October 4 Diary
Woke up 7:15. Too early—I was up too late last night after working until 9 and slow to fall asleep. A groggy day ahead. A meeting at 8:30 so I get busy quickly today. No lingering over breakfast. Downstairs first to make lunch (simple: turkey sandwich, apple). Remember that it’s diary day as I make lunch (An “Oh yeah!” moment.). Make tea and toast, turn on TV news talk (Morning Joe) but it’s all Trump so I turn it off after 5 minutes. Can only take so much.
Head up and shower, dress quickly and quietly, since B still asleep. Hop in car and head in. Decide to stop by T’s house to pick up the football tickets he is giving me. He taped them to his front door. A strategic error because now I’m rushed. Park, drop bag in my office and hustle across the street to the meeting, stop to pee. Arrive at 8:29, only to find the meeting (scheduled for 8:30) has just begun. Not fair. I’m on time. Slink to the back of the room and sit at an open seat next to K. I’m dressed casually-maybe too casually?
I don’t usually attend this University leadership meeting but today I’m covering for the other B. There’s a pitch for United Way (it’s good—funny), a discussion of leadership training for grad students, and an interesting presentation on Artificial Intelligence and ethics. My mind wanders in and out on the first two as I think through the rest of my day. I also make a few notes for this diary. But the third presentation gets my attention. AI will certainly have a big impact on how I do my job, but exactly how that will play out remains unclear. I’m impressed with how much the University leadership has worked on this issue and the resources they’ve assembled. Something useful out of a meeting—a rarity. I will share this with colleagues. There are closing announcements about the Higher Learning Commission accreditation visit, the schedule for the revisions to the core curriculum, and work on revisiting the university calendar. This last note references the possibility of returning to quarters in the name of “student success.” Man, that would be disastrous. Effectively, it would mean something like high-school teaching. It definitely feels as if the university is changing, and mostly for the worse.
After the meeting, I chat briefly with P and head to my office. I do a little prep for my next class so it’s ready to go. I chat with a couple of people in the hall. I enjoy that but it’s not the most productive use of my time.
I get a text from my roofer—he’s emailed me his quote. I check—yikes, that’s a lot of money. We can manage it but I get queasy about spending the price of car on a home maintenance issue.
Class prep finished, I head up to my other office around 10:30, stopping for a cup of tea and a scone on the way. Sugar and fat to combat my sleepiness. Not the best idea but my dietary discipline breaks down when I’m tired and craving energy.
I have an afternoon presentation in town, so I work on that, updating a few parts and reviewing to make sure I have the timing down. It’s one of those things you agree to do and then when the time arrives you regret it. But it’s part of my job, so onward.
At 12:15 I head over to the gym, change, and head up to the track for a run. I’m tight on time so I just do 2.5 miles, rather than the usual 3-3.5, finishing around 1 pm after a short cool down. I’ve been busy so I have trimmed my exercise time a bit—not the best pattern in combination with the sugar/fat choice I made this morning. But at least I didn’t blow it off entirely, which was tempting.
A quick shower, a drink from a vending machine, and I’m back at my desk eating my turkey sandwich. It’s fine. I browse headlines as I eat, then go back to the slides for my presentation, making sure they are all clean.
I write up a few emails and then catch up on this diary. Around 2:20 I head to the car and off to my talk. With parking rearranged around here, I always have to add an extra 5 minutes to travel time off campus during the day. Slightly annoying, since I used to have a more convenient parking spot but that garage was torn down for an outdoor amphitheater that will host a half dozen events a year. But I remind myself that it’s good to get a few extra steps in. So I hike down to the garage, hop in and drive to the event. I’m early and so, after 5 minutes setting up, I chat with the host about her work and a handful of other subjects. She gets busy so I take in some of the art on display. People start to trickle in around 2:45. A is there. I haven’t seen her in a while, so we chat and catch up. It’s good to see her and nice that she came. The event starts at three, but there are refreshments first.
The talk is fine—it’s an old topic for me. I’ve presented versions of it quite often, although not in a few years. That’s why I had to put some prep time in this morning. I get a few good questions. It wraps up around 4:30. Decide to head home rather than back to the office—too late for that. I propose not cooking so B and I head out to Savages around 6. Not too crowded so we get seats right away. I order the chicken wrap special-it’s good. We chat about various subjects, including possibilities for a day trip or an overnight to hike over the long weekend. Nothing firm is settled. We’re terrible at making decisions.
We’re home around 7:30. I feel tired. Perhaps the two-beer dinner contributes to that but it’s mainly the short sleep and early start. Anyway, I’m not up for being productive. Settle in to watch baseball playoffs, but the games aren’t competitive and I don’t have a strong interest in the teams, so after a bit I switch over to finish a movie on Netflix that I’d started over the weekend. It’s a rather odd Czech film about WWII. A bit gory, with a stylized violence and humorous elements that reminds me a little of a Tarantino film. When that ends, I start a new book, an espionage novel written by a former French spy. It’s pretty good. I read until 11:30—later than intended. I should have gone to bed sooner—my sleep habits are getting bad. Now I’m actually too tired to get up and go to bed.
But I do. A few more pages of the book and then I plug an earbud in to listen to an audiobook (my current sleep aid) and drift off to sleep.