After long struggle, with numerous setbacks, I have at last gotten myself entirely caught up on Lost.
That is all.
(No, seriously: that is all. That and making a big pot of red beans. It has been a lovely, lazy, non-traveling weekend. And now I’m working really hard on not panicking about the week ahead. Off to do some reading.)
Yesterday’s travel was relatively painless, and generally productive; I managed to get the batch of project proposals that I needed to comment on done, which felt like something of a triumph. And then, miracle of all miracles, I came home and paid attention to my non-work life. I cleaned the house. I went grocery shopping. I cooked. And then I went back to work.
The beauty part is that I’ve effectively got a one-day work week: classes and meetings today, and that’s it. And no traveling—I’ll actually be able to use the Thursday-to-Sunday stretch to get some long-delayed tasks done, and perhaps even to get a jump on next week.
And maybe to write something. You know, with the thoughts and stuff.
Traveling weekend number four of four begins with the red-eye Wednesday night. This leaves me—or left me, in any case—approximately 72 hours between getting home from Chicago and heading off again. In the interim, I need to:
– Teach five classes.
– Finish grading a batch of papers.
– Conduct a set of Ph.D. orals.
– Attend a department meeting.
– Conduct a committee meeting.
– Read a box of files for a search.
– Meet with a program administrator.
– Co-conduct a faculty division meeting.
– Hold office hours.
– Meet with two thesis students.
– Meet with one independent study student.
– Finish reading the work done by thesis and independent study students.
– Write three two one letters of recommendation.
– Go to a doctor’s appointment.
– Participate in a search meeting.
– Finish reading the first chunk of Robinson Crusoe.
– Draft a proposal for a campus task force.
– Do laundry.
– Make my house look less like a tornado hit it.
– Re-pack.
Thirty-six hours to go. No sweat.
[UPDATED, 2.32 pm. Still plugging along.]
[UPDATED, 5.48 pm. Whew.]
[UPDATED, 10.30 pm. Whew again. I’m going home to watch some Lost.]
[UPDATED, 10.12.05, 11.58 am. Ten hours remaining.]
[UPDATED, 10.12.05, 4.08 pm. Off to the search meeting. The proposal is not going to get drafted; I’ll have to do it sometime this weekend. And the deadline on that last letter of recommendation has been somewhat infinitely extended, so it doesn’t actually have to happen today. So it won’t. The rest, though...]
[UPDATED, 10.12.05, 7.45 pm. Search meeting was THREE BLOODY HOURS LONG. I have two hours left to get house and cats in order, clothes washed and packed, and self ready to go...]
Two classes to teach today, both of them unprepared.
Review of copy-edited manuscript due tomorrow, only about half-completed.
Lecture to give on Thursday, as yet basically unwritten.
Major proposal deadline (firm) next Monday; proposal drafted but still in need of revision.
Second major proposal deadline (somewhat mushier) in the next couple of weeks, as yet unimagined much less drafted.
Panic level, high and escalating.
Things that have been accomplished:
– Writing the first draft of a position planning document.
– Catching up on reading and commenting on a backlog of student writing.
– Re-reading the volume of poems for one of tomorrow’s classes.
– Washing, drying, and folding nearly a month’s worth of laundry.
– Responding to a big pile of email, and initiating another big pile.
– Beginning the review of the copyedited manuscript of my soon-to-be book.
– Making a big pot of something I can bear to eat multiple times over the course of the rest of the week.
Things that have not yet been accomplished:
– Re-reading the essays assigned for tomorrow’s other class.
– Re-reading the essays assigned for Tuesday’s class.
– Reading anything at all assigned for Wednesday’s classes.
– Finishing the review of the copyedited mansuscript.
– Writing the lecture I’m giving at the end of the month.
– Writing the big strategic planning proposal I’ve been asked for.
– Revising and submitting the position planning document.
– Drafting the next stage of the curriculum revision document.
– Copyediting material for my volunteer gig.
– Grocery shopping.
– Exercising.
– Breathing calmly and evenly like a person convinced she’s got enough hours in the day to accomplish all she needs.
To do tomorrow:
___ Get up.
___ Kick ass.
(Thanks to Shhh, and of course to Eddy, for this reminder, which I use whenever I need a little extra motivation in the ass-kicking department.)
Remaining:
– 5 graduate Cultural Studies projects
– 22 Media Studies term papers
Not bad. It’s not out of the question that I could be done by Monday.
As usual, though, the nearness of the finish line is resulting in my slowing down rather than speeding up, distracted by thoughts of what I’m going to get to do once I cross it. And here’s where I could use your help. Because I figure if I get the internet to think about this problem for me, maybe I can concentrate on my grading instead.
Unsurprisingly, the problem has a long history, detailed below the fold, for the intrepid.
What remains:
– 12 graduate Cultural Studies projects
– 28 Media Studies term papers
And I’m cranking along. Alas, I have four hours of meetings with the board of trustees ahead today, so today’s accomplishments are likely to be lighter than I’d like. But I’m beginning to see daylight not far ahead.
The semester-proper is now over; yesterday was the last day of classes. But there’s some grading yet to be done before all that summer travel can launch:
– 1/2 of the last senior thesis
– 16 graduate Cultural Studies projects
– 33 Media Studies term papers
The countdown begins this morning.
What must be done, before the summer can begin:
– read 6 senior theses (5 of which have been turned in)
– grade 26 Race, Gender, and Science Fiction term papers (25 of which have been turned in)
– grade 33 Media Studies term papers (due on Wednesday)
– grade 16 graduate Cultural Studies projects (due by Friday)
Thus far have done:
– 17 21 25 (!) Race, Gender, and Science Fiction term papers.
Am in a good position to clean these things up in relatively short order. Which is good. I want to go into our graduation festivities done with all of this. There’s nothing more depressing than coming home from graduation and realizing that the summer can’t yet start.
