Friday, May 18, 2007

Mgwumph.

If my mother taught me anything (and she did, but I'll spare you the lectures here), it was that it's rude to speak with your mouth full. But who am I to be polite? The semester has officially ended, grades have been submitted, and I'm now enmeshed in my summer class, the pesky leavings of my administrative work, and preparing to go to a two-week workshop in the Midwest in 10 days or so. Holy hell, have I bitten off more than I can chew.

One of the many things that I need to learn to do is to remember that tasks accrete; saying yes to one early on does not mean that something else equally good, or exciting, or financially viable, won't be offered later. I'm pretty sure that that's how I got myself into this mess. In December, the extra money from a short summer class sounded pretty good. And then applying to this workshop just seemed like the natural extension of the kinds of work I've been doing. And the administrative stuff---well, that was just idiotic. It's one of those "this is a really good thing for the community" kinds of projects, but it includes the work that I most abhor and totally, totally suck at: talking to various people at a variety of off-campus institutions, securing money, collecting artifacts. It's a crap job for sure, and I just want it to be done. But it sounded so good and lofty at the time!! Yes! I don't want to be one of those ivory tower folk! I want to be engaged in the community!! That's the root of this program, after all, and I should be following out that mission! Screw that. To mine own self I should have been true; I just want to read books and maybe write an article or two.

Oh yes! That! Writing! Isn't this my summer to get a few publications together before I go up for tenure? Why yes! Yes it is! Thanks for asking! Now why is it that writing isn't on my immediate radar? [Hint: see above.]

For now, you'll have to excuse the sarcasm dripping from this post. It's the best I can manage right now. I'll feel better after a cheap, meaningless evening of bad t.v., I'm sure. Suggestions, anyone, before I fall back into the warm embrace of slash fiction? :)

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3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah, I too thought that teaching a brief summer course sounded like a great way to make some money. And of course I'd be able to get a lot of writing done, too. Because I wasn't going to be, oh, moving across the country or anything! :-P Anyway, I have said bad tv on at this very moment...

Saturday, May 19, 2007 12:34:00 AM  
Blogger Ashley said...

Eh, there's always Dancing With the Stars. But now that Steve Sanders is off, is it eve worth it?

Midwest=Grand Rapids, MI, yes? Yes? No? Sigh.

Saturday, May 19, 2007 9:58:00 AM  
Blogger Cup said...

Your extra load sounds like mine ... but I don't get a summer break.

*sigh*

I really need a good sugar daddy.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007 8:06:00 AM  

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