timna

sort of like when we worked in the fields

then, whenever it rained, we rolled over and went back to sleep until breakfast. I think this is a good approach to life. (of course it didn't rain between April and October).

this morning we got up at 7am and had good intentions but the gray morning and the rain just did us in. I went to wake almond joy and cuddled with her for another hour of sleep. I just called to ben t that we have to leave for wrestling and he too was sound asleep. he'd gotten up to mow the lawn, but rain postpones that too.

there is no good reason not to finish the application project statement. my computer doesn't know it's raining. the deadline is today.

quiet and sunny

just stretched out on the sofa. it's wonderful.

have to finish the application today. went to dinner with one of my letter writer/friends last night.

have to put a desk on craigslist to get the movement between the rooms going.

pack up the books from our room.

finish the living room: outlets, a little more cleaning, get the curtains back up.

finally have cucumbers in the garden. lots of tomatoes. no zuchini, just zuchini flowers. a few peppers and peas.

not ready for August, but that's ok. I still have some July left.

sort of sheepish

ok, it was an intense day yesterday in that there was no pause between any of the happenings, but I'm a little sheepish about the idea that intensity in my world has to do with a sofa!

intensity: off the meter

we started the day with the news that someone had enjoyed our credit card over the weekend, spending nearly $2000. card is cancelled, we're kind of waiting to hear how this plays out. they couldn't tell us locations as long as all of the bills were pending. I got over being frustrated that the card was frozen. they were right -- something was really wrong.

then I got going on the proposal and realized that my letter writers would do just fine with a draft, say one page of the 3-5 page thing. that was something I could do without panic. so I did. by 9:30 I had those three things out and a letter to the person inviting me.

then I found on craigslist -- the red leather sofa that I wanted in June -- was listed without a price. so I emailed and found out that they were moving this week and the first person to get there with $550 would get the sofa. I had to drive ben t. to weight training and then go to teach from 1-4 and then get him to one last baseball game. so today was not going to work. almond joy looks up and says she could do it. AND SHE DID!!!! she took the money out of her account and drove an hour each way and paid for the sofa. I'll go get it tomorrow. it's ours!!!

so there was some teaching today (mostly fun -- we had two teachers, one administrator, one IT guy and the two people who are running the program for the guests -- talking about online classes).  the baseball game was sort of a surprise - ben t's team was the upset of the tournament -- they won all of their games last week and were still in the running. they came in 2nd tonight.

maybe in the next day or so I'll get going on the painting? the moving rooms? cleaning the tape from the last round of painting? the vacation is just starting and it's ending already.

letter of invitation - check!

moving right along with the application. the email from the host institution came through and it's enthusiastic.

meanwhile I'm sitting at the hotel and it's raining. swim meet today does not look like fun.

swim meets and chamber concerts

I'm always amazed at where my kids bring me -- worlds that I was completely oblivious to in my previous life.

the concerts were outstanding. we went up early to see the quartet concerts. I was late getting moving (too much time on the application) and the gps said we'd arrive at 2:12 with the concert starting at 2:30. and then we hit traffic leaving town. 2:14, 2:17, 2:20 --- as we slowed down the gps divided our miles to go by our reduced speed and it looked dicey about getting there on time. however, the bottleneck ended and we returned to normal speed at made it with at least 15 minutes to spare.

what a pleasure to hear all of the quartets. just really good work considering they only had 5 days to put it together. we had a nice dinner and walked around the campus and went to the big concerts. ben t. was not in the youth symphony this time -- he was with the big kids in the chamber orchestra. wow. he's really mastered complicated music this week. at one point when I talked to him he said he just didn't have enough time to practice to get it all learned (as opposed to last year when he couldn't imagine that one could play more than from 8-4 every day).

then I drove back to the cities, picked up the car I'd left at the western edge of town and went south. the gps (it's in hebrew!) on the computer was great until I realized that the computer locks down after a few (5?) minutes. I pulled over once to reset it since it's not enough just to touch it with the stylus, and then kept myself very alert by touching it every 2-3 minutes. got here by 11:30 and was surprised that I'd actually stayed in this hotel at a conference a few years ago. oh. I guess I hadn't printed out directions -- just feeding it into a gps doesn't give me much of a sense of where in town it is.

 

swim meet today and tomorrow. and updating the cv, answering a million good questions about teaching, and getting the application completed and out to the recommenders. I almost feel on top of things except that I haven't heard from the host institution yet. still, there's almost a week until it's all due.

wish I hadn't forgotten to take a camera.

the last weekend in July

we have the two places at the same time dilemma every year: ben t. finishes music camp with a concert and almond joy is swimming in finals. these are always at different ends of the state. there are slight changes this year. ben t. made the more advanced orchestra with an additional, earlier concert. almond joy can actually check into the hotel on her own. so it seems that I'll be able to make the ben t concerts up north and then join aj by midnight and see most of her swimming on sat and sun.

I am so proud of both of them!                     

pushing on

so the challenges intrigue me. what's new?

the administrators say that associate professor is not an absolute criterion, but that the issue will be whether graduate teaching is required. if so, even if I am qualified to do that, if I don't do it in my home institution (um, it's a community college), they will not ok my candidacy.

so now it's up to the inviting institution to say, no, we don't need that. (and I'm wondering if I could possibly do it anyway?). not sure how to navigate this.

in any case, I've got to get it moving today. my letter writers have to have the details in order to get it out before they go on vacation (at least one of them).

so updating the cv and putting together the plan. before noon. I slept 10 hours last night. I should be zooming.

a little lost

tired, but it was a good night at friends' house. probably shouldn't have stayed up to read after that.

today: must decide the scholarship direction to give letter writers final info. I don't know the scholarship direction. the place I want and have contacts says clearly "associate professor" only. we don't have rankings at the cc, but, to me, associate professor means tenure and publications and I don't have much of that. so why am I not applying to something more likely to accept my qualifications? have to get the cv updated and sent out this morning, as well. then I have a week left to write the application.

today also: giving a workshop for a group of guests at the college. trying to remember what I know about portfolios. hoping my colleague will be down the hall preparing, too. it's only three hours. I'm churning already.

not much painting getting done this week while ben t. is away. I just have to remind myself that I have next week and the week after. taking down blue tape and cleaning floors is part of the process. I'm just slow.

tomorrow: ben t.'s concerts an hour (plus) north of here. then south an hour (plus) to get to the weekend swim meet. almond joy is checking into the hotel on her own. I should be there by midnight. maybe I can sleep in Sat morning?

must find a sofa soon before craigslist takes over my house

I just keep checking to see what new sofas appear. it must be a very active moving week around here  because there are new listings every 10 minutes. must get other things done. so far, I  bought a piano bench and made an offer on a chair and will go see a desk soon. all I need is a sofa. repeat. all I need is a sofa.

(yesterday's piano bench, today - got the chair, but the desk couldn't be dismantled so I couldn't take it).

other complications in life (not in the timna family), but stuff is messy out there in the world. kind of makes one wonder about the fragility of the families around us.