My enthusiasm did indeed return overnight. I am really lucky to have my job. I spent the whole summer with a bad taste in my mouth after those two deeply unpleasant conversations at the end of the spring semester. But tonight I am remembering that if 1% of a person's students cause trouble, that means 99% of them are usually engaged and pleasant and eager to learn the things I am eager to teach. Math FTW.
I often flinch a little when I check my work email on Monday, because I do not ever check it on Sundays. But! This morning! The manuscript I submitted in April to the Journal of Human Lactation? R&R, baby. The editor is calling it a major revision but the comments are 100% manageable. JHL!
Peer review is not an enterprise for the faint of heart. The focus is on addressing weaknesses, improving rigor, straddling the line between thorough and concise. An encouraging piece of feedback from the editor is not common, but you'll never guess what she said in her email. She said, "I would really like to publish this manuscript. I think it makes a meaningful contribution that our readers will appreciate." Which, in peer-review-ese, might as well be, "Here, Dr. Most-Gladly, print this comment out and staple it to an aluminum foil crown that you then wear all week."
I watched the eclipse with my second son, who is taking math at Gladlyville U. this fall. We snagged glasses on campus after his class, and walked down to Stella's school. The kids were mostly inside for fear of retinal damage, but we sprang Stella and watched on the sidewalk as the moon slid across the sun and the shadows formed themselves into crescents. It made me think of the scene in Prince Caspian when Tarva and Alambil meet, and of the psalm where justice and peace kiss. Oooh, wouldn't it be cool if the meeting of these two celestial bodies presaged the end of the dominion of our real-world Miraz?
The Catholic high school is causing a new and unpleasant flavor of trouble, but I am not going to blog about it tonight. Elwood is heading up the current effort. I will just show up at the meeting and resolve not to say regrettable things. (The youngest kids are determined to go to public high school. They've heard quite enough about the Catholic high school.)
All right, friends, my 5:00 alarm will not care if this blog post is adequately edited, so I think I will fling it up into the internet instead of tweaking it. But do you know, I am looking forward to being back in the early-rising groove. Off to set up the coffee...
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