Exhaling for a moment

  • Apparently Purdue and Mystery U coordinate their "overwhelm the new faculty" schedule.
  • Had lunch with the provost this week. Take home message: time would have been better spent bringing in oodles of grant money. Avoid desert.
  • Have been consciously avoiding blogging as part of a get-things-done mode.
  • Unfortunately, last night I got sucked into the worst show on television last night. Did not help get-things-done.
  • We have tomorrow off. Yay, no meetings. (well, one, but it's off campus).
  • I am thinking about rearranging my office. It's Jane's fault.
  • I actually have a number of posts in my head or even partially written. Maybe some will eventually show up here.
  • I had a good talk with my mentor this afternoon. She helped me feel better after the provost lunch and Mommyprof's drama.
  • I'm not sure I want to be in Mystery City forever, but at least I'd like it to be my decision to make.
  • I need spring teaching clothes. I need to find time to shop for spring teaching clothes. I also need more socks.
  • I really want to go to a Tenebrae service tonight but I'm not sure how to manage it with Minnow. The service is at 7:30. What do you think the chances are that I could take her and she'd fall asleep in the darkness. Yes, I know it wouldn't work. But wouldn't it be nice if it did.
  • I also need to stop this list and post it and then go get Minnow from daycare.

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a) good to have meetings with provosts, chairs, everyone who will decide your future
b) don't forget pubs, pubs get you grants, I fell into the "write lots of grants never miss a deadline mode" and let papers slide. grant competiveness took a hit, despite the fact the prelim data looked good and the grants were written excellently (and reviewed very critical colleagues)
c) teaching, service, advising etc. will always fill time, they always have the most immediate deadlines, and new faculty ALWAYS overprep and overdo these.

d) good luck