Sunday, May 08, 2005

The Stuck in the Middle of Spring Quarter with No End in Sight Blues

So many of the academic blogs I read are gleefully reporting their end of the semester rituals. Only four more papers to go, one more conference, two more college meetings, etc.

I'm on the quarter system and though we're halfway through the last quarter, that still leaves four more weeks. Fall is great: teach ten weeks, get six off. But then we pay and pay and pay: twenty weeks of teaching with one measly little week in between, during which time we finish grading one quarter and hastily write our syllabi for the next.

On top of that, I don't think I've ever had more meetings in my life than I've had this quarter. Every week I have at least three. I'm on my way into school (on a Sunday) to meet with the lgtbi group I advise, making this the 7th day in a row I've had to go into school. Yeah, all day meeting yesterday as well.

And on top of that, my every other year formal review is due tomorrow. I should have had this last year, but my small liberal arts college within the larger university shut down and so my former dean said f**k that and now I have a new dean, a new chair, and a year past due review. Yummy. I've spent any time not in meetings copying evaluations, trying to remember what committees I've served on, and writing it all up in a way-too-long report. Yes, I know this wouldn't have been so hard if I had been more organized all along. Next time, I promise.

So I'm tired and ragged and the very last thing on my list of things to do always ends up being lesson prep. Thank god I'm teaching familiar class and so can go on autopilot a little bit.

Now I'm late. And I can't find my dvd of All About Eve, which I'm teaching tomorrow. Friends, klatch, L-Word viewers: did I loan this to any of you?

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I haven't returned mine to Blockbuster yet -- should I bring it?

tim

12:18 AM  
Blogger Margo, darling said...

So sweet. Thanks, but I stopped at the store on the way home and bought a new copy. You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too many copies of All About Eve.

12:27 AM  

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