Sunday, June 22, 2008

It's Alive!

I'm alive, I'm alive, I swear it!  I said I was going to write more often, didn't I?  And then I completely disappeared, didn't I?

I'm reminded of that old, old commercial for The Ricky Lake Show where a sassy audience member stands up, head bobbing, and points at the cocky guest, saying, "Someone done lied to you, sister!"

I done lied to you, sisters.

Or, rather, I was fooled.  Fooled into thinking summer had somehow begun.  Or rather, fooled into thinking this summer might be somewhat like summers past, with free time and lolling about.  You non-academics can roll your eyes all you want (we WORK all summer, you want to say.  What do you have to complain about?  Welcome to the real world, muffin!).  But it's been a transition for me, me who has been in school--literally in a school--since I was five.  Me who calculates time by the academic year and not the calendar year, me who still gets excited about buying new school clothes, me who classifies much of the world into "teachers," "students," "colleagues," "staff," and "administrators."  Me not used to working, working, working, no break.

But it hasn't really been all work.  It's just been so nuts it has felt like that.  Since school got out at the beginning of May (see?  There I go again!), I got that article out (tentatively accepted, thank you very much!), went to Tampa, presented another paper at a conference, had family come visit, went to Vegas for a wedding, went to Rhode Island for a week, became full-time single mom when Eric went to Seattle for a week, scraped all the popcorn off of my bedroom ceiling (hate, hate, HATE whoever thought that was a smart idea, to put that crap up there, full of asbestos and dust and mucky-muck) and painted the whole thing a color Addie sweetly refers to as the "color of Nolie's poo."  Also got an MRI on my knee (don't know results yet), my mom has had horrendous knee surgery herself, and Addie's going in for tubes and a sinus sweep on Wednesday.  Most importantly, the stress and weirdness of the last year have somehow dissipated, been washed away, mellowed in the time I've had away from campus.  Hallelulajah for that.

For July, I need to revise the article that has been tentatively accepted, revise another, revise the conference presentation into an article, get a book prospectus out, read another friend's (amazing) book of poetry, and design two courses and a lecture. 

Easy peasy.  Summertime, and the livin's nothing but smooth sailing, baby.  We teachers have it good.

Crap.

Anyway, there's a bit of bragging going on here, too, right?  I'm not really complaining.  Because I'm proud of myself to be working so hard at things I love, and proud to be accomplishing all this, much as I'm a bit overwhelmed and sick of it all.  And I know most of you reading this work your asses off all the time, so you ain't got any pity for me anyway.  And, too, I've been taking a whole lot of time for myself.  Been going to the gym, doing yoga, soaking in the gorgeous beaches of Rhode Island, glorying in the greenness outside my windows, getting massages, cooking, watching tv, reading, spending much time with the girls (completely guilt free, I might add) and generally ignoring my email, this blog, and anything else that doesn't seem completely necessary.   So, I'm good.  Living a full, engaged, slightly nuts life.  But good.

I'm going to start writing more now.  I promise.  :).



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