It’s a busy Sunday. My wife and I have family in town and lots of little errands that need doing, so I’ll be unable to do much posting over the next few days. I will get to the wage and gender issue (based on the Times article linked in the previous post) eventually.
August is a strange month. You see, unlike all but a very few of my peers, I have never not been in school. (I started Humpty-Dumpty nursery school in the fall of 1970, and have been in school ever since. I went from high school to college to graduate work to tenure-track teaching without a single semester’s break.). And after nearly forty years of “going back to school” in the vague vicinity of Labor Day, August is always my month of anticipation. I’m rethinking syllabi; catching up on reading I can use in classes; anticipating the coming of the Premiership and college football seasons; trying to get in some good “down time” with my wife, friends, and family.
It’s a time both soporific and anxious. It’s not the best time for blogging.
Wow, you shouldn’t have admitted that. Wait for the cries of “clueless acedemic” to come cascading down.
I don’t get it: you still have the same problems in acedemia that you have in corporate.
I’ve been called a “clueless academic” for as long as I can remember, Antigone.
I like the rhythms of the academic year: the butterflies I get in my stomach before meeting my first classes, the stress of grading midterms, fall finals and Christmas shopping all rolling together… it’s what I’ve known all my life (as the son of two college professors, I had no other way of life modeled for me.) But August means a certain amount of nervous anticipation, and it’s not a bad kind of nervousness, either…
Hugo, I have to admit that I *love* the rhythms of the school calendar, and I miss it. I’ll be glad when Maya starts “real” school (versus preschool/daycare) just so I can have that again!
My mom just retired from teaching this Spring, and she said it still hasn’t hit, and that it simply won’t hit home until mid-late August arrives and she doesn’t return. Until then, it feels like a normal summer vaca. Seems reasonable to me.
Enjoy the anticipation and minimize the anxiety as you can; both are such classic ENFP responses.
Allison
PS — we’re moving to Europe sometime this Fall, and it means I will a) get to be a stay-at-home parent and b) possibly get to start taking grad coursework online. Don’t even get me started how psyched I am about that!
Do you watch the Premiership on Setanta Sports AND Fox Soccer Channel? If Martins does leave Newcastle (as suspected), their chances of getting a UEFA cup spot diminishes. The team with big Sam is an enigma. Big Sam is not a coach who will galvanize and make the team play well consistently. What do you think?
I think if Owen can get healthy, and with the addition of Alan Smith and Viduka, the Magpies finish well within UEFA range. I’m picking them 6th in the Premiership. In case anyone’s interested, here are my picks for the top five:
1. Man United
2. Chelsea
3. Tottenham (yes, here at #3)
4. Liverpool
5. Arsenal (yes, down here)
6. Newcastle