timna

biking to work

since I'm only going to work on filing, I don't have to worry about working up a sweat. I think today it's time to try biking to work.

edited to add: took 35 minutes, the last 10 minutes uphill. I was pretty red arriving on campus. I have a choice of routes: fields and big roads or lakes and different big roads.

how many classes did you teach here in the last 6 years?

One of the reasons that I've been going through the files so carefully was that I expect at some point to sit down with human resources and agree on what kind of seniority I've built up. oddly enough about all of those adjunct years, in this state and with this union contract, all of my teaching experience counts for credit in figuring sabbaticals, departmental seniority, etc. HR has been known to lose a few credits here and there, so I wanted to see what I could reconstruct if I approached it systematically.

I am amazed. First of all, except for one course that I am sure I taught the first semester I was here and can find absolutely no evidence, I can document every single other course I taught. Either I have the contract or the letter of intent or I have the syllabus and class list. For the vast majority of the classes I have the contract, the syllabus and the final grades list. I surprise myself.

the numbers: 138 credit hours of actual teaching, including 11 summer class credits. 150 hours if we count reassigned time (teaching circles, other dean stuff. not sure we count that, or the summer hours). As far as I understand, 30 hours = one year. This means, for example, that I have somewhere between 4 and 5 years of seniority. I might even have some choices about which office I get. wow. or that after 3 years probation, I'd be more than eligible for a sabbatical. (don't have any idea if one can go out on a sabbatical while still on probation -- those folks who took them recently in their first or second year of full-time employment had fulfilled probation requirements previously [it has to do with being in full-time temporary positions, which I have not done]).

Another surprise: I taught 3 classes the semester that I finished the dissertation and defended. (I was sure I'd taught only 2 that semester). This included 2 trips back to phd city during the semester. I know that I wrote on the weekends, so somehow I must have graded during the weeks. I was very focused apparently.

2nd barrel of recycling

yikes. I had a lot of paper in those file drawers. I don't use handouts much anymore since everything can be stored on the class site. Even work that I didn't type up can be scanned in and stored there. So I don't need 30 copies of this or that in my file cabinet anymore.

Down to one drawer of files. still a lot of deep mess on my desk (and underneath it). maybe tomorrow I'll get a little closer to being finished with this office. it's been my corner of the world for quite a long time.  I probably should take a picture of it tomorrow.

Next: get the classes online for fall.

shock: calories in sushi

I have been woefully misled. Or I was deep in denial. any cliche you want. but those sushi lunches I've been having are about twice as many calories/points as I thought. wonder why I didn't check the website sooner.

(stardust combo, 344 gr = 540 cal, 2 gr fiber, 12 gr of fat). ouch.

good reading weekend

this weekend I read most of:

• One Hundred Years of Solitude
• Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
• My Side of the Mountain
• Magyk
• Procrastination: Why you do it, What to do about it

if I'm concerned that ben t. is not calling up buddies (and not getting calls), it seems that he's just doing exactly what his mom does. not many phone calls in our area code this weekend.

(guess which book I didn't finish?!)

The House of Spirits

is not One Hundred Years of Solitude. I'm reading away at Hundred Years, waiting for the characters I'm looking forward to, and it's starting to sink in. I ordered the wrong book. I was thinking of Allende's House of Spirits. going to be interesting to read for the first time and then go teach. looking up articles and commentary.

oh darn.

no plans

hmmmm. except biking and gardening and cleaning up.

my dad and his wife are coming through sometime in the next 2-3 days.

it's kind of nice to relax.

clearing the file cabinet

I've been in the same office at the cc for the last six years. I have three file cabinet drawers that I want pared to a minimum before I move into a new office.

about two years ago, I started filing handouts in a folder for each class (comp I, comp II, etc).  however, I still kept a folder for each class with grades, handouts, plagiarism correspondance, etc for that particular section. now I'm consolidating all of the individual class folders into one big notebook -- I want to be able to document the courses I've taught, any letters I've received, any issues that challenged me. it's a lovely notebook, but I'm still only 1/3 done with clearing the drawers.

what it's reminding me is that I had some really good semesters while I was writing the dissertation. I showed my students a lot about my writing process and even gave some of my conference talks for their feedback. I taught fewer classes per semester (2-3), but I think those were some of my most successful teaching moments. so I suspect that some of my reluctance to just toss the folders is that I intend to go through and systematically pick up some of the clues. I also don't want to move stuff that should have been tossed ages ago.

elsewhere -- going to physical therapy today for the elbow. it's gotten so that I think before I do anything that involves my left arm. I'm ok typing (yea!), but if I want to scratch my nose, better make sure it's the right hand moving upward.

sushi for breakfast

that's all. I'm happy.

summer plans, or what if I'm no longer motivated to write?

first, I want to think about some healthy balance. this summer, since I'm not going to Israel and I'm not teaching -- I think every day I'd like to:

• clean some small area that isn't cleaned regularly, or garden. something about the house.
• call or write to a friend. contact. connect with others in a larger community.
• work on teaching tasks. as much of the overload fall semester to be prepared in advance.
• read (possibly for writing, possibly for fun?).
• walk, if I'm not at the gym that day. or swim. or bike.

cooking, hugging, blogging, family time, sleeping -- all of those things seem to get done anyway. no, the list is things that I don't do that I'd like to see myself get in the habit of doing. while losing weight with WW, I'm checking off 6 glasses of water each day (what a concept) and it reminds me when I've neglected to drink water. I need a little checklist of these tasks that I don't do easily or habitually, and maybe they would become part of my daily habits.

what does this have to do with being motivated to write? I think that I'm bogged down with other tasks (or postponing these other nagging tasks) so that I don't ever feel free to think about writing. going to have to figure where the writing part fits in to my priorities.