Day 80 -- A long week over

This time of year can be very frenetic -- we are counting down to the last 2 weeks of term. Final term projects and reports are coming in so the students see the end of their input and faculty begin the grading. When I looked at the calendar yesterday, I realized that I will be grading until the end of April. Some good is in that, since the two final exams will be a week apart, so I should be able to finish the class of 50 before getting the class of 70. Between now and then, there are a number of small items to grade for the big class and the large binders for the project in the smaller class. These came in to the Main office today while I was in meetings -- there are two paper boxes full of project reports waiting for me.

Now this isn't a full-on complaint, but a fact of life for an academic. I am behind in a number of areas this week, though, due to feeling under the weather. That, too, will pass. Yesterday and again today, when I felt particularly lousy, one line ran through my head -- one of those ear worms that won't go away. It spoke to the fact that I needed to be elsewhere to deal with feeling better and yet every time I thought I'd do the last small e-mail or phone call, 3 or 4 more small things were added to the pile. Again, not a bad thing, but difficult to deal with when feeling yucky. So -- I did leave early a few times this week and this did help <smile>. I'm confident that by the beginning of the week, things will be well on their way out of my system and I can regain the functionality I'm more used to having.

The song that I've heard this week encompasses the idea of overwork and the need to change the situation. For me this was heading home for some 'me' time but for others it may be something else entirely. It is an oldie, but one whose message is still salient today. Enjoy!

We've gotta get out of this place -- The Animals