I have not been feeling well the last few weeks. However, the semester from hell is not over yet, so the enormous pile of work is not going anywhere and does not care if I feel under the weather.
I am really really grateful that I have a nice sedentary job and my own office, so that, when I really need to take a nap, I can close my door and do so. I feel deeply for people who have to stand on their feet all day or work with customers and are unable so sit down when they are feeling crummy (but cannot take time off). In an ideal world, the ability to sit down or lie down when sick should count as a major part of any benefits package.
I cannot take time off teaching; if you thought colleague coverage, hahahaahaha! There is no one among my colleagues who would do it. They are all "too busy." I have substitute-taught for people several times but have yet to have the favor returned. My department is a nice department: everyone minds their own business, which means they leave you alone, which is great, until you actually need something. I have grad students substitute occasionally, but the bunch I have now are pretty disinterested in teaching overall.
Over Thanksgiving, I need to grade ~60 exams for one of my classes and 2 HW assignments for another 20-person class. Also, I have two PhD students graduating in a bit over 2 weeks, which means a massive amount of text to go through for their dissertation drafts, as well as the last journal papers they need to submit before they leave.
Oh yeah, there are also 4 collaborative proposals to be submitted by the end of January, so there goes my winter break. I think what kills me is that, even on days when people are meant to rest and relax (e.g. holidays) I cannot. This academic machinery does not stop and there are new deadlines all the time. Also, once you have students, you cannot just check out and leave them to roam around unsupervised. I have fantasies of just unplugging completely for 2-3 months -- how cool would that be? Just cook and clean and watch TV while kids are at school... Aaaah. Now that would be dreamy. That's what I want for Christmas.
4 comments:
Oh yeah, I'd love that for Christmas too!
I seriously want to slap the next person who says "Oh, but you academics have summer off. And Christmas break!" Um, yeah, 3 classes to prep (one new prep, two classes that I'm teaching for the second time, which means I'm full of ideas for how to "improve" them), a bunch of papers to write, uh-huh.
So, um, I'm guessing this would be a bad weekend to ask you off-blog for a critique of my job application packet? :)
I gave some stand-in lectures as a grad student for some courses my then advisor taught, whether or not I was a TA for that course. I always liked that and took it as a challenge. Perhaps it was a welcome break for me when research was temporarily sucking.
While grading a pile of 50 HW assignments felt like a bore as a TA (no brain use, basically a time sink), i felt like it was atleast something you can put in some time and be done with no matter what. But I guess having to do all this grading in addition to all other work as a PI is a whole another level.
Perhaps you can be comforted by the thought that being holed up in your home may perhaps make you yearn for work! :]
Heyy...I'm a Physics student in Iran (Sharif University of Technology) and I read your posts always and enjoy them alot.
I hope you a nice christmas:)
P.S:I linked you in my weblog I wish you could read it but it's in Farsi:(
www.shalandeh.blogfa.com
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