Ahhhh, home early

I let RB go a teeny bit early today, went back to the office, did the bag swap (this stays in the office, this goes with me), made a list of stuff to remember tomorrow, talked to Paul for a while, and came home. It's pretty wonderful to be here, in my sloppies, and about to go make dinner; usually I'm still at the office at this hour. Since I decided not to rush to get papers back to the 101s, and to postpone (maybe make optional) their revisions, I have been finding time to recharge my batteries--and I feel infinitely better as a result. And the students are relieved to have a break too: no significant homework for my class this weekend. I've driven them very hard to this point, and I know it, so backing off a bit feels like a gift for everyone, them and me.

Tonight, in fact, I'm going to try not to think about what I need to do tomorrow, never mind beyond that. Tomorrow will be soon enough for that. There's a little teeny bit of breathing room in terms of P&B business, too--and I just started to write about the stuff I have to do for that end of things: it's a compulsion. But no, I'm stopping myself. Tonight, I won't think about what next. Tonight, I'm just going to be here, home, quiet, brain turned off.

A nice thing happened today, though, that I want to record. I was in a meeting of college-wide assessment, and inadvertently facilitated the opening of a can of worms about an issue that should not be complicated at all (but has gotten too complicated to explain here). At the end of the meeting I went up to the VP for academic affairs, who is also the head high honcho of assessment, and apologized for adding to the ruckus. She reassured me that the can of worms was already open--but then, after we talked about that for a bit, she asked me if I'd like to join with her and a few other people on a committee she wants to form--long story about (and in fact still not entirely clear) what the committee would be working on, but it's essentially a "visionaries" committee. I said yes. Not only am I genuinely interested (and very much want to stay actively involved in all discussions about assessment, as I often have grave concerns about motivations), but also, a loud voice in my head said "this will look great on the promotion to full professor." I'm thinking about my next promotion and I haven't gotten this one yet. But little moments like that make me realize I am more visible than I often think--and visible in good ways. Her invitation was an awfully nice stroke, professionally speaking, and I'm very happy to have gotten it, like getting a gold star. Cool.