Today, I skipped work. In my former life as an adjunct professor, I usually taught on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I used Fridays to learn new things–mostly new technical things. I wish I could reinstitute this policy. I am sometimes able to do this at work, but not always. Because the phone rings, the e-mail comes in–someone needs me for something. And that’s one difference between working a regular, 9-to-5 job vs. being in the academy. Oh, I know there are committee meetings, students at your door, letters of recommendation, etc. I’m married to a professor, so I know. But if you want to hide at your house one day a week, you can. Your time is your own to decide how to fill. You decide when the students can come visit (office hours) or when you’ll write that letter. Committee meetings, faculty meetings, okay, but these are far less frequent than my phone calls–believe me.
So today I’m taking my life back. I’m really feeling pretty good about this. I’ve been gradually, over the past year, taking my life back. I jumped from the professor track to an I-don’t-know-what track and am really starting to make it the Laura track. So here’s the plan for the day:
- Work on the novel–writing, not reading. I’m on page 87. I’m hoping to be to 100 by the end of the weekend.
- Pull out the poetry again. My poetry is not so great, but it’s mine and I’m thinking I want to work on posting it online in some sort of multimedia form.
- Buy a scanner. I need to scan pictures for the above project.
- Plant flowers. As I said, I’m not much into Mom/Housewife stuff, but I feel compelled to keep up just a little. Plus, I like looking at flowers.
- Take housewarming gift to friend. Much belated.
- Laundry–but I might wait until tomorrow. 🙂
- Blog
Not a bad list. We’ll see how it goes.
