Work, Work, and More Work

I am often amused when people think I actually have off a month in December. Sure, classes are over, but I have worked daily, and all day, since returning from Houston.

Okay, granted, I did take a week on the beach, and that was great. And I allowed myself four days for Christmas. But that's hardly a month! :-)

Anyway, both of my syllabi finally are complete and posted online, and students have gotten word. One syllabus was especially difficult to craft as the book covers so much more material than we'll possibly have time to cover. And I like to have as complete a syllabus as possible when the semester begins. So I had to make all the decisions now as to what gets how much coverage. From a 950-page book, I had to limit our coverage to less than 600 pages for the semester. And the hardest part is that the material I had to omit would be very interesting. But there is only so much time.

I'm structuring this particular class differently too. It will create more work for me, but I think it will be good for the students. And in this particular class, I'm going from all first-year students to, I suspect, mostly graduating third-year students. They are bored with school and ready to be out. This, then, makes it most challenging to keep them engaged. But with my approach, although some will grumble at first for having to actually do more work, I think it will create a more positive environment in the classroom.

I've also worked hard on my presentation for NYC. My time to present is very limited, but the audience is expected to be quite large. And this time, it's a national audience of all types of professors and deans. But I've analyzed all of my data, put it into a great power point, and I've even incorporated another component, which will be great--if it doesn't fall flat. ;-)

And so I'm off to NYC tomorrow. I'll meet up with two girlfriends/colleagues, one from Seattle and one from Wisconsin, tomorrow night, and we're sight-seeing on Wednesday. We have tickets to a show, Cyrano (with Kevin Kline & Jennifer Garner), on Wednesday night, then I present Thursday morning. I hope to see my good friend from Fort Worth Thursday night, then Friday it's a reception in the Rainbow Room. I suspect I'll sneak away from programs one afternoon for a museum too. And I'm back toward home late Saturday afternoon. Whew!

What I'm quite happy about is that this is the last trip I have planned. The fall was quite a whirlwind---with a trip out of state almost every three weeks starting just after Labor Day. They were all good, but frankly, I'm tired. But I am just so darned blessed to have such an incredible neighbor who's taken care of Howard and Sophie almost every time.

Ah--speaking of Howard. I took a break yesterday afternoon and walked him over to Overton Park. It was sunny and gorgeous, and lots of dogs were out in the large field in front of the pond. And they were all off leash. Howard sniffed some, and he whined--this pitiful sad whimper of, "Why can't I play with the other dogs like that?" I thought and thought, and I decided, the Sunday of a holiday weekend would be the safest time to try it. And so I did it. I unleashed Howard.

Well---never again! I had known better, honestly, but I always did kind of wonder--maybe he'd grown out of his running? Maybe he'd be better? And so I did just have to try. At first, he was great. He stayed right near me for a couple of minutes, then he played a little. Then he ran a little farther away. And like we do at any fenced park, I then yelled, "Howard!" very excitedly, and he looked up at me, and like at other parks, came loping over, pretty much grinning. And then he trotted off again, finding people to say hello to. And then, all I can guess, is that the wind changed. For suddenly, he put his nose up in the air, sniffed, and he ran. Fast. He galloped off toward, where else, the zoo! (Yes, I know--dogs, off-leash, right near the zoo? Well, none of the other dogs notice. But not Howard!) Another dog was chasing after him, with me not too far behind.

Fortunately, of course, Howard gets very easily distracted with his nose, and he forgot about the zoo (and its parking lot) in favor of many many other smells in between. (When we got to the perimeter of the field, the other dog gave up and returned, dutifully, to his owners.) Howard kept on going. Fortunately, he was turning back toward the direction to go home, but I did not want him crossing McLean--a very busy, and fast, street.

But we were saved by litterers! Yes--litter bugs came to the rescue. Now, what's odd to me is that any time we've walked near the zoo parking lot, we've always found discarded bread--from sandwiches, from hot-dog buns, something. And this time, thank goodness, was no different. So when Howard came upon this gold mine of bread (WooHoo my little carb addict!), he had to stop and eat. Actually, he, sensing me right behind him, grabbed a mouthful and ran off. But he eventually gave into the yummy white-bread flavor and stopped to chew. And he heeded my "wait" command, as I approached and releashed him.

Ah, well, I made the thought-out decision to try. And we tried. But now I know for sure: never again. :-)


Anyway, yes, after Saturday, finally, I'll be home for a while. And instead of me traveling soon, I think I'll have some guests actually visit me this spring. I've held off on seeing several sights around here, waiting to share them with others. But I suspect Lisa will be here in February, and we'll definitely hit the Civil Rights museum. (will be interesting this year, with it being the 40th anniversary since Dr. King's death--at the location of the museum.) I'm going to try to hold off any other guests until after the first of March, though. I must get this article I've been working on finished so I can submit it for publication by March 10. (Other than Lisa's visit (if she can make it in Feb.), pretty much every weekend between now and then will have to be spent on the article.)

But I also will plan some trips. My best friend will be leaving Hawaii this summer, so I want to try to make it to see her before then. She and I have also talked about meeting on the West Coast for a long weekend. I really want to finally go see my brother (although next January's meeting will be in San Diego, so I know I'll be there then). And I'm hoping to plan an overseas trip to celebrate my birthday this summer. It's one of those "big" ones, and I've decided the best thing I can do for me is to travel and ring in the next decade. Ireland? Spain? Haven't totally decided. But I am leaning most heavily toward Europe. Maybe Paris? Hmmmm. We'll see!

Ah, more work to do in the morning before catching my flight. It'll be this way for all the next weekends until this article is done. Umm Hmm. And life in academia is so cush? As if! ;-)