Lately

So you guys, it has been A Week. 

One of my colleagues had a baby on Tuesday morning. We knew, obviously, that this was coming, but the original plan was for baby to stay put a little longer. She had prepped materials for this last week, and we had talked about the possibility of my taking over for her this week, but...I was pretty stressed about taking over for her this week.

She was in the middle of giving feedback to our grad students on a lengthy project, and I have stepped into the middle of those conversations. I am doing my best to provide useful comments on something outside my specialty area. It has been eating a lot of my time and an even larger chunk of the space in my head.

This week was also crunch time for two service commitments. I was co-chair of the search committee until my colleague went on leave, which put me in charge. I was also on the admissions committee, a task which has required approximately six kazillion hours in the past few weeks, culminating in our marathon meeting this afternoon.

Earlier this semester, when my teaching load was lighter, I was in Write All The Papers mode, and I am still scrambling to tie up some of those loose ends. It's also been a hectic time for some non-work commitments. I'm kind of a stressball here, is what I'm saying. 

Tomorrow I have to stop back in the office, to give one more round of feedback and purge desk + inbox. But tomorrow I am also going to go for a nice long run and empty the laundry basket that's been sitting in my bedroom for too long. And on Sunday I am not even going to think about work. There will be enough time for that on Monday.