Don't Get off the Boat

Remember that part in Apocalypse Now where the soldiers get off the boat and are messing around on shore and then, all of the sudden, a huge tiger leaps out of the woods at them, and they race back to the boat screaming "don't get off the boat! don't get off the f****g boat"?

Yeah, well, I went to campus yesterday, for the first time in about a month.

I've been having a pretty great life here at home. I've been reading like crazy, watching a lot of tv (Weeds, Rome--how much do I love Polly Walker!, and Deadwood, via Netflicks), working out (and logging my workouts on Self.com like a big nerd), sleeping in, eating well, growing my hair out, and wearing soft, shapeless clothing. And I've been assiduously avoiding school, even though I've been pretty desperately needing several things in my office. But yesterday I couldn't put it off any longer: I had to go in for a meeting and decided to make the trip productive by finally getting the books and files I need for my project from my office, as well as by going to the library to do that crazy checking-books-out thing, rather than ordering them off half.com in the middle of the night when I'm too manic about my project to sleep.

At first things at school were really pleasant--I had some fun, frivolous banter with colleagues and the student workers, I had a quick and intense conversation about my research with my chair, who gave me some good ideas for additional sources, and I got to catch-up with one of my colleagues from the smaller college that closed. But within the hour I found myself completely caught up on, and caught up in, departmental politics. So fast! So sticky! So scary!

So here I am, back in the safety of my home office, listening to my new favorite album (The Fruit Bats, Spelled in Bones), so grateful not to have to care, really, about departmental politics for a few more months.