Sharing Good News

After a really wonderful and restful break, I'm having a good week.  Sometimes, things work like that.

First, a good friend and amazing poet came to visit and did a reading on campus.  The visit and reading were both a total pleasure.  This friend is one of those people I could happily spend a lot more time with, very kind, smart, thoughtful about poetry and teaching and life.

I also got good news on several fronts.  First, you may recall that I blogged about our Review After Tenure process, and that while both department level reviews (faculty and chair) said I "exceed expectations" the dean's review said I "meet" expectations.  This week, I got the Provost's review, and that's back to "exceeds."  This isn't just about my ego, remember.  Overall, here in the NorthWoods,  we haven't gotten regular raises in years (though there have been one or two small "bumps" for different people, including me, who were given "equity" bumps because we're so far below people of the same rank/experience at our peer institutions in the area).  (Those bumps haven't brought us up to the same level, though.  Of course.)  But RAT comes with a possibility of a raise, and for those at the "exceeds" level, it's a nice raise to base pay.  (About one third to half of the raise for promotion.)

On the second front, I also received notice that I have travel funding from our research funding office for next year, while I'm on sabbatical.  And the funding is quite a bit more than I'd dared to hope for.  So I may actually be able to go back to my happy place, the British Library.  I'm pretty thrilled!

And now, back to grading and prepping!  The countdown to sabbatical is at just over 7 weeks!

Spring Break, the Last Day

It's been a productive AND restful break!

Here's what my list looked like:

1.  Grade 12 more papers.
2.  Reread Faustus for class on the Monday after break.
3.  Reread Reservation Blues for the Wednesday after break.  (yep, conflicted!)
4.  Reread "Yellow Woman" for the Monday after break.
5.  Write the next assignment sheet for the first year writing class.
6.  Clean up the garage (mostly sweeping at this point).  Move the kayak up out of storage, if I can get some help.
7.  Read Sing for your Life, which a friend lent me.  I wasn't as impressed by the writing as my friend was.
8.  Red up my campus office.  (The clutter bothers me!)
9.  Practice violin every day!
10.  Get out and ride my bike!
11.  Put up art in the living room.
12.  Do some birding!
13.  Start drafting the paper I worked on at the British Library.
14.  Clean up the house as I can (as the painting gets done).
15.  Put fishing line on birdhouses
16.  Cut a branch from one of the pine trees.
17.  Meet with person from the campus teaching center about a project.

So, not everything got done, but lots did.  I didn't practice every day.  But I did most days.  

And I'm feeling good about getting back to classes after getting some good (local) news.

Best of all, I'm expecting a friend to come visit because she's doing a poetry reading on campus this coming week!  

Spring Break, Day 5

I still haven't heard from either of the students who didn't turn in a paper.  Argh.

But I've made other progress!


1.  Grade 12 more papers.
2.  Reread Faustus for class on the Monday after break.
3.  Reread Reservation Blues for the Wednesday after break.  (yep, conflicted!)
4.  Reread "Yellow Woman" for the Monday after break.
5.  Write the next assignment sheet for the first year writing class.
6.  Clean up the garage (mostly sweeping at this point).  Move the kayak up out of storage, if I can get some help.
7.  Read Sing for your Life, which a friend lent me.  I wasn't as impressed by the writing as my friend was.
8.  Red up my campus office.  (The clutter bothers me!)
9.  Practice violin every day!
10.  Get out and ride my bike!
11.  Put up art in the living room.
12.  Do some birding!
13.  Start drafting the paper I worked on at the British Library.
14.  Clean up the house as I can (as the painting gets done).
15.  Put fishing line on birdhouses
16.  Cut a branch from one of the pine trees.
17.  Meet with person from the campus teaching center about a project.

I've been slowly reconstituting parts of the house as the paint dries.  I'm loving the colors!

The meeting (17) went well.  

Our campus is doing a three level social justice/inclusivity thing.  The first level was that everyone had to do a PoS stupid computer module thingy.

The second level involves having a variety of workshops and such on different aspects of social justice/inclusivity.  And the third level involves completing ten of those workshops and doing a project over three years.  I've now done five of the workshops, including the first, which I blogged about.  So the meeting was to learn about project ideas.

The person who came to talk with me is a prof from a very different field, but she's good.  So, she showed me some information, and we started talking about ideas, and she wondered about content in my classes, so I explained that I already teach an Intro to Lit course that's all Writers of Color (well, one might not consider herself a person of color, but she'd be thought of that way by most USians).  And I've taught a Critical Race Theory and Early Modern Lit course, and so on.  And she said she thought I was already way ahead of the game.  I think I'm pretty in line with my department colleagues, though.  

Anyway, it turns out the project doesn't have to be massive, so I should be able to do it in a reasonable way.

In sad news, I found a dead female Common Redpoll today.  I was out cleaning up doggy land mines with my neighbors' dog, who is my guest while her family is away, and she sniffed at something in a way that caught my attention, and then decided she wasn't interested, and it was a dead bird.  It was under a tree, so it wasn't a reflective glass collision, I don't think.  But there was nothing obvious, and it wasn't the work of a predator.  So I don't know.  It did make me a bit sad, though.

I've been feeding a lot this winter, mostly because I've got 20-30 Common Redpolls in a mixed flock with some American Goldfinches, and I think, one or two Pine Siskins.  But this bird didn't seem to have that eye problem that House Finches sometimes get.  Or anything else obvious, except that it was dead.  

Speaking of House Finches.  They're back!  I've been seeing a couple visiting the feeder, but not with the mixed flock.  And they're quite a bit bigger, too.  American Robins are way more visible this week, too.

Spring Break, Day 3!

I finished grading my stack and realized that two students didn't turn in papers.  I emailed both.  (One had a family problem before, so it's probably continued.  The other, I don't know.)

I read on the internet that you can keep house sparrows from using a nest box if you put fishing line on it.  So I did that with one of my boxes.  I have two more to do, one of which I also need to empty out from last year.  But it was really chilly today, and not that fun to be outside trying to tie fishing line.

I also made an appointment with a campus teaching center person about a possible social justice project.

Here's the list, with a couple things crossed off!

1.  Grade 12 more papers.
2.  Reread Faustus for class on the Monday after break.
3.  Reread Reservation Blues for the Wednesday after break.  (yep, conflicted!)
4.  Reread "Yellow Woman" for the Monday after break.
5.  Write the next assignment sheet for the first year writing class.
6.  Clean up the garage (mostly sweeping at this point).  Move the kayak up out of storage, if I can get some help.
7.  Read Sing for your Life, which a friend lent me.
8.  Red up my campus office.  (The clutter bothers me!)
9.  Practice violin every day!
10.  Get out and ride my bike!
11.  Put up art in the living room.
12.  Do some birding!
13.  Start drafting the paper I worked on at the British Library.
14.  Clean up the house as I can (as the painting gets done).

Spring Break, Day 2

Good day, but much faffing around.  I did grade more papers, so now I have 2 left for tomorrow.  And then that part of the week will be done!

Other stuffs:

1.  Grade 12 more papers.
2.  Reread Faustus for class on the Monday after break.
3.  Reread Reservation Blues for the Wednesday after break.  (yep, conflicted!)
4.  Reread "Yellow Woman" for the Monday after break.
5.  Write the next assignment sheet for the first year writing class.
6.  Clean up the garage (mostly sweeping at this point).  Move the kayak up out of storage, if I can get some help.
7.  Read Sing for your Life, which a friend lent me.
8.  Red up my campus office.  (The clutter bothers me!)
9.  Practice violin every day!
10.  Get out and ride my bike!
11.  Put up art in the living room.
12.  Do some birding!
13.  Start drafting the paper I worked on at the British Library.
14.  Clean up the house as I can (as the painting gets done).

I did some house stuff, and ran errands, but pretty much that's it.  Among the errands I ran, I went to the farm store.  Just outside, in front of a steak house place, is this:

Welcome to my world...

Spring Break, Day 1

Yesterday afternoon, I read my friend's book (good, and very fun for me), put the switchplates and such back in the living room, and with a neighbor's help, moved the furniture back in place.  And I graded my small stack of stuff before I left campus!

Today, I relaxed a lot.  And I cleaned and lubed my bike so I can go for a ride (the streets are mostly good now).  I graded 7 papers.  (12 more to go for this stack.)  That feels really good!  I also practiced, including practicing against a wall so I don't bow with my whole arm when I should bow with just the forearm (for a fast bit).  Ugh, I don't like practicing against the wall!

Goals for the rest of break:

1.  Grade 12 more papers.
2.  Reread Faustus for class on the Monday after break.
3.  Reread Reservation Blues for the Wednesday after break.  (yep, conflicted!)
4.  Reread "Yellow Woman" for the Monday after break.
5.  Write the next assignment sheet for the first year writing class.
6.  Clean up the garage (mostly sweeping at this point).  Move the kayak up out of storage, if I can get some help.
7.  Read Sing for your Life, which a friend lent me.
8.  Red up my campus office.  (The clutter bothers me!)
9.  Practice violin every day!
10.  Get out and ride my bike!
11.  Put up art in the living room.
12.  Do some birding!
13.  Start drafting the paper I worked on at the British Library.
14.  Clean up the house as I can (as the painting gets done).

I'm expecting a guest at the end of the break, who's coming to read poetry on campus.  I'm very excited, but the house is way too chaotic right now.

And my neighbor dog will also be my guest, and promises to take me out for walks!

Countdown to Break

Officially, it starts at 5pm today.  But this morning, the parking lot was way less full than usual.  (Generally, if I'm not parked by 8am, I wouldn't get a space there and would have to park further away; today, I could probably get there at 9am and find a spot.)

I have two hours of teaching, a couple hours of grading/record keeping, and then, spring break!

What with going to the UK last semester, being on 65% pay sabbatical this coming year, and getting my house painted inside (partly), my budget doesn't support travel this break.  I'll keep busy dogsitting my favorite neighbor dog, doing some grading (one big stack, one small stack), reading, putting stuff in my house back together (post painting), and exercising.

My cousin has planned a backpacking adventure for late July, so the exercise thing is urgent.  I have about four months to be ready to hike with a pack on for 8 miles in the Sierras.  I'm so very excited!

I recently realized that a friend of mine from my Peace Corps days published a memoir (in 2011), ordered it, and it came in the mail yesterday.  So right now, I'm going to force myself to grade instead of diving in to see if I'm mentioned.  (Ego!)


On other news: I have a certain colleague who really likes to complain.  Right now, she's chairing our personnel committee, something I've done (for two years), and complaining about how it's unfair she has to do it this year.  Alas, I don't feel much sympathy, since she avoided it for several years, during which time I did it, and someone else did it.  It's a thing we pretty much all have to do, so to hear her act as if it's all some grand departmental plan to punish her unfairly just doesn't sit well.

A Spanner in the Works

I have two hour class periods with my first year writing course one day a week.  (It's a five hour a week course, so we have one two hour day, and one no class day, and three days of one hour.  It works pretty well.  There are other configurations to choose from, too.)

Yesterday, the students have peer edited their second paper (of four we do in the course, which is highly controlled around here), and it's due tomorrow.   So I'd made time today for the LGBTQ Center on campus to come do SafeSpace training with them.  I think SafeSpace training is really important for all students, and so I make time for it in the first year course when I can.  It ties in nicely with other things we do, like reading about the transition from HS to college and such.

Before the semester began, I emailed the head of the LGBTQ Center to set up a date/time for the training.  I didn't hear back.

So as the semester began, I emailed the Center itself, and got an email back from the graduate assistant, telling me that they'd reserved the date/time.  So I put it in the book.

And now, today, they didn't show up.  So I had students do another activity to prep for the next paper.  But really, I didn't have the assignment ready, and they don't need to start thinking too much about it now, since we'll be working on it after break and they still need to finish the current project.

I called the Center, no answer (they're never in).  I called both numbers on the grad assistant's email, no answer.  And finally, I left a message on the Center's machine.  And emailed the grad assistant (a return email from the one they sent confirming that I was on the calendar).

So now I have some extra time to do grading, which is good.  But my students will miss learning some really important stuff.

If I didn't have class scheduled today, I wouldn't have had to get up at 6am and come in.  (I have to be in my parking lot by about 8am to avoid parking on the far side, and I'm lazy.)  I could have graded at home in my PJs.  Or, you know, I would have planned a different useful activity for my students so they'd learn other good stuff.

Now, I'm just a bit cranky.  Thanks for letting me vent.

Chaos Again

Last summer, I had the old off-white carpet removed from my main floor, and replace with beautiful oak hardwood floors.  I went from this to that.  The floors look GREAT!

But it made the house, especially the living room, feel really dark, cavelike, even, especially when it's nice and bright out.  I didn't paint the walls that green, though I've liked it well for a long time.  But this winter, especially, it feels really dark.

So I started fantasizing about painting the interior walls, especially in the living room.

And this week, it starts.

I spent a LONG time thinking about colors, looking at them, consulting with friends, and here's what I'm looking at.

The idea is that most of the walls will be that off white (Alabaster is what the color is called), and then there will be a color wall, too.  In the living room and bedroom, there will be yellow.  In the kitchen, blue.  And in the study/office, purple!

So this weekend I packed things up again (not as much as before, though!) and took most of the switch plates, outlet covers, and such off the walls, and the art, and got things ready so that furniture could be moved.  (That means again emptying bookcases.)  I also spackled all the little holes from the hangers.

Things look sad and dismal, at least they did last night:

 Here's the hallway.  Usually, there's a gorgeous quilt hanging to the left.  But it's taken down now, as is the wall hanging and other art usually in the hallway.

 And here's the living room, facing the front door.

And the living room facing away from the front door.

Somehow, taking the art off the walls and removing the switchplates and outlet covers really makes the place seem sad, even with the furniture in.

I have sabbatical for the next academic year, and I really want the house to be a cheerful place to work.  Fingers crossed that the colors look as good as I hope!

A friend is doing the painting (it's his side business).  We got the paints yesterday, and he's going to wash some walls and start taping today.  Maybe he'll even get some paint on.  (He came by yesterday because I wanted to make sure that things were moved enough for him to work around or move himself, and he gave me the thumbs up.)