In which Piers is told, "you're a good boy."

I got the phone call last night from my esteemed colleague and chair of my department tenure & promotion committee DP:  he said that the decision to forward my name for tenure and promotion was unanimous.  This is the first of about five steps the application has to go through, but a crucial one.

Today during the day I noticed that some of my colleagues kinda did a stutter step or double-take when they got near me...I wasn't surprised.  MEC, whose office is right next to mine, said some very kind things about me and about how the meeting went--how almost everyone in the room had something positive to say.  She is glad for me, I'm pretty sure.  At any rate, she ended our conversation by saying, "you're a good boy."  I thought it was sweet.

One step closer.

Weekend Update

1.  I spoke to a depressingly large number of students this week who were facing real trouble, either emotional, medical, or legal.  I tried to encourage, to be positive, to tell them that they can manage.  And now:  the outcome no one sees.  I'm hollowed-out inside. 

2.  The Runner says that I'm "different" from most people.  What I've found interesting in the conversations that have gone on this week is that what other people see is so far distant from what I see.

3.  Two snow days in two weeks makes for a happy Kindergartner, and a frustrated college professor.  I trust that we have seen the last of the frozen precipitation in our little corner of NWTN.

4.  It's a miracle!  The Kindergartner and Piers himself have managed to avoid all the infections and viruses and what-not that have been mowing down other members of the family. 

5.  The Vulcan Baby is now both snaggletoothed (three have emerged; two more on the way very shortly...four of them on top) and walking pretty much wherever he wishes.

6.  I was told yesterday by an older (voting) colleague that my tenure application looked very impressive . . . I hope it's both tenure-procuring and promotion-worthy.

In which Piers thinks about making a change.

I've been on Zoloft for a good long while.  The drug has been good to me--it helped me finish my doctorate, helped me make the transition from NC to NWTN, and has helped me up to my tenure decision.  That said, I'm not satisfied with the way it's working these days.  I'm increasingly prone to wonder if I've been working with a muddy, sluggish mind all these years.  I don't want to feel sluggish all the time any more.  Maybe I would feel sharper, clearer-eyed, if I went to something else, or went off the drugs entirely. 

Not too keen on antidepressant roulette either, though.  Who knows what side-effects lurk behind other pills?  And then there are those studies that attribute most of the efficacy of antidepressants to the placebo effect . . . maybe I should take those gag gift pills that they sell at the Hallmark?

Maybe a few days of warm sunshine would do the trick.  I don't know.

Today, by the numbers

Number of prescriptions I picked up at the CVS:  6.

Cost of said prescriptions:  $130.

Diagnoses:  1 case of Influenza, 1 double ear infection, and 1 strep infection.

Number of classes in which I changed rooms:  2.

Number of students:  85.

Hours of work I skipped to help with sick family:  3.

Number of birds completely eaten by Sock the Garage Kitty as he sat right outside the door: 1.

This the Wandering Wood

David Jay Spyker

In the forest you may find yourself lost, without companions.  You may come to a river which is not on a map.  You may lose sight of your quarry, and forget why you are there.  You may meet a dwarf, or the living Christ, or an old enemy of yours; or a new enemy, one you do not know until you see his face appear between the rustling leaves, and see the glint of his dagger.  You may find a woman asleep in a bower of leaves.  For a moment, before you don't recognize her, you will think she is someone you know.

--Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall

Adventures with Students, vol. 21

Today in my 1:00 class, I had a crazy mixture of things to deal with:

• One student is blind.
• One student is so severely asthmatic that she cannot sit near anyone wearing a scent.
• One student has a neurological disorder that they can't figure out, so she'll be spending the first week of February at the Mayo Clinic.  

eeek!  Kinda took the shine off it a little bit, actually (to quote my estimable father in law)

The Size

    Content thee, greedy heart.
Modest and moderate joys to those, that have
Title to more hereafter when they part,
            Are passing brave.
    Let th' upper springs into the low
    Descend and fall, and thou dost flow.

    What though some have a fraught
Of cloves and nutmegs, and in cinnamon sail;
If thou hast wherewithal to spice a draught,
            When griefs prevail;
    And for the future time art heir
    To th' Isle of spices, is't not fair?


(George Herbert)

It's the first day of class.

Here we goooo

It's all about Mario in this house these days. 

The Kindergartner says that I'm good at Mario 64 for the DS, that his mom is good at New Super Mario Brothers Wii, and that he is the best at both, and at New Super Mario Brothers for the DS.  When he and The Runner play on the Wii, it's hilarious to observe how competitive he gets.

see below.

Wit's an unruly engine, wildly striking
Sometimes a friend, sometimes the engineer.
Hast thou the knack?  pamper it not with liking:
But if thou want it, buy it not too dear.
Many, affecting wit beyond their power,
Have got to be a dear fool for an hour.
--Geo. Herbert

A final bit of introspection

Great masters who have shown mankind
An order it has yet to find,
What if all pedants say of you
As personalities be true?
All the more honour to you then
If, weaker than some other men,
You had the courage that survives
Soiled, shabby, egotistic lives,
If poverty or ugliness,
Ill health or social unsuccess
Hunted you out of life to play
At living in another way;
Yet the live quarry all the same
Were changed to huntsmen in the game,
And the wild furies of the past,
Tracked to their origins at last,
Trapped in a medium's artifice,
To charity, delight, increase,
Now large, magnificent, and calm,
Your changeless presences disarm
The sullen generations, still
The fright and fidget of the will,
And to the growing and the weak
Your final transformations speak . . .
 . . .
They challenge, warn and witness.  Who
That ever has the rashness to
Believe that he is one of those
The greatest of vocations chose,
Is not perpetually afraid
That he's unworthy of his trade,
As round his tiny homestead spread
The grand constructions of the dead,
Nor conscious, as he works, of their
Complete uncompromising stare,
And the surveillance of a board
Whose warrant cannot be ignored?

--W. H. Auden, "New Year Letter" (1940)

Since I can't just say that I've got a chili pepper on Ratemyprofessor.

I hate this kind of writing...actions should speak for themselves, right?  Anyway, here's a sample of what's going in the memo:

My teaching record shows that I am a popular instructor at UTM.  My enrollments are consistently high, even in upper-level courses.  Students almost to a person remark that I am an "enthusiastic" teacher who excels at presenting complicated material in helpful, engaging ways. . . this is not to say that they find my courses particularly easy; I require heavy amounts of reading and writing, which many students also note in their evaluations. 

The guide asks for a "concise" memo; I've got five handwritten pages.  Plus diagrams of battery-swallowing, of course.  (look here if you don't understand that reference)

Where does the time go?

How is it possible that I have 11 semesters to account for in this portfolio?

It can't have been that long ago that I moved to West Tennessee, can it?

Adventures in parenting, vol. 18

Don't even ask about Simon and Sock the Garage Kitty

The Kindergartner and Little Red have very seldom been at odds.  Most of the time, unless one or the other of them is especially grouchy, they play very well together. 

However:  Little Red and the Vulcan Baby . . . oh my goodness.  If Little Red goes near The Runner, Vulcan Baby screeches and gets to her as fast as he can.  If Vulcan Baby touches any of Little Red's toys, there is shouting and scolding of the baby.  By the two year old.  I have taken to telling him that I'm the daddy, not him.  More than once, there has been a moment where the two of them have been in close proximity, and then there's crying, and the baby is on the floor (crying) while Little Red is serenely doing whatever it was he was doing before.  Pushing is involved in those episodes, we think. 

Little Red better keep his eye out for when his little brother grows up a little...and gets more of those teeth.

Adventures in parenting, vol. 17

So, with the Christmas break behind us, how has The Kindergartner responded to his return to school?  He cried on Sunday because he wasn't going to get to go to school Monday; this morning he was so excited about getting back to school he couldn't eat his oatmeal.  I'd say he was ready to get back.

We also made our return to Tae Kwon Do last night; he and his little buddies worked awfully hard!  Lots of running, jumping, grappling.  It's fun to watch The Kindergartner get increasingly comfortable and confident with what they're doing in there...I think this will continue to pay dividends in terms of his general confidence and strength. 

Meanwhile, Little Red stumbled out of his room this morning just about ten minutes before I left to drop the older brother off; he immediately climbed up in my lap and snuggled close.  I love those moments. 

I'm supposed to write a memo explaining why I deserve tenure.

long climb.  Wonder what's on the other side?

It's proving surprisingly hard. 

Um, because I'm popular with students?  Because I like to be helpful?  I've been on a lot of committees? I'm fairly dependable?  I'm still here? 

This is the first post of the new year.

Brief report:

1.  Tenure application due in five days.
2.  I start back at work tomorrow, and I know that there's going to be a ton waiting on me. 
3.  I have been enjoying a few days in which to take afternoon naps under my cozy blanket.
4.  Vulcan Baby now has two teeth and is this close to walking.