The new semester and a variety of small but interesting events have prevented me from posting lately. I have some new students in the class (though most are continuing from last term) and they take up extra time. In teaching I have been alternating between being TOO lackadaisical and not doing such a good job, and over-preparing which does not always lead to things being successful either. Maybe because the material is more complicated, I have had a harder time finding interesting ways to teach it.
Meanwhile, I have been very inspired on my dissertation since trip back to grad school town. I met a first-year student in my field while I was there and we have been corresponding. It is great to exchange ideas with someone who is worrying about all the same problems I have worried about! I just hope he will think me interesting enough to be worth the e-mail time! I certainly think his work is promising. Anyway, I have been writing away, slowly but with a little more confidence.
Another development on the collegiality front is that I have joined a classical reading group put together by the Lama. We have only met once so far, and I was a little over-prepared, but enjoyed it. Again, it's fun and inspiring to talk to real people about this stuff rather than JUST sitting alone with my computer. When it comes to talking shop and career-related stuff, I surprise myself by being more brave than about other things. I would expect to be more anxious and scared because it matters so much. Well, it does matter, but for the most part I feel like I just about have the skills now to pull it off, to do stuff right, to end up having satisfying interactions. This bodes well!
Finally, Saturday was quite an amazingly full day. In the morning I went down to U of C for a symposium. I was mostly interested in the morning session, which was more or less related to my field. It was a presentation by four grad students from the department there. It was not all that well attended, but I thought what they were doing was interesting and worthwhile even if I could not always agree with it. While there I also ran into one of grad school classmates who has a job there. He introduced me to everyone after that talk, including the grad students and a scary U of C professor who I only knew by reputation. There were all surprisingly pleasant and welcoming, and the grad students even invited me to go to lunch with them! I went, and enjoyed it so much. I hope to be in touch with them soon. In fact, I must remember to write some follow-up e-mails... maybe tonight, if I can stay awake...
I stayed for a couple of afternoon talks, but didn't find it quite as worthwhile as the morning. Then I had to race home (and I was a long way from home, causing myself great CTA stress), because we were having the head of Pocket of Bolts' department and his partner (also in the department) over for dinner at our place! Fortunately PoB was a prince and had prepared most of the dinner and done most of the cleaning. So when I came home there was only a manageable amount of racing around and fussing left to be done. And I do think the dinner went well, though it wrecked havoc on our diet. Well, you can't serve guests diet food, after all! I ate a lot less than I would have otherwise, but still used many flex points... Among other things, got rather tipsy which, combined with the exhilaration of the day, made me uncharacteristically chatty. But PoB said I was fine, fun and bubbly.
Well, I must go. It's a school night and there's plenty still left to do. Sorry no pictures! My camera battery has been dead and I just haven't even had time to recharge it. Which shows how little time I've had; working out, among other things, is a surprisingly large time commitment, but nothing even comes near how much time I spend teaching...
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