How about a day-in-the-life post? Can't have NaBloPoMo without a day-in-the-life post, right?
I think of November as bleak and bare and gray, but we had glorious sunshine all day today. As I was walking to work this morning I encountered the fattest squirrel I've ever seen. The oaks and walnuts all bore bumper crops this year, and the squirrels in these parts are mostly looking portly. But this guy-- he could have gone on the squirrel sumo circuit. He appeared to have about three chins, even though I never thought of squirrel chins as being especially conspicuous.
Heading across the quad to my building I saw a student wearing John Lennon-esque sunglasses, only with a third round lens perched above the nosepiece. Maybe his third eye needs some sun protection too? Is this a thing now?
The work habit I should protect most diligently has been a little wobbly this fall, but today I hit the target: before I did anything else in the office, I set a writing timer and worked on my revisions. That paper is almost ready to resubmit. I had hoped to get in a little grading before I headed up to class, but sometimes my hypothetical calendar is more accommodating than my actual calendar.
I taught back-to-back classes and then scurried over to the office that handles Scantron forms. They've limited their hours and I wanted to be sure to get the most recent forms back before my office hours started. I want to remember the walk across the quad-- the drifted golden ginkgo leaves on the sidewalk, and the graceful old trees in varying degrees of deshabille. The bleak and bare days are coming, but there's plenty of beauty outside if I'm willing to see it.
I had packed a colorful bean salad with hard-boiled eggs for lunch, and I had an even more colorful beet slaw in my office fridge. Over lunch I finished the Spelling Bee and did the Wordle, but there wasn't much time to linger. Office hours were busier than usual, and my afternoon to-do list was never going to fit in my actual afternoon. There are too many tasks I didn't complete, but I was able to get feedback to a grad student on a lengthy literature review, and make an update to the department website, and slash my inbox tally down to 18.
My department chair is teaching a class with some content that's unfamiliar to him, and I volunteered to do a couple of guest lectures. It's at the end of the day, with visibly drooping undergrads. About a third of them seemed genuinely interested in the material; about a third of them seemed totally checked out. These guest lectures have cemented my resolve to preserve the low-technology vibe of my undergrad classrooms for as long as I possibly can. If I had to teach regularly in an environment with that many obviously checked out students, I'd have to quit my job. (Maybe the squirrel sumo circuit could be my next move?)
I left my office feeling pre-gloomy, because I don't love walking home in the dark. But there was still a residual sunset glow along the western horizon, with a few stars emerging overhead. It was quiet and peaceful, and I finished the rosary as I walked. Elwood had been making Festival of Umami Shallot Pasta; I set the table and we ate not long after I got in.
We went to a documentary at our neighborhood theater and had a beer together afterward, and when we got home I said goodnight to Stella and Sandy and finished the dishes lickety-split. Time for me to find my toothbrush and inch a little further forward in The Claverings. See you tomorrow, friends.
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