Anyone want to loan me a bulldozer? I'll need one to shove around the big piles of work on my desk: papers to grade, advising folders to update, reports to file, committee work to continue ignoring until it can no longer be ignored. I promised myself that I wouldn't leave today without attending to enough of the piles to make it possible for me to go out of town on Friday, and even though I weaseled out of two afternoon meetings, I'm still here working 11 hours after I arrived.
I'm giving a paper at the College English Association conference in Pittsburgh on Saturday, which means that all my Friday tasks have to be tackled on Thursday, except Thursday is pretty crowded with advising appointments, which are crowding out my usual oases of work time. I value the time I spend with my advisees, but their presence causes some other matters to slip. This week's slippage has been immense. But I'm digging my way out little by little so that I can roll out of here on Friday without so much as a glance back at whatever's left of the piles of work.
My fear right now is that the slippage will get extreme and I'll be buried under piles of papers. If you don't hear from me in 24 hours, send in the bulldozers.
No comments:
Post a Comment