Tuesday morning things

* Finished the updates/corrections on the AAUW yearbook for this coming fall today. One big thing I noticed: the total take for the children's play was down by about $1500. I know a lot of schools cancelled. This came right at the tail end of the teacher's strike (early April; possibly some schools were still out). Everything has ripples; everything has unintended consequences.

(we use this as a fundraising thing for scholarships; we collect the money and do the logistics of contacting the schools, and we serve as ushers at the play, and then we split the money equally with the Theater department, who produce the play).

We'll still be able to fund our scholarships for this fall but if we have another bad year we may have to reduce the number of scholarships given (which I think is preferable to cutting back the funds each student gets).

* I have my six-months' checkup (I have no idea if this is my specific doctor's way of doing things, or if this is a recommendation for someone with a "chronic but well-controlled" issue (my high blood pressure) or if it's something that someone who otherwise almost never needs a doctor (I am disgustingly healthy most of the time) is supposed to do). I had bloodwork earlier so that will be discussed and that is the one thing I am low-grade concerned about - as I've noted before, I have a weak family history of type II diabetes (a great-grandfather on my dad's side had it and it probably contributed to his death back in 1922 when pretty much all you could do was dietarily restrict) and my dad is pre-diabetic. But then again, I'm telling myself:

- I have my mom's healthy-as-the-proverbial-horse genes as well as my dad's (her mother made it to 92, a great-uncle of mine made it to 101, most of the family made it to old ages with only relatively minor issues)
- I work out, and my dad is and was pretty sedentary. I have done regular (i.e., most days of the week) exercise for more than half my life at this point
- I probably eat more carefully than he does; I probably eat fewer carbohydrates. And I eat relatively little sugar, and I don't eat fast food, and I avoid cured meats (which have been proposed as yet another contributing factor). I try to mostly eat pretty "basic" food, in the sense of stuff that's not been changed greatly from how it came off the plant or out of the animal.
- I'm still a good 20-25 years younger than my dad was when he was first diagnosed.

But. I still worry, because family history, fattish woman, and, I was one of those kids who would sneak sugar cubes straight from the box whenever I could. (I was pretending to be a horse, though I also just liked the crunchy sugar and how it melted on my tongue). I'm hoping past dietary indiscretions don't catch me up in a bad way. (A friend of my mom's used to shame her kids for eating sugar and told them they'd get diabetes from it. Which I know as an adult is not really true but on some level the amount of carbohydrates one consumes MIGHT play a role in the development of the condition. And also, stuff you hear as a kid tends to lodge in your psyche....)

And also, fat-shaming is so strong in our culture that it's hard for me to say "dammit, I work out and I eat a lot of vegetables and I do not eat a lot of sugar so just leave me alone"

I've never had an issue before, but my nature is to worry about things. I really don't want ANOTHER medication to take (and I know metformin and its relatives can cause GI upset, something I don't want more of) and MORE dietary restrictions (I like being able to have the occasional cookies with my tea, or, for that matter, sugar in my tea).


And of course the pressure of ads that seem to suggest that just about everyone in America is pre-diabetic and is one candy bar or one Coke away from full-blown Type II, even though I know that's not reasonable, it still preys on my mind. 

My doctor has never harassed me about my weight in any way (which is why she's still my doctor), but I certainly get enough harassment from media sources.

I've promised myself though that if all goes well I am going to go to Sherman after the appointment. I need to go to the Ulta and I want to go to the JoAnn's and I need to go to the natural-foods store and I might even go out for lunch.

* Last night, casting about for something to watch while I knitted, I decided to start "Parks and Recreation" (season 1 and season 2, at least, are free on Amazon Prime right now). I had never really seen it though I knew my dad watched it.

It's reasonably funny and it's sufficiently diverting. I'm not sure I LOVE it yet but it's better than watching the news or something, and it was probably a better choice than an early season of House, MD (also available on Amazon Prime) because House was sometimes kind of depressing.

It's similar to The Office in style; that sort of "uncomfortable humor" which is a little bit like stuff that happens in real life, just amplified a LITTLE bit to make the cringe more cringey, and also features people directly addressing the camera (which I am not so sure how I feel about that)

One line I liked from the pilot - Leslie Knope is talking about people yelling at her, and she assumes the yelling represents passion, so she comments that there are "people caring loudly at me" which made me laugh and will be something I think about in the future. (Also, in an early episode, someone stood up during the question session at a town meeting about a proposed park, said "I have more of a comment than  a question" and I had to laugh because that's the stereotype of every "silverback" male professor at every scientific conference ever where a grad student presents results that disprove something he's worked on for years....)

I'll probably keep up with it, watching an episode or two an evening, until I run out the seasons available. (The bonus: no commercials, so each episode is something like 22 minutes instead of 30)

I forget that this is a perk included with my free quick shipping. Maybe I decide to keep it - even though it's gone up in price, it's still only about $10 a month, and I remember when movie rentals were between $3 and $5 so....two movies a month and it's effectively paid for itself, even if I don't order anything with two-day shipping.


* In a couple of weeks, all the meetings grind back to life. We still have the symposium thing that was the brainchild of a now-retired administrator, but it's at least been shrunk to a morning (when it was in full force, it was two whole days and was a random mix of "new information you need," doom-and-gloom talks about how MOOCs were going to replace us all, the pet interests of selected faculty, and, one year I remember, a TERRIBLE motivational speaker that brought out all my snarky/moody 16 year old tendencies because I am SO not a joiner, and because I tend to see through stuff like motivational speakers. (If the higher ups really care about us, they'd actually see about our well-being by doing things like fixing stuff on campus, instead of bringing in a high-dollar speaker to exhort us to Be More Gooder Now).

We've also been told there are some new "policies" we will have to consider. I suppose these are some kind of new government mandate, and I am bracing for it to be more work for us (because it always is). Or that we will have more "training sessions" to sit through like the ones we already do on how not to sexually harass people/how to meet the accommodations Disability Concerns mandates/how not to violate Title IX or Title VII/how to be safe/ How to graciously give up our lives for the students if an "active shooter" shows up to the classroom. (That last is an exaggeration, but: there could be things done to allow us to safely lock the doors from the inside but they have not been done because of claims of "but fire safety" when there ARE things that can be done that both allow lockability AND fire safety....I think budget is the real issue, and also the belief of "It Can't Happen Here," which every campus believes until it does happen.

(I think it's less likely to happen here than some places, but it is also not impossible. I have dealt with two extremely angry students in my time and while neither of them escalated....there was also an incident of someone who was "let go for cause" apparently showing up with a gun during an intersession time, but they just carried it around and didn't draw on anyone or anything; I guess they just wanted to SEEM like a threat...)

But yeah. I look forward (sort of) to the start of classes but I don't look forward to a lot of the pre-class malarkey, or the added "responsibilities" that will cost me more time and more energy.

* One thing I do miss as an adult is having a reason to go back to school shopping. These days, I tend to buy supplies as I need them, and a few of the things I use (fewer than in the past...) are provided by my department.

I guess now the lists are a lot more prescriptive in terms of brands and things - when I was a kid they were a bit looser (I think a couple years the size of the box of crayons we were supposed to have was specified, I suppose so you didn't get the rich kids with the 96-box lording it over the rest of us with our measly 24 or 36 boxes...or so you didn't get someone's parents TOTALLY cheap out and get them a box of 8 when more colors were needed).

I've also read that some districts pool the supplies, which probably leads to an unintentional lesson in The Tragedy of the Commons (or something very like it): if your kid doesn't get the supplies you sent them with, there's no reason to do anything but buy the cheapest (which are often the worst: off-brand crayons break more easily and don't color as well, and pencils, oh Lord, pencils....there are only one or two brands I will buy any more (USA Gold is one that I will) because a lot of the cheaper brands, I don't know what kind of binder they use with the graphite, but it is super weak, and you get pencils where the led just falls out while you are writing and you have to stop and re-sharpen.

(And I finally broke down and ordered a couple of these because a couple office supply sites recommended them highly. I have no patience with crummy cheap pencil sharpeners that sharpen unevenly, or, worse, somehow break the led off and then it lodges in the sharpener and you can't get it out.... Though I admit, if these quit working, I may just buy myself a new penknife and re-learn how to sharpen pencils with a knife....I used to do that for fieldwork because carrying a knife in the field makes more sense than carrying a knife AND a pencil sharpener)

But yeah. When I was a kid, the start of school was a time for new supplies and new shoes and new clothes....and that's another thing I miss in adulthood. (I COULD do it, but it seems to have less of a point now, and anyway, coming off a June and July for which I did not get paid, I have to be careful until the end of August....0