Bridge Over Troubled Waters
Entry posted by docoflove1974
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Another long absence. I know, I've missed you guys, too. Well, honestly, for the entire month of March I was so damned busy that I didn't miss anyone...that requires down time, a luxury that I had none of.
The biggest issue lately has been getting colleagues to finish their work. The problem of this situation--mine being uncommon--is that my colleagues had very valid excuses for not getting their part of the projects in question done. One colleague had a family emergency--one of her teenaged sons suddenly had stroke-like symptoms, and after a myriad of doctor appointments the diagnosis was that the poor kid suffers from migraines, which are induced by stress. What stress, you might ask? Oh, the kind of stress that results in parents who are bitterly divorced, with one parent (my colleague) providing the discipline and guidance of a good parent, while the other (her ex-husband) not giving a flip about being a parent, and who instead would rather bicker about how much money he has to pay in child support and pretend that getting a job is the worst punishment that could be extolled upon him. So between visits to the doctors, the psychiatrist, and the courts, she's been burning the proverbial midnight oil to get things done...and I think she just caught up a few days ago.
Another colleague is suffering from an unknown illness...and while she hasn't missed any teaching days, she's had to back out of some committee work in order to get her health in order. And since it's a digestion problem, well, you can imagine that her energy level isn't what it usually is.
The third colleague is also a local politician, and is heavy into the budget of the city. Of course, if you get into such an arena, you should accept the fact that you have to balance the rest of your life accordingly, and he does. Regardless, it meant that his part of the data wasn't in to me when I needed it.
So...all this swirling around my head, plus my private courses taking more of my time than I thought they would...oh, and 6 straight weeks of rain (ok, ok, the sun did come out for, like, 4 days in that stretch...so sue me), I was a right grouch. It was all I could do to just get my 40 winks in a night, with my mind whirling and deadlines approaching.
Finally, everything finished up the very last week of March. Even Mother Nature started to cooperate, and the weather cleared up right as I entered into Spring Break. And the timing couldn't have been better; a week with no work, no projects, and sunshine! Sure, it was also cold and windy, but who cares! Spring was here!
This week, I've been enjoying my 'normal' work load. Outside of one minor project in a couple of weeks, I'm done with special jobs, have most all of my major work projects done (just one more midterm to create, and then it's all grading from there). Even this weekend, I did a large chunk of my grading earlier in the week, and now just have a small stack of midterms to plow through. Looks like the rip-roaring rapids have slowed to a calm stream. Hmmm...maybe I'll go to the beach after all.
Edited to add: Despite the title of the blog, the real song in my head right now is the following, based on the absolutely gorgeous spring day that we had here:
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