This next step involves taking care of the “little” details. For the most part they aren’t terribly difficult to do and they have the potential to make a big difference in your trek.
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The month of May kicks off a flurry of activity in our lives. We’ve got Ellie’s birthday, our anniversary, my birthday, and Mike’s birthday. In addition to all of these important milestones there’s also the end of the school year and travel to see family (and/or visitors who come to see us). Knowing that the next few months are going to be filled to the brim, I’m making an effort to focus on the “basics.” By basics I mean the things that make me feel like a whole person, but always seem to come last (if at all).
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In my previous “day in the life” posts I’ve focused on workdays. For this month’s post I thought I’d highlight a weekend day… a very mundane weekend day. We were quite the social butterflies the weekend before this one so we purposefully made sure that at least one of the days of the weekend was open for nothing in particular. I’ve also mentioned before that I do my best to not work on the weekends or evenings, and this weekend was no exception.
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I 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.
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We needed to get from Columbus, OH to Portland, OR by mid-September for my official start date. We closed on our condo in late August and our apartment move in date was at the beginning of September, giving us about a week to make the trek. There were a number of routes we could have taken in order to get from OH to OR. What helped us decide were family and friends living in a few cities along our potential routes.
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The 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.
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Once we knew where we’d be living, how we’d be moving, and what stuff we’d be moving, we needed to figure out how to pack everything. We could have done this in a more economical way; however, we were too exhausted to go hunting for free boxes. Using the list of everything we owned from step 8 (which also included potential box sizes), I estimated the number and sizes of the boxes we’d need, and sent Mike to buy them (with the funds coming from our $7000 moving budget from my university).
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I 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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Generally speaking, I try to pay attention to what’s working and what’s not working in terms of managing the overwhelm that often comes with this job (or any job). Paying attention to these strategies is a lovely first step, but then I actually have to keep doing the things that are working and/or figure out how to adjust whatever isn’t working. I’m good at the noticing part, not as good with the follow through (always a work in progress!). To remind myself to continue to do what’s working and adjust what isn’t, I thought I’d share where I’m at right now.
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This week marked the official start to my third spring term. My first year on the tenure track I “eased” into the school year, meaning that during my first quarter I served as an advisor but was not in the classroom. My second quarter I added one class, and my third quarter I added another class so that I was teaching two courses and had a full advising load. This strategy worked well, particularly because when fall term started, Ellie was four months old. It gave me a little bit a of chance to catch my breath before jumping into classes.
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