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April 27, 2007
So Many Things
I realized yesterday evening when I posted those pix of Polyphemos "watching" hockey that I hadn't posted in almost a week. Which is a far cry from the days when I would sometimes put up multiple entries per day. Part of that is because I have a lot less time now to poke around online and to write for my blog.
I don't recall who said it, but I once read, somewhere, "Teaching expands to fill every available moment of your time," which is certainly true in my case. I'm still new enough at the game that I'm not yet sure of how to juggle and balance having a life with being a college instructor. I also received a good piece of advice from one of my (many) department heads this semester, "If you are working harder than your students, you're doing something wrong." That makes perfect sense. So I'm trying to even things out and figure out what changes to make so that next semester I don't miss a hair color appointment and only realize it three weeks later when I call to ask when it's scheduled. (Which is the story of my morning. I thought the color was wearing worse than usual.)
The other reason for my lack of posting is simply that though many things have happened to me in the last week, many of them are not my stories to tell. While I am clearly fine with spilling my own insecurities and embarrassments in public in an attempt at self-exploration, I'm not at all comfortable with publishing the lives of my students and fellow human beings. They're not my business, so they certainly aren't for public consumption at my hands. In other words, my life, by itself, has been pretty low key this week. All of the interesting stuff has happened to other people.
Though I could tell you about my cold. The horrible, horrible cold that hit on Saturday and started lifting on Wednesday. I could share with you the story of the snot waterfall that coursed over my lips and down my chin as I put my contacts in on Monday morning. I couldn't blow my nose at that point because my hands were clean. I needed clean hands to insert the lenses. So a river of snot gushed out of my nostrils, coursed down my face and dripped off my chin into the sink. (That's a story you really wanted to know, yes?)
Or I could tell you that I started writing on Wednesday in the first full-sized notebook of my own making. It's 50 pages. Coptic bound (rather badly bound, but I only figured out how the knots worked about halfway through) and it's a joy to write in. And now that my new papers have arrived, along with the weekend, I can spend some time making another one for when this book is filled. Which will happen in about two weeks, if I continue at the pace I've been working.
I could also write about the fact that I've done more work in the yard in the past three weeks than I did most of last summer. Or that I've begun making plans to climb a mountain (okay, hike a seven mile trail) in the Sawtooths with a good friend this summer as a way to celebrate being 40 (though I won't be until September) and being alive. Or how I've started figuring out how I can make this summer better than last summer in terms of self-image and also getting things done. And how I plan on repainting almost the entire inside of the house (someone else will paint the basement stairwell) and transforming the yard. And possibly beginning my year of training to reach Master Level in Reiki. All of those things have been part of the last week for me, though not the largest and most significant part.
Of course, first I need to grade all of the final papers and speeches my students have done so far. That's my plan for the day, though the sunshine beckons and the yard needs weeding. So many choices, so many options, so many duties. And the semester is almost over. Good gravy, where has the time gone?
Posted by sally at April 27, 2007 10:15 AM
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