The WebTech meeting went fairly well today. We managed to get everything done, but the conference room in Jepson was too hot to be comfortable (they're still heating the building, despite Summer-like conditions outside). On top of that, Kim is battling the flu right now. Before the meeting was over I was starting to feel a little off, though I'm convinced now I was psyching myself out. After about an hour in my office (and lunch) I was back to normal.
Normal for me today was all about office organization. My office is big. Bigger than a person like me should have. The office is in Maryland Hall, along with the offices of the University President, Provost, Controller, Development Office and Communications Office. How I got my office is a longer and less interesting story than bears telling here, but what matters is that I am only in this room on a temporary basis. My bet is that I'll get to stay where I am until the school year ends.
Anyway, the office is huge. It's in the basement of the building, but has five windows, two on one wall, three on another, each twelve feet tall and three feet wide. I've got my office desk (the nicest desk I've ever had: I plan to take it wherever I go from now on) and a computer desk, two filing cabinets, two bookshelves and four chairs. I could host a party of ten or fifteen in this room comfortably.
I need two things to make the office mine: plants and pictures. My old room in the Registrar's Office had a style about it: two or three plants, wind chimes made out of slices of translucent stone, and a throw that looks like a bookshelf on the wall (covering an unused door). For where I was it worked, but in my current building, I need something different. I've got a couple of plants at home I'm going to bring in (one of my old office plants has given up the ghost since I brought it home, but I'm going to get a replacement for it) but this spacious place is going to need more. I've also got a couple of prints, as well as some certificates and awards to go on the walls (I could not hang two items at parallel heights to save my life, so Jean is going to have to do it).
But I digress. I spent most of my afternoon getting all the pieces of paper into their proper folders in my desk, updating then recreating from scratch my whiteboard project lists, and reading e-mail. I am now ready to accomplish wonderful things on Tuesday and Wednesday. (And there was great rejoicing.)
Jean is feeling stretched again tonight. There's not enough time in the day for her to get it all done. She needed to stay at work, needed to be at home working on finances, needed to exercise just a little, and so on. We talked just before she went to bed a little while ago. It's always difficult for us to talk about these things because I tend to be very focused in my life and my attempts to help often seem didactic. All I could tell her is that this period of the next three months is one of the most important times in her life. Her body is forcing her to slow down, and she has to make choices about what gets done and what she has to let go. She needs to concentrate on herself and the on the baby: eating well, walking, and getting to bed early. If these things limit the amount of overtime she can spend at work, she needs to allow herself to spend less time at work. If the office isn't preparing for her absence, it isn't her problem.
Yesterday and today Richmond broke the record for the all time
warmest day in December, 81 degrees. I know weather is cyclical, and
that in another few years we'll be breaking the cold temperatures not
the warm ones. There is a cold front pausing on the Appalachian
mountains tonight. If it breaks through we may get some Fall-like
temperatures. I hope they'll last: it would be nice to have cooler
weather when Jean and I are off later this week.
reading: bunches of notes for Wednesday's meeting
listening: Piano Concertos (Schumann/Grieg); Great Cello Concertos (Yo Yo Ma); 4th Symphony (Tchaikovsky)
© 1998 Kevin J.T. Creamer