Scheduling

This week my main task was to schedule 30 writing consultants in our two main centers and five satellite locations for the fall semester. That is 30 brilliant students who all have other obligations, classes to take, classes to teach, office hours to keep, homework to do and their own personal writing tasks to complete covering some 260 hours of writing consultations every week. We have this awesome computer system wherein the consultants can upload their availability for the week, and then my task was to sort them all out into various slots in the various 'writer's roosts'. This task was compounded by a number of variables: no rookies working by themselves, each grad consultant has at least one shift working with grad writers, all shifts in the main roosts having a balance of rookies and veterans, lead consultants having shifts in the home roost, and individuals' preferences respected based on their seniority, etc.

Well, its done... at least until we meet next month and someone tells me that they had to switch their class schedule so they could take that class from their favorite professor.

Couch Surfing

I got involved with couch surfing while I was in Istanbul and this week I had my first surfer here in Lawrence. If you are not hip to couch surfing you should check out the website http://www.couchsurfing.org/ .  It is a very cool way to travel, and, as my surfer pointed out to me this week, it is not just a way to travel on the cheap, it is a way to immerse yourself in other cultures and make new friends along the way.

My surfer this past week was an inspiration in many ways. She is Brazilian, but lived here 35 years ago while her father was doing his PhD at KU. She was still a child when they left, and her joy and awe at rediscovering the sites of her youth -the apartment where they lived, the nearby park, her elementary school - it was marvelous to witness. I was very sorry that her travels brought her to Kansas the hottest week of the year, and I was often concerned for her health, but she managed very well.

A professor of architecture, a cyclist and swimmer, and a recent breast cancer survivor, my couch surfer is an amazingly strong woman who does not realize what an inspiration she is for those of us who spend far more time than we should sitting on our butts. Since I am a huge Tour de France fan, I have spent most every evening for the past three weeks watching the tour, and it was a joy to have her here, sharing in my love for that particular sporting event. Although we live on different sides of the equator, we even share our favorites for the yellow jersey.

I think I am going to shop for an exercise bike...

Hot times

Suddenly Kansas (and wider areas of the middle of the country) has been captured by a brutal high pressure system which has decided to sit on our heads and spin relentlessly. It is as though an oppressive regime has enslaved the center of the country and is torturing the population while awaiting the delivery of an unnamed ransom payment. The newscast this morning predicted temperatures of 100 degrees or higher for the foreseeable future. And unlike Arizona, it is NOT a "dry heat", the air is thick and heavy all the time.

Not unlike the frigidly uncomfortable temperatures of January, the majority of the population has retreated to within their climate controlled environments, only venturing outside when it is necessary for continued survival... to forage Dillon's or HyVee for food... or to seek shelter at the local theater to consult with our favorite wizard, Harry Potter.

I move quickly from air-conditioned environment to air-conditioned environment... from home to work and back again... from the challenges of of my job to the sanctuary of watching Le Tour d'France... from reality to my dreams of standing in the clean, crisp mountain air, watching the peleton speed by.

Disconnected

I am disconnected. Cut off. There is a line from me to all those I love, but it has been cut and those ends are hanging with unreceived communication dripping from them. Okay that was pretty dramatic, but I thought the metaphor adequately describes what it is like being hundreds of miles from home. Don't get me wrong, I love my job, the students and my colleagues. But every day, at some point, I will think "Oh man, so-and-so would love that!" And yet, whoever that person is, they are far away and so the communication goes undelivered. It is the sharing of life's experiences which is missing. There have been days when the only communication I have is with the check-out person at the grocery store, and days where there has been no communication at all.

When my children were small and they misbehaved, they would be sent for time out and their lines of communication with others would be cut. They were not allowed to talk to others until they had thought about whatever it was they had done. That was the punishment in our house. So I find myself wondering if in some way I am being punished for something I have done. Analytically I don't think so, but at times it feels that way.

On the other hand, there is something to be said for a solitary existence, to be able to silence the cacophony of voices pulling one's attention in a myriad of directions simultaneously. Not that I have been particularly productive, but I do feel that now I can focus on those things which are important. I will spend my weekends this summer writing, preparing the story I must now tell. Disconnection has led to an ability to focus.