* Slowly circling around to working on some of the stalled projects...added a few rounds to the Little Ice Age socks, added a few rows to the Ostrich Plumes stole. I don't know. I want stuff to be done and I want to start new stuff but I'm finding it hard to force myself to work on the various projects.
* From the Better to be Lucky than Good (I guess) files: I had been promising a women's group I belong to that I'd look into how many scholarships we'd need to reassign. (The way our scholarship works is, once a recipient has won it, they get to keep it provided they have at least a 3.2 GPA, and they keep it until they are done with school - we've had a few people who first got the scholarship as an undergrad keep it through their Master's program). I had e-mailed early in the month to the administrator who is in charge of keeping the records. THEN the IT guys changed up the e-mail system on campus WITHOUT TELLING ANYONE and a goodly number of people could either not send, or were not receiving, their e-mail. (Mine was okay, I tested it - but a couple people who were trying to mail me were apparently caught up in the "can't send" bin).
I e-mailed again last week, and then called. (I hate being "that woman" but it was fairly urgent I get it done; we were supposed to present the potential new recipients at next month's meeting, and the whole committee needed to meet).
I was really unhappy about how long it was taking because there are two people in the group who seem to have bought into the meme that college professors are a lazy bunch who don't even work 20 hours a week, and if I fail to get something done I get snarked at in a low-level sort of way, and while I'm tough enough to withstand the snark, it just feels very unfair, when I know what I am doing every day of my life vs. what the snarkers are doing.
Also, the "present the candidates" arose because someone in the group was offended, apparently, that we were awarding scholarships to International students. There is nothing in the by-laws that says we should not, and frankly, that year, the International student we gave it to was CLEARLY the best candidate (in terms of GPA, need, activities, and potential). So now because of that we have to "present" the candidates and make sure everyone is okay with them. Which adds another layer of time pressure and complexity.
But anyway - I was stressing over not having the information, because I could just hear in my mind what a couple people would be saying if I didn't have candidates to present. (I will also note in passing that I almost very publicly resigned from this post a year or so back, when someone decided to level a big criticism about the selection process *in front of the entire group* at the meeting. I'm sorry but it's really shabby, in my opinion, if you have a big criticism of how someone does something, to hit them with it for the first time very publicly and in front of the rest of a group. At that point I did almost wind up getting upset because I was tired, I'd been juggling a lot of stuff that week, and just getting hit with, "I don't like how you're doing this extra unpaid volunteer job that I don't help at all with and I'm going to humiliate you in front of everyone else by calling you out on it right here when you don't have a chance to defend yourself." I was taught: "praise in public, criticize in private" and I think that's a good motto. I've never yet "spite quit" anything but that time I came really close to saying, "If you don't like how I'm leading this committee, you take a try at it" and walked out of there.)
So anyway, I was expecting the whole thing to wind up as a giant cluster.
And then, yesterday, I decided to just GO OVER to the office in question and ask in person. So I did. Turns out we only have one open slot this fall, and the admin figured it wasn't worth putting out a call for just one slot (we get like 50 applicants). Also, several people currently receiving scholarships are graduating in December, so what makes a lot more sense is to put out a call in January and offer the scholarship for summer term (when financial aid is a lot tighter) or fall 2014. So I'm off the hook, which is a huge relief. (Oh, I'm sure critics gotta criticize, but I think my decision is fully defensible and at any rate, it's backed up by a university admin, so there.)
* Lucky, part II: the textbook reps were out. They travel in packs now. (There were two of them). I like the textbooks I currently use and I'm not interested in being pressured to change, so I have no need to speak to them. (And I overheard them talking to a colleague; they were being quite pushy). So I got up and quietly closed my door. (They saw me earlier in the hall but probably didn't recognize me as faculty; I was in "mufti" - old khakis and a t-shirt, since yesterday was soils-lab day in ecology and I didn't want to wear anything I'd be sad if I got soil on). Anyway, I just wanted to be left alone. They went and buttonholed another one of my colleagues, and talked to him for a while, and then asked about me. "Oh," he said, "She's probably still teaching lab, or has left for the day." I think he knew I was still there and sitting in my office, and I appreciate the white lie. (Also, those reps? Didn't even bring the traditional food-offering of cheap frosted sugar cookies or donuts. I guess times are getting tough for textbook companies BUT I don't like being tag-teamed in my office by a couple women much more seriously dressed and made-up than I am)
* I went back out Tuesday and re-started the fieldwork. Sort of. Nothing much is flowering yet and I saw 0 bees. Then, yesterday, while walking over to that admin's office, I happened to notice a pot of plants near one of the building doors. It had that purple salvia in it and it was covered with honeybees. So I guess they're relying on plantings right now for nectar. (I'm sure that's been studied - the extent to which bees rely on human-planted areas vs. natural areas for nectar sources. Then again, if it has not, and it's a tractable sort of study.....)
I'm going to try again next week. I thought of going out Saturday but (a) It might rain (though that looks increasingly unlikely) and (b) I think it will be a good week before the goldenrod I saw is flowering sufficiently to have nectar available.
* It's still hot here - highs in the mid 90s. This seems so wrong, especially since the weather casters keep talking about how it's supposed to get cooler "sometime." (It's that blasted dome of high pressure doing this. It's also what is sinking our chances at getting any rain).
* Piano lessons restarted. It's kind of weird for me having my teacher come to my house. I admit it, I get a little weirded out by anyone coming to my house - I'm kind of a hermit that way. (I didn't play nearly as well as I had hoped I would, I think it was because I was kind of weirded out). For now, I'm working on "Spinning Song" (which I had been working on in sort of a desultory way but it helps to get feedback on it) and starting Bach's Invention #4. She's going to bring some other stuff for me to work on next week. She's only charging me $15 a lesson, I hope that's enough to cover her travel costs, but I guess it probably is or she'd have asked for more. ($15 for a half-hour lesson seems very, very cheap to me. I don't remember quite what I paid when she was in the studio but I think it was more than that. But then again - she had the cost of studio rent to cover).
(On the one hand, I miss having the Ponies out on the piano, but on the other hand, my living room does look remarkably less cluttered now. I still have to figure out where I'm going to put them all - I'm considering getting a shelf and putting it up either in my bedroom or my office-room at home and putting them up on it.)
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