and work so I had no choice but to be there. I love working with my students. The three of us cram into my small office. (Behavioral scientists don't get lab rooms and equipment for their students so I literally have to give up my computer and desk space to allow them to work.) They are each working on a separate project and I worked on a third. It makes me feel incredibly productive--like I've cloned myself. By the end of the day I was exhausted.

Today I'm back at home and hope to get a few things accomplished. I think I will reward myself with working on the poem analysis paper if I get one tenure packet assignment completed.

Coherent Blog Post

I haven't had a coherent blog post in a while. Looking over my last several posts I realized they have been all lists and bullets. I've had a few ideas and started writing a real blog post once or twice in the past week but nothing has managed to stick. I blame it on the end of the semester and the encroaching summer break. This always feels like a schizophrenic time of the year.

I'm feeling very in-between. I've finished one grant and am about to start another--as soon as the semester ends. I've got one paper ready to go out--as soon as co-authors respond--and another I'm about to start--see end of semester comment above. I've all but finished current grading but am waiting for final papers/presentations.

On the home front, Angel came home late Thursday night. He moved half of his belongings from school, stayed until last night, and is back at school to pick up the rest of his things and say good-bye. It seems that will take him 3-4 days. Once he comes back, he'll look for a job here and, if unsuccessful, will head Up North to his dad's. So currently we have no idea how long he will be with us.

Graduation is in two weeks and there are many events--work-related and social--that must occur in that period. Shortly after graduation I have a trip that will be half-work/half-pleasure. I'm trying to fight the feeling that I need to wait for this all to be over before I can settle down into some serious work. There's a good chance there may not be a settle-down time, at least not for a month or two, and then the summer will be mostly gone.

RBOC: DONE! Edition

• Today I finished my grant. Its not completely out the door mind you--still waiting for a letter and several levels of signatures and then the scary electronic submission process--but for my purposes I'm done.
• Last night, due to miscalculations in formatting, I discovered I had 2 extra pages worth of space. This meant I had to fill it. However, since I was worried about being OVER the page limit the entire time I was writing, the end product was incredibly "tight." This meant I had to fill the space with equally tight and meaningful content.
• I was tired and wanted to be done with writing. b did point out that filling 2 pages was a lot better than having to cut 2 pages. Gotta love that man.
• I watched some TV and then stayed up writing until 1:30. Surprisingly it read rather well this morning.
• I'm supposed to go to the dojo tonight. We haven't been all week but I really don't want to because I'm DONE (as in the stick-a-fork-in-me variety). All I really want to do is sit in the backyard in the sunshine drinking Guinness.
• Tomorrow we're headed out to my state's fun city in the mountains. b has a brief event in the evening but we'll be walking funky streets and eating out in charming restaurants the rest of the time.
• I have my heart/stomach set on lobster mac & cheese.
• Its a 3 hour drive to fun city; I'll be grading papers in the passenger seat.
• Today my son called me and asked me to give him a brief synopsis of tai chi. It seems his roommate's mother was on the other phone and had some questions (I'm assuming she is either taking classes or wants to take classes). Since Angel is the martial arts authority in his school, all questions go to him.
• Its not easy giving a tai chi sound bite while making the final edits on a grant, but that's what mothers do.

RBOC: This Semester

• The semester is in full swing now. It is only 3 weeks in and I'm already counting the days until summer.
• Although I'm counting the days down, I am really enjoying my classes. My elective class, which I've taught twice before, is going beautifully. I have what feels like the right number of students and they are all interested and engaged. They have lots to say and class time flies by.
• I am teaching a required class for the first time. So far the prep hasn't been a killer but that may change. This is a methods course and 2/3 of the students can't relate to the methods. I'm actually having fun trying to engage them.
• There has been a lot of administrative work to do in the department. This is neither good nor bad, just a fact of life right now.
• I have many exciting research projects going. I think I'm counting the days to summer because I want to spend all my time on them.
• I was managing to stay ahead of all work before I went away this weekend, but between the trip and the local conference, I am now swamped. It is likely the beginning of the end.

RBOC: End of Semester Edition

• Others may be in grading jail but I go straight to grading hell.
• I am currently grading 30 final papers but will have over 60 essay exams to grade by the end of the week.
• Today was a full-day faculty retreat (who holds retreats at the end of the semester???? Before grading is over????).
  
• The retreat was held in SouthLite's nicest hotel but no breakfast was served and coffee was scarce.
• Tomorrow we have a half-day retreat follow-up....at school....no coffee or lunch.
• Friday I have a full-day committee retreat.
• My affiliated department is trying to hire a faculty member before the semester ends. This week there are two presentations and a vote.
• Saturday b won a very special award at work. He was nominated and picked by his colleagues. He received a very nice watch and will be going to one of our favorite cities out west in the summer. I'm planning on tagging along.
• Saturday was also Angel's birthday. He turned 19. We visited him at college, took him out to dinner and then met his frat family at a semi-formal event.
• I miss him.
• Tonight we bought our tree. This coming Saturday we'll be trimming it....bittersweet.