Back in the Saddle Again

So, some people have been a bit miffed that I haven’t blogged recently. Well, I’d like to have blogged recently. I’ve just been a bit too damned busy in real life to do so. Or too mad to do so. As to the mad part, I’ll blog very soon about my uncle’s funeral in all its Jehovah’s Witness drama, so stay tuned for that. Life has been a bit of a flurry for the past few weeks.

Mainly, I’ve been settling into my new job. Mondays equal a painful five sections of class to teach. Wednesdays are four sections and Fridays are three. In theory, I have Tuesdays and Thursdays to grade and plan. But mostly they’ve been sucked up with meetings or fixing administrative snafus. I have a busy schedule for a lower rung prof, really. I’m teaching what’s called a 4/4 load, which is pretty much the accepted maximum that you can give somebody. This fall, I’m technically teaching six classes, not four. But because the hours work out to be the same it’s considered 4/4. Normally, your work load would sort of stop there, if you were hired just to teach. But...considering I’m also supposed to be putting out almost the same level of research that my other PhD’d colleagues are doing (as a higher up basically informed me), I’ve got to figure out a way to fit that in somehow. I'm being strongly encouraged to publish. Already. I’m required to do “service,” which basically means sitting in on a committee. My committees are full of deans, so it’s important not to drool on my shirt when I go in. That seems to be one of the harder parts of the job. I’m also expected to conference it up every now and again, and I’m scheduled to go to the biggest composition conference in our field in March. As a presenter. *Gulp.* I’m trying my damndest to hold to a normal 9-5 schedule (more like 8-5, really) and not work on the weekends. That will be a new experience for me.

The kids are interesting. They’re all first generation college students, so they come with their own sets of skills and weaknesses. Only about 25% of them are expected to make it to graduation--a stat I'd like to change. They don’t like talking in class. It’s harder to draw them out of their shell. But I like them all. Which is a first. Normally, there’s a few duds I’d like to get rid of. Maybe my social worker gene is blinding me to their true flaws, or something.

The job comes with its own set of perks and social drama, which I may blog about in much further detail later. I have one office mate, but she never shows up. So I basically have the office to myself. It’s a sweet set up, too. JP and Batmite! would be really jealous. Or maybe not, since they got the hell out of Dodge already. So is the person who lost the job to me, I think. She’s been acting weird around me, and I was actually afraid that this would happen. Originally, we were supposed to share an office. I thought that was a bad idea, but I think she actually asked to be moved. I’ve gone out of my way to be nice, but she’s acting really…weird. Sigh. Someone who is faculty who had been really snotty to me (no, not the Balrog) all last year has come by my office to introduce himself. Four times. I have three teaching assistants that I control. Mwa-ha-ha-ha. One of them is a drama queen, and I may have to put the smack down on her behavior. A forthcoming blog on that will commence.

But mainly, I’m busy trying to rise to the expectations I’ve been given, trying to reach a bunch of teenagers who are scared to death, all the while maintaining a part of my life that’s my “own” without fully getting absorbed into academia.

Take Friday, for example. I taught until about 12:30. I had a couple of hours in the office of getting copies made, prepping for next week’s classes, making final funeral arrangements, blah. At 3:30 I had a committee meeting. At 4:30 there was the required face time at the department beginning of year function (where apparently the chair had announced my award and my appointment, so the snotty dude introduced himself and his entire family to me again at that function). Then I rushed back to pick up D/B because there was a new faculty welcome event at the local woman politician’s house. I thought about ditching out, but I’m glad I didn’t. The first two people I met when we got there were the dean of my college and her assistant. That’s basically the CEO and the VP. They called me by my first name. I was glad I showed up. Then at 7:30, a rush to the local elementary school to meet Dante’s new teacher. Then at 8:00, Fight Night! Woot. At that point in the week, I needed to see people beat each other to a pulp for my entertainment to feel some sort of “balance” in my life. Sheesh.

More later.

-- Dante’s Virgil