Mostly a "workend"

I follow a Twitter feed I'll euphemize slightly as [Stuff] Academics Say.

They kind of mock (at least, I think it's mocking) the tradition of claiming 80-hour weeks or whatever by referring to 'workends'

Except, sometimes it is like that. I spent some of Saturday morning working on the ongoing manuscript (I am still unconvinced of its publishability, buy you still have to try). And then in the afternoon, I wrote an exam for this week. (And Friday afternoon was grading and writing Sunday School lesson, and yes, I consider that work).

Sunday, after church, I had to bake a cake for tonight (CWF, my turn to be hostess).

I did pick away at a few things - added a few rows to the Hagrid sweater, and worked a bit on the second Changeling wing. And I started the second version of the High Street Vest, so as to have something simple to work on for invigilating. (I still haven't decided what to to about that one class...)

This week is a two-evening-meeting week, and I admit I'm never super-excited for weeks like this. More and more, I need the ability just to come home at the end of the day and not go back out.

I'm trying to think ahead about some fun thing for my birthday (the end of this month). I think a trip to McKinney is still out; one of my students was complaining about how awful the road construction was on 75 down through there, and how hard it was to get back on the northbound interstate. (When. When will they finish it? This has been going on since 2008.)

So, I don't know. Most other things are too far for a weekend thing. (Actually, a Saturday thing - too many Sunday obligations to take a whole weekend). I suppose I could go to Sherman/Denison, I haven't been to the antique shops and such there recently - just making Friday afternoon runs to quickly buy groceries.

I do think part of my distress is that I haven't gotten out to do much other than grocery shop (and occasionally nip into the bookstore or JoAnn's) for a long time. (I'd love to take a day and go to McKinney, but not if it's going to be a nightmare getting there or getting back home).

My brother and his family are in San Diego (my sis-in-law had meetings). They went to Legoland and he sent me a bunch of pictures. It's even hard for me to look at them because right now I feel envious of someone getting to go on vacation and have fun.

I was also thinking more this morning driving in about my old French teacher, the one who used to walk in to campus whistling and swinging his briefcase and how much I envy that attitude. I drive in to work weighed down by the list of obligations I have in the coming day - making check boxes in my head of what I have to get done when. I might, on some days, figuratively swing my briefcase when I am coming HOME, but not going to work. And I feel like I should be happier and more grateful about this job but....there's just so much to get done, it feels like every day I have to build a shaky little tower of blocks and if I don't position the base blocks just right, everything will fall down and I will fail.

(Maybe having a spouse to help take care of things is part of the secret. I don't know. Or maybe it is, as I said before, just an unfortunate accident of my genetics or neurotransmitters that I cannot both be happy and thinking of my obligations at the same time)

Also, I forgot the papers I graded and the exam I wrote at home, and had to go back to get them (this is why I'm glad I bought a house ~5 minutes from campus). As I walked back in the door of my house, I thought, "If that cosmological model where they say a new universe is born every time someone is faced with a decision, there was a new universe just created in which I walked in the door, said "forget it," and went back to bed." I didn't do it, of course, but I admit the thought crossed my mind.

I'd happily trade a work-day for a snow-day with anyone on the East Coast who has missed too many days of teaching so far....

And more Monday: Anthem finally officially "owned up" to us that our BC/BS data got swept up in the hack. "No medical records were stolen" they say. I care more about my social-security number being stolen....

I wasted a bunch of time Friday morning on the phone with places getting fraud watches put on accounts. I'm pretty angry about this whole thing - I have been careful about online shopping (not buying from offshore or dodgy-seeming places), I refuse to give out my SSN as an identifying number for stuff if I at all can - and still my info gets stolen.

I hope they do something to make this right for us. (And this is why I'm so leery of doing that long questionnaire they give us that they say will allow us to cut our deductible - just who will get that information and what will it be used for).

I hope, at a minimum, they give us free credit monitoring. And maybe get a few lawyers on retainer in case anyone does suffer identity theft. A colleague of mine had her identity stolen about 10 years ago and it seemed like a major effort to get it fixed....I just don't have the emotional energy to deal with something like that right now.