Things I don't want to do today, but don't have much choice about...
- Grade projects
- Prepare class materials
- Go outside (it's really cold out there)
- Wait for a tenure decision (due at the end of February)
- Call my old hosting company (CIHost) to argue about billing errors
- Call the pediatrician about my younger son's persistent cough
- Laundry
- Return phone calls
- Blog
- Answer e-mail
- Open my door
Seasonal affective disorder? Or just all-around crankiness? You be the judge. (Saw a bumper sticker I loved last week--"I'm not just A bitch--I'm THE bitch. And that's *MISS* bitch to you." -- or, in my case, *Dr.* Bitch...)
Liz,
Re: #1, your response is an appropriate aversion to reducing complex evaluation to a one-dimensional scale. Resist grading!
Re #3, it is cold. Don’t go out.
Re #4, remember that amid the storms of unpredictable contingency, you have allies and ports-of-call where you’re a friend and valued conversation partner. Then, I too am hoping for the suasive power of bloggers’ intercessions. . . .
Re #6, our daughter has had a gruesome hacking cough since she was a tiny kid. She's had pneumonia in the past, but I’m increasingly convinced that this is just a way she learned [physically, not cognitively] to cough. It sounds like a special effect from a professional horror movie, and people are always referring us to their pediatricians, but Pip just keeps on hacking (when she feels like it).
Laundry and phone calls will take care of themselves. Email, sad to say, multiplies when you're not looking (as you know), so you really have to keep on top of that.
Don’t by any means open the door.
But also, don’t start any contests over who THE bitch is. Please. Please. Please. Some of us respect your achievements, and those of others, without anyone sensing the need to escalate the stakes. . . .