2023 Session 1 Week 14: Whom do you appreciate?

I inadvertently summoned the old cheer (2-4-6-8! Who do we appreciate?) in the title, and I've decided to keep it--with a slight grammatical correction, of course. Oddly, I was chanting this for my son just the other day as we walked to the bus stop; I can't remember why, only that it was somehow relevant, and that he had never heard of it.

For this week, in continuing with our Focus on the Good theme, I'm asking you to tell us a bit about someone for whom you're grateful. This could be someone geographically and personally close to you (e.g. a spouse, good friend, neighbor), or someone more removed (an old friend you might go a year without speaking to but whose friendship is still meaningful, a family member who has passed on, or even someone from the depths of history whose life, example, or works have had a strong impact on you).

This topic is particularly relevant to me right now because my husband is about to spend a month as a scholar in residence in a city about 7 hours away (by train); my son and I will visit him in a couple of weeks, but otherwise, we're on our own! A part of me will enjoy the very quiet days at home with no one else around, but I'm also realizing how strange it will be to have no adult companionship--like at all, since I'm not going in to work or anything--and how great it is to have a partner in housework. (Plus, I do kinda like the guy.) But I'll say more about that in my comment.

Now, on to the roll call:

Daisy:

All lab exams and marking
Finish data processing and make pretty figures for co-authored paper
Figure out finances and adjust field work plans
Read/comment/edit thesis chapters
Do revisions on accepted paper
Sit down with new data and figure out what to do with it

Dame Eleanor Hull:

- set up more boards/assignments, at least one for each class
- grade one set of assignments from each class
- prep at least one lecture for grads*
- remember to show up for all this week's student conferences
- get back to writing: think about how to expand article to chapter
- sleep, walk, yoga in suitable amounts
- do some gardening if energy permits

heu mihi:

1. Enter edits to ch. 3
2. Yard clean-up
3. Edits to intro to essay collection
4. Integrate notes on French book into ch. 3
5. 10 hours on ch. 2 (planning and research)
6. Standard routines
7. Meal plan for next week (husband is leaving town for a month on April 10, so I need to start getting organized)

JaneB:

* do the everyday baseline chores when they need doing, not when I've run out of stuff
* do some D&D prep, play D&D
* read another book, do a little crochet
* do the bare minimum to prepare for teaching after Easter, make progress on the commercial project, mark a lot
* take an actual break over Easter, guilt free

Julie is in Italy!

Karen (held over):

*KL article - pull apart and outline structure for the two articles*
*Teaching prep - have everything up to week 3 fully polished apart from the bits being done by the digital learning team
*End of year exhibition - send out info to sound/session people
*3 x yoga
*Plant winter seeds

Susan: It was good to "see" you last week, and I hope that the coming weeks are better.

2023 Session 1 Week 13: Remembering good things

Hello everyone!
Hope your week was better than mine! The last straw on this camel was making a very large pot of coffee on Friday morning, extra large on account of not sleeping for a week while my kid is gone on her first big trip, and also rage from grant rejection and also insane stress from registration week for my first time being undergrad advisor… I turned it all on, and went next door for a quick meeting… I forgot to put the coffee pot under the coffee maker… So I spent the next 20 minutes cleaning up the flood and coffee grounds everywhere. On the bright side, I have that set-up in the lab for a reason, so easy cleaning, and much more important, the coffee maker still worked even after that! The second pot was much better!

So what to write about? We have about 4 weeks left of the session. We all know that no amount of positivity can fix the big structural issues and problems, but small wins and little bits of fun keep us going. So for this week I’d love for you to share a list of ten (yes 10!) small good things that happened in the last week. Requirements (which of course you can totally ignore!) are: they have to be things that are directly for you – something nice someone said, or did, or something you did well… I’m picking a number because I love a good checklist, and also because I suspect I might not be the only one here in need of a quick pick-me-up! So, go!!! Don’t overthink them, I’m going to write my check-in right now before I chicken out!

Dame Eleanor Hull
- set up more boards/assignments, at least one for each class
- remember to show up for all student conferences
- clear a backlog of service tasks
- further book-spreadsheet work
- finish reading Irrelevant Romance
- other scholarly reading
- sleep, walk, yoga in suitable amounts

Daisy (carried over)
Finish data processing and make pretty figures for co-authored paper
End of fiscal year accounting (slightly different from regular accounting I guess?
Concert stuff
Read/comment/edit thesis chapters
Marking, marking, and marking
Volunteer tax stuff for community organization

Heu mihi
1. Enter edits to ch. 3
2. Work through last sections of ch. 1
3. Rewrite ch. 1 intro, using notes I made into my phone in the middle of a run
4. Clean up all of ch. 1 as much as possible
5. Research bitter style beers to decide what to brew next

JaneB
* do the everyday baseline chores when they need doing, not when I've run out of stuff (e.g. laundry when a load needs doing not when I have no undies)
* do some D&D prep, play D&D
* read another book, do a little crochet
* do the bare minimum to prepare for teaching after Easter, make progress on the commercial project, the big project I keep stressing about then not having time for, and the paper FormerPostDoc and I rashly agreed to write last year which is now coming due...
* wrap and post Easter treats for family members

Julie – is in Italy having a marvelous time! Enjoy!!
Goals here just for record…
1. Mark second batch of essays.
2. Apply for small grant I didn't know existed.
3. Email final archive
4. Admin tidying up before holiday.
5. Exercise
6. Sleep!
7. Final washing, packing etc for Italy!

2023 Session 1 Week 12: What's Working?

Whew! I'm glad that I left myself a reminder note to write the prompt this morning--I almost forgot!

I've been phoning it in on the prompts lately, so here's something maybe a little meatier. Of course, if that makes you not want to answer it, then that's fine! You can just tell us how things are going (or skip that, too--you all know the drill. I always like hearing your updates, though).

We're approaching the end of this session, somehow, so maybe it's time for a moment of reflection. What's been working for you? What routines have you adopted that have helped you through your weeks? What shortcuts? Are there things that you've been wise to ignore/neglect, even though they may have seemed important in the beginning?

Optional extra: What hasn't been working? For this one, I encourage you to think about self-care at least as much as work. So it's not an invitation to beat yourself up about writing too little, for example; rather, are you staying up checking email before bed, when you would be better off reading a few pages of a novel? Would treating yourself to a mid-morning cup of tea help you through the day? Or maybe there is a work routine that doesn't work for you (waiting until the morning to prep for class might make you feel rushed, for example). But self-flagellation is not the point here; I think we're all better off when we avoid that!

Last week's goals:

Daisy:

Finish data processing and make pretty figures for co-authored paper
End of fiscal year accounting (slightly different from regular accounting I guess?
Concert stuff
Read/comment/edit thesis chapters
Marking, marking, and marking
Volunteer tax stuff for community organization

Dame Eleanor Hull:

- set up more boards/assignments, at least one for each class
- further book-spreadsheet work
- take Reina to vet for teeth cleaning
- read at least 500 lines of Irrelevant Romance
- other scholarly reading
- sleep, walk, yoga in suitable amounts

heu mihi:

1. Resume all normal routines
2. Work on draft of chapter 1 x 5, even if I'm not doing really substantial work
3. Research: Try to fill in (provisionally) some of the question/problem/blank areas
4. Take kid to two trial martial arts lessons (putting this here so that I don't forget about them!!)
5. Contact a friend about getting together
6. Some amount of yard clean-up, however minimal--I don't want to rake the leaves before the bugs are done hibernating under them, or whatever

JaneB:

Three strike days, one working day which is nearly full of meetings.
* pick up the house before the decluttering woman comes on Wednesday (& have a productive day when she does come)
* do some D&D prep, play D&D
* finish reading a book, do a little crochet
* do the bare minimum to prepare for the following week's teaching (by workload I have 1.5 hours NOT in meetings in which to deal with three days emails and a full week's prep - at least it's a light teaching week?)
* buy and wrap Easter treats for family members ready to post out the following week.

Julie:

1. Finish first batch of marking (ha!)
2. Start second batch of marking
3. Watch c.20 video presentations of posters ahead of a meeting to judge poster session for a conference in two weeks (that I'm not attending).
4. Email archives for one research trip.
5. Exercise - run x 2, pilates x 1 class plus some practice, walk other days
6. Start getting ready for Italy trip

Susan (held over):

1. Read more of book to review
2. Re-read book by speaker
3. Keep up with the minimum admin stuff
4. Enjoy conference
5. Get back to walking/ exercising

2023 Session 1 Week 11: Must Travel!

 

Hello everyone!

Spring seems to be trying to stick its head out of the snow a little – the many garden centers and farms around my area are all running “get your seedlings and supplies” adds on their billboards and there is a distinct warmth in the air… Of course we also got 30cm of snow last week but who’s counting? I’m very curious about spring in these parts, I’ve never really been around here in spring so it is all new. It is definitely a different climate than my former area, so I’m betting we get our daffodils before June!

This week I did a bunch of organizing for a few upcoming trips, two work ones for me in May and a performance trip for kid, so I’ve been thinking about travel. I have not been on a plane since February 2020 so it is kind of odd to contemplate!

For a prompt this week – if you were offered an all-expense paid somewhere you have never been, and it has to be at least a plane trip away, where would you go? How about if you had to go alone? Would that be the same destination if you could take someone along? What is your favourite armchair travel fantasy trip?

Enjoy the daydreams!

Also, my two clowns because cat pictures are always good :)

 

Goals below:

Dame Eleanor Hull

- grade undergrad papers
- set up discussion boards and at least one other assignment for post-break
- further book-spreadsheet work
- some House Thing (bookshelves? bathroom cupboard?)
- read at least 500 lines of Irrelevant Romance
- other scholarly reading
- Day Out With Friends
- call financial person

 

Daisy

Finish accounting
Finish project grant report
Catch up on marking
Do data processing for co-authored paper

 

Heu mihi

1. Content edit journal article (half of it is fine; I can finish next week)
2. Rough in B of C and B of N sections of ch. 1; list some of the questions that need answering
3. Bottle beer
4. Sit x 4, language x 5, yoga x 1, run x 1

 

JaneB

the goal is basically survival - do enough work on work days to not have a total disaster awaiting Future Me, use the strike days to do small things to improve my environment and restore a bit of self-energy, and that's probably it.

 

Julie

1. Finish first batch of marking (ha!)
2. Collate and send feedback to postdoc applicant
3. Watch c.20 video presentations of posters ahead of a meeting to judge poster session for a conference in two weeks (that I'm not attending).
4.Answer last frantic emails from students about assignments due this week.
5. Email archives for one research trip.
6. Phone a friend for a catch-up.
7. Get house back to normal after teenage invasion.

 

Karen (carried over)

KL article - pull apart and outline structure for the two articles

Teaching prep - have everything up to week 3 fully polished apart from the bits being done by the digital learning team

End of year exhibition - send out info to sound/session people

3 x yoga

Plant winter seeds

 

Susan (carried over)

1. Read more of book to review
2. Re-read book by speaker
3. Keep up with the minimum admin stuff
4. Enjoy conference
5. Get back to walking/ exercising