rebeccmeister: (Default)
[personal profile] rebeccmeister
Yesterday was one of those anticlimactic end-of-semester days. I am not complaining. I informed my students of their grades towards the end of the day on Monday, then posted their final grades yesterday at around 11 am. I had one student point out a discrepancy, and had another student finish things out with a late final, but that was it. Not too bad. The majority of students were able to bring their overall course grades up by doing better on the final exam than on the last two midterms, which was reassuring. The final wasn't impossibly hard, but it wasn't easy, either.

The rest of the day was then somewhat aimless. Again, I'm not complaining. Aimless time is incredibly important for me, as it's often a precursor to being able to think about and do stuff that is difficult to tackle in the middle of everything else. I got caught up on reading tables of contents for a couple of scientific journals, and filed away a half-dozen articles on the "read later" list. I don't always actually get to them, but that's at least one step in clearing out email inboxes. I also got the papers on my desk cleaned up and organized, including completely filling the recycling bin in my office. Give me another year or three and I might actually have a good overall workable office organizational system. Part of this included starting to get organized for Animal Physiology in the spring. I also realized that I needed to do something about the next steps of a small experiment: due to being short on time during the semester, I'd left a couple trays of (dry) ant food sitting out. But seeing as Office Mouse stuck his nose out yesterday, I can't assume anything edible is safe if it's left out in the open. So I got that project contained for now.

I also decided that today, Wednesday, is going to be a "me" day. On a certain level, this feels extravagant, but on another level, how often do I actually do this sort of thing? Besides, technically campus is closed for 2 weeks, starting today.

The thing about that is: I will still go in tomorrow and Friday to tend to animals. Living animals don't respect notions of work-life balance, after all. And I still have that general tension/frustration over the all-too-precious days between the end of the fall semester and start of spring semester. There are papers to write, and a conference to attend.

And I have just submitted my intention to apply for tenure next year, so I'll need to get to work on those things ASAP.

Just...not today. Today I will lounge around the house, drink some tea, and work on a handful of small projects I really want to get wrapped up.

Date: 2022-12-21 04:08 pm (UTC)
bluepapercup: (Default)
From: [personal profile] bluepapercup
Take as many ME days as you possibly can in this life!!!! No one is going to take them for you!!!

Also when do you want to book your Cat Sabbatical Weekend. The guest room has a desk now. :)

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