The Calm Before the Storm

Next week is the last full week of regular class for this semester. Finals will be after that but most of my work begins on the last day of classes when I collect everyone's big assignments. For the moment, I only have a few creative writing assignments I need to read and grade. Other than that, things are quiet work-wise.

It feels good to have the foreign language exam off my back. It clears the way to focus just on my prospectus and dissertation. Admittedly, the feedback I received from my committee earlier this month dealt a real blow to my confidence but I'm feeling better now, more clear-minded and ready to tackle this thing and get something workable written.

I'm taking the summer off to write and it's a weird feeling. I haven't taken a summer off since high school. I would say it feels indulgent, but it doesn't. It's not as though I'm going to lay around in a bathrobe and eat bon-bons while watching Oprah. I'm going work five days a week, reading and writing. I haven't decided if I'll be doing it at home or at my office here at the school. Our office at home is in the sun room which has lots of natural light, nice views of the yard, and our cool new IKEA desk/shelf combo. The only problem with it is that it has a door that leads to the rest of the house - a house with TVs, kids to play with, and a wife to help. When it comes to working at home, I have the attention span of a goldfish. (I'm surprised by the plastic castle every time.) A particular problem is Miss Parker. If I'm in the sun room and she's in the kitchen, she comes up to the gate we block the door with and screams, drools, flirts, jabbers, and does everything short of clinking a metal cup along the bars. She's like a force of nature. Trying to ignore her and keep working is like saying, "I'm going to keep reading while this tsunami washes around me. It will be fine." Doesn't work.

The problem with working at the school is kind of the polar opposite. I'm not at home to help. Maryn and Avery will be at home along with Miss P and that's a lot for one parent to handle solo. If I'm off at the school, I have fewer distractions but I'm also somewhat isolated from my family who may need me. Yes, I leave for six or seven hours each day now but summer is a whole different bird. Three daughters running around, the older two fighting and bickering over stupid stuff, the younger one doing her Mussolini impression, is a lot.

So we'll see what works out. It may be that Suzanne wants me to go to the school regardless. She's apprehensive about me taking the summer off because, frankly, she doesn't relish the idea of me being around all the time. I think it's that retirement anxiety people go through - your partner has been at work for 8 hours a day for the last forty years and now, all of a sudden, they're going to be in your house, in your face all day every day? I think she likes me okay but she doesn't like the idea of me being at at the house all day.

Speaking of Suzy, this Friday is her 37th birthday. Be sure to wish her well via facebook.

In other news, I hope to have my second issue of IVCC's literary journal, River Currents, out and on the proverbial newsstands before graduation. The student designer should be sending the file to the printer today. Fingers crossed. It took all last summer for the first issue to come out and I don't want a repeat of that freaking TRUCUS (three-ring circus). We shall see.

In the last three weeks, I've been asked to be on the hiring committee for the new head librarian this summer, to participate in an AWP panel about student publications at two-year schools next year, to serve on the board of the Association for Mormon Letters, and to present a paper at the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association conference in Scottsdale, AZ next October. Suddenly, I'm popular.

The semester is coming to an end. I'm glad.