Small Gestures. Huge Reminders Of What Is Most Important.

It's the grind, man. The grind. I can't decipher what day it is, what page I'm on, which of the 535 unread emails I should address first, and how it is I'm supposed to be 20 places at the same time while meeting deadlines that this is due, and that is due, and come to my office, and 'oh, yeah, I have to teach, too.'

I've been at Fairfield almost six years and this is part for the course in January. I don't see any way to change this. Living in my office is the only cure, but even that is not enough. I will be late with work this year, slow in response, and unable to be on top of my game. I'm settling with that. This perfectionist realizes that, at this point, it is just impossible. The work of two...maybe three...jobs can't be done by one person. I love the grind, that's my nature, but not when it's become this.

Always, I'm doing what I can do the best way that I can do it.

I went to the CWP office in the English Department yesterday (sometimes I go over there to remind Caryn that I will eventually get to the backlog of our work - a promise I've been making since September), and Elizabeth Hilts, and adjunct facilitating the core writing program, had a note in my box with a tattoo she found. I love it. It is so nice to know someone is thinking of you and the little 'rub on' made my day. I will save it for another day, tattooing myself for an event or occasion where it is more suitable.

Arrived home late last night and got things prepped for class this morning - a debut in Bridgeport Public Schools with a new cohort of undergraduates. I'm looking forward to see how it goes.

And Happy Birthday, Edem! My goal is celebrate his birthday somehow, but I don't know exactly what the details will be yet.

We could spend the evening doing fact checking on all the reporting coming out in stereo from DC, but that is getting old. There aren't truths coming out of DC, and we merely wait to see how everything is unraveling and being reported.

Amidst the crazy stress that is par for the academic course, I guess what is hardest this year is a loss in faith in humanity. I thought people...at least Americans...were better than this.