Crunch Time

I will write more as the week progresses, except for when I'm writing less. On Thursday, I'm presenting a paper at the College English Association conference in St. Petersburg, Florida. My presentation is at 8:00 a.m., so I'll head across the state on Wednesday, leaving my spouse behind to hold down the South Florida fort. I plan to give more of a talk than to read a paper. I hate those conferences when people read their 10 page papers in a monotone voice. I'm discussing the ways that modern female poets use fairy tales, which surprisingly, hasn't changed as much as I thought it might have. Not as much exploration of workplace issues using fairy tales. Even in my own work, I tend to use mythology when talking about the workplace, fairy tales when exploring relationship issues. Is this a wider trend than me? Still thinking about that one.

Friday is also when I have a big writing due date: I've been commissioned to write 7 meditations like the kind that I write weekly for my theology blog (go here for an example). I'm not anticipating problems, except that the meditations needed for the project are shorter than what I usually write. It's always a good exercise for me to see what's most essential, to boil down, to condense.

But first things first: spin class, then checking in at work, which will include a training session on student appeals. One of our deans will be absent next week, and I'll be trying to fill his shoes, hearing from students who want to appeal their dismissal. It's not a simple matter of hearing their sad tales of woe. There's a worksheet, where we determine whether or not they'll actually be able to get back on track. Some students have gone so far astray that it simply isn't possible for them to ever meet graduation requirements.