Sunday, February 21, 2010

Work Epiphanies and Runny Noses

So Absurdist Tot has some kind of nose cold again that I hope won't turn into some terrible ear infection. Because of that and a big winter storm coming in, we're keeping him home from playschool tomorrow again. It's too bad because I could really do well with a working day. Last Thursday I stayed home and worked, but because I had things I promised other people, I kept my head down and focused on those, got those off my list -- then I talked to my mom and that was the end of the day. My worst days with AT are those in which I want and am trying to get some work done but then he doesn't want to cooperate, taking a short nap or being impossible to put down, like he was today (luckily I had no expectations today that I'd get anything done -- so I was able to teach myself a new potholder technique).

Over the weekend, I figured out the injunction to write research 30-60 minutes per day actually means to work 30-60 minutes per day. Which means I can write notes on something already written or read research and take notes or whatever. As long as I move forward somewhat five days a week, things are ideal. Of course, I haven't quite gotten that or asked for that. Tomorrow would've been a great day to try to refocus. Oh well. I'm glad I can be flexible now, because too soon I won't be able to. I could always ask Absurdist Lover to watch him for an hour, though AT's been very whiney and it's hard to get to even leave the room to go to the bathroom!

Absurdist Lover has been great about looking for a job too. Obviously a winter storm gets in his way too. He's also pretty much reorganized the entire apartment. All of the sudden, there's more space everywhere. We finally got rid of our Christmas tree (though we're still finding pine needles). This weekend, I've been contemplating my elective and read through five pages of my conference paper (the update on that is on the writing project sidebar, which I've decided would be a good thing to keep up). Mostly I've been crocheting and mopping up AT's nose.

On Friday, I managed to get all sorts of tasks done in almost no time at all -- including scheduling my flights and hotel for Big Conference. But though I should use the conference time to reconnect with what's going on in the field, really all I care about is hooking up with old friends and colleagues. I guess that's what happens when you move to a new place and don't really know anybody.

It's so silly. I've been wanting to blog this great epiphany about how the key for me to working on research is going to be just looking to the next step (like driving in the dark) and working a bit on that. I think next year I'm going to try harder to get research done during the teaching times -- and try to take real vacations. I need them. But really it's hard for me to care about any of that. I'm loving cooking -- I made pork chops with apples and onions last night. I now have yeast for bread. Scholarship seems very far away, almost silly, in comparison with the the dark night where we wait for snow, hoping AT's simple cold doesn't turn into something else, and my throat just this minute starting to feel raw and sore.

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