An engima wrapped in a blog post

So there was a thing I blogged about a few days ago, and then I removed the post because, while it is unbelievably unlikely that the person involved would find it, if ze DID find it, as innocuous as it was, that might be a problem.

Anyway--to continue in this cryptic light--we--the people in charge--did the right thing.

And, predictably, the appeals process is beginning.

Lord, give me strength.

Lull

At Field, we have a one-day study period between the end of classes and finals. It's awfully short; I would be fully in favor of having what we had at both my undergrad and grad institutions--a full week of study period--provided, of course, that a couple of days were lopped off at the instructional end and not the vacation end (which was, I assume, how things worked at UGI and GI; our semesters at both schools were shorter than they are here). Of course, every time I think this through, I realize that I can just redirect the last few teaching days in my classes towards paper-writing--which is what I often do, in fact. So anyway.

The POINT is, we have this one day. My papers come in tomorrow and Tuesday.

And all I want to say right now is that I love study day. It's my own little holiday of cleaning. We're supposed to spend most of it in our offices, and I do: I clean out my folders, enter participation grades, recycle a LOT of stuff, and move files from the Courses In Progress drawer to the Courses Taught drawer. (And, now that I have a workable Brit Lit I, move that file from Courses Taught to Courses In Progress--I'm all set for 1/4 of my fall teaching! Sorta.)

This year, the day wrapped up with a beer-and-wine-and-cheese (quite literally: there were no crackers. ???) reception in the Fancy Room at the library. There's something very pleasant about drinking with the rest of the faculty in the library while students are (supposed to be) studying for finals.

(Perhaps we're no better than they are?)

I'm braced for grading and my office is clean. Summer, here you come.

Status Update

First of all: Kalamazooers, it looks like the 8:00(ish) Friday morning MugShots meet-up is happening again. I hope to see you there!

More substantially: It's the end of the semester, or almost, and I feel inclined to do a little summarizing. So here's where I am, in the form of a numbered list.

1. Classes end tomorow. I only taught two this semester (and people, if you only teach two courses per semester, you do not ever get to complain about teaching load, especially if your classes are, as mine were, small [21 and 10]. It is a sweet, sweet deal, even when you're stupid and spread that teaching out to five days a week). One release was for Honors, which has been eating my life this month (as it's supposed to), and the other was for research/editing the manuscript. Updates on the latter below.
2. Honors: The situation that I mentioned a few days ago is en route to resolution. And otherwise everyone and everything is on track. Whew.
   
3. The book: is being indexed. Slowly. In full terror that I'm doin it rong. But it does look pretty! And I must say that I did a killer job of editing it in the last go-round, because I'm finding almost nothing to change (other than a handful of editorial errors for which I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE. So there).
4. Other research: My grand plans for drafting a proposal for The Next Big Thing did not materialize, but I was able to read some real live scholarship in the field, and I currently have two articles out for review (one a big-shot R&R, the other a small-shot solicited submission). So that's cool.
5. In my personal life...erm...things are fine? Not sure how to update this one. We have stuff in the gardens (yes, plural), due almost entirely to The Minister's machinations. Today we hunted for morels. It was a failure, but the forest was beautiful, and we got to ride his Vespa.
6. Next year: I'll be teaching a mess of stuff, including a one-hour overload in the fall (5 classes! 4 preps! I die) and mentoring 12 Honors juniors through the prospectus process, which might kill me, while serving on 4 thesis committees. As for my service load: I will be chairing curriculum and also serving on what I affectionately call the Gossip Committee (actually a task force, but that doesn't have much of a ring to it) and the Cash Cow Working Group. Protection of junior faculty from service? Not so much. And I'll be attending an overseas conference in the middle of the semester, which'll make scheduling all kinds of fun. However, I shall endeavor not to think about the fall when the summer is so tantalizingly close.
   
7. Classes end TOMORROW. In my head, they're already over. (But I still need to read for tomorrow's class....)

The semester in seven bullets. There ya go.

Kalamazoooooo?

Anyone?

I will be there, and NOT presenting. Hurrah!

I know that a few of you will be there, too. Meals? Coffees? Free wine? Dancing, perhaps?

Let me know if you'd like to meet up! Because I would love to see y'all.

Indexing: Unbelievably Tedious

Shocker, right?

(Twenty pages in 90 minutes.... So I should be able to finish up in the two weeks allotted to me, barring, well, you know, GRADING or anything like that!)

A Thing that I Noticed Today

I say "fait accompli" a lot.

At least, a lot for those words.

Like a couple of times a week, lately.

Proof

For indexing purposes, my editor emailed me the proofs of my book today (the hard copy is on its way).

While I know that indexing will be not tons of fun, I'm glowing. I mean. Wow. It. The book. It has beautiful fonts and big fancy initial letters and and....

It's just so pretty.

I want to kiss it.