This week Mike and I celebrated 8 years of marriage… by flying across the country with a three year old, which is probably the most fun way you could spend an anniversary. It actually wasn’t that bad. Everything went as smoothly as it could go, we didn’t have any major meltdowns, and the airplane snacks/drinks kept Ellie entertained for a really long time.
Read MoreMost weeks I try to reserve weekends and evenings (and holidays… like Monday) for non-work related activities. When the work week includes a holiday and a day long workshop, mixed with meetings and other events, it makes it hard to do much else. This week I had about 12 hours (not even 2 full work days) to get all of my non-meeting work done, which wasn’t enough time… so work crept into personal time.
Read MoreIn case you haven’t been keeping track, as of June 1, 2019, I have been blogging for a full 6 months! 🎉🎉🎉 In these 6 months I have written 71 blog posts (including this one) totaling over 73,000 words. In honor of the 6 month mark, here are the 10 most visited posts from Toddler on the Tenure Track, plus a few insights on what I’ve learned since December 2018.
Read MoreWith the long weekend and our birthday extravaganza on Sunday I’m a day late with my weekly update. As the end of the school year gets closer and closer my brain is feeling increasingly fried. Summer can’t come soon enough! Even writing these short little reflections is proving to be a mental feat. One of the things I worked on this week was writing the first draft of an introduction section for an article and I encountered all sorts of resistance to writing. It was subtle, so I didn’t even realize I was doing it at first, until I noticed that I kept searching for anything else to do besides write (it’s not often that I can convince myself I should be grading instead!).
Read MoreWell, I started off the week with the best intentions, and then I caught Ellie’s cold and pretty much just managed to get things ready for my two classes. Although, as I was putting this post together I realized that I did some sort of workout every day except one this week, which is huge! So, I was able to keep momentum going with working out, despite getting sick (it was a head cold, so nothing too intense, just annoying).
Read MoreContinuing my trend of finding a workable balance between research, teaching, and service this week… with a heavy emphasis on research and teaching, and less so on service. Had a fair amount of meetings, mainly scheduled for Monday/Tuesday, which seems to work well for my working rhythm. I had a workshop scheduled for Friday afternoon that was cancelled and it happened to be a day when Ellie skipped a nap, so I texted Mike and they met me downtown and we walked along the waterfront, just like old times. No profound work related thoughts this week (maybe I’m tired… and I’m also attempting to write this while Ellie is talking, stream of consciousness style, in the background, so it’s hard to separate my thoughts from her talking!)
Read MoreLike last week, I was able to get work in on 4 different research projects (that are all at the paper writing stage) this week, even amidst meetings and teaching and emails. I’m waiting on a response to an R+R (for a special issue) that we resubmitted back in December (…I think?!… has it really been that long?!). I checked in earlier this month for an update and they said to send another message at the end of the month if I hadn’t heard. April 30th came and went and still no notification. With lots of other things going on last week, I didn’t want to email, have them respond about another R+R and start the countdown clock on that (and not be able to spend any time on it)… so I’ll check in next week and see what they say.
Read MoreI was able to do work on 4 different research projects (3 papers and 1 data collection project) this week, which feels like the most research related work I’ve done since the fall (has it really been that long?!). Honestly, I think it’s because my course prep feels under control and I’m not burning myself out with grading, so I have the mental energy to pick these projects back up. Plus, there aren’t any major advising related issues going on at the moment (knock on wood), which also helps.
Read MoreThe biggest news of my week is that the results (for lack of a better word) of my third year review came back and were overwhelmingly positive! It feels good to be on the other side of that milestone. Moving forward, I’ll just keep on, keeping on! Despite feeling pretty confident after submitting my materials back in February, I saw the response letter in my inbox this week and my heart started racing. I was sitting on the train on my way to campus, debating on whether or not to read the letter right then and there, or wait until I got to the privacy of my office in case there were any surprises.
Read MoreI have so much respect for people who travel regularly for work. I left for a conference in San Antonio on Tuesday morning and came back on Saturday morning (should have been Friday evening) and I am so exhausted. Prior to the conference I thought… I’ll have all this time to myself to get work done and work on the blog and relax and explore and watch cable TV and read… HA!
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