back to work...

Aaahhh… the train… my own personal “Fortress of Solitude”… a place where I can think again… where I can breathe again… where I can WRITE again!

It’s Tuesday… I have two meetings in the city. See, we college professors don’t get the WHOLE summer off… we have to work… you know… once a month or so in July and August. :) Actually, I did a lot of work yesterday at home… putting together PDF files for the Fall semester… readings for classes and stuff. And today I plan on doing much the same, when I’m not in meetings… getting ready for next semester. I need to choose textbooks for my Classical Mechanics course… you know what that means… a trip to Barnes and Noble this morning for… ummm…. “research”!

Fuck, I love my job!

Meeting-wise there are two things happening today. First I have an end-of-the-year “exit meeting” with the Dean of the College. I’m not sure what the deal is... seems like it’s just something they always do... “How was the year? Do you have any issues?”... that kinda crap. I don’t think it’s related to the fact that the Dean is leaving, but it could be. The new Dean seems pretty gung-ho... she’s already making her mark. We got an email the other day informing us of a 3-day “Faculty Retreat” in early September at some mountain resort in upstate New York. That could be either really cool or really irritating... it’ll be fun to see what kind of “retreat” it is. That word can mean different things. Sometimes it means that getting-to-know-you, team-building, organizational-unity, rah-rah-rah bullshit. Sometimes it just means, “we’re going to lock you in a room and make you work for three days during the weekend.” I actually prefer the latter, but... whatever. If it means I get to sleep in a room where there are no people under the age of one, I’m there.

The other meeting today is a science department thing. Those are always fun. Intellectual discourse... lots of arguing, but all in a very positive way. It’s cool. Lock me in a room to do that for 3 days and I’ll be happy. Make me climb ropes and rappel out of trees and fall backwards with my eyes closed and wear a name tag and tell people about myself... no... fuck that... that’s something to retreat FROM!

So... that’s work for today. I have other stuff to write about, but I’ll do it in a separate entry.

D.