My dream sabbatical

I thought today's project would be easy: write a proposal requesting a spring 2012 sabbatical. Piece of cake, right? I'm way overdue for a sabbatical and I've written so many successful proposals for travel grants and research grants that I ought to be able to write a sabbatical proposal in my sleep.

Well, maybe I'd better try it that way because I'm not making any progress in my current state. To take a sabbatical starting in January 2012, I need to submit a proposal this fall outlining a specific sabbatical project. The problem is simple: I don't always know what I want to do next week! How am I supposed to outline a project to which I'll devote an entire semester in 2012?

Of course I have projects, zillions of little projects, some of which I am attempting to publish piecemeal and then knitting them together to make larger and larger projects that will eventually coalesce into my Magnum Opus, or actually several, um, whatever you call the plural of "Magnum Opus." Opera? Sing it with me!

But those projects ought to be done way earlier than January 2012. One of them is done right now and two others are well on the way. At this point it's hard to imagine where my restless brain might lead me in the next 18 months.

Besides, I'd like to use my sabbatical to do something completely different, something I can't normally do during the regular course of teaching, professional development, and service. My dream sabbatical would involve a short-term teaching gig someplace interesting and relevant to my research (like New Zealand, say, or eastern Europe or the Caribbean or even Chicago), but I don't have the vaguest idea how to make that happen. I look at opportunities on the Fulbright website, but they seem designed for someone with a life very different from mine. I can't leave the country for six months! Who would weed my garden?

So instead I sit here trying to invent a project that will sound convincing on a sabbatical proposal, something other than "just give me the sabbatical and I'm sure I'll find an interesting way to spend my time." I have a feeling that the only way to achieve my dream sabbatical would be to write the proposal in my sleep--and then keep on dreaming.