Archive for the ‘stress’ tag
What do you say?
I wear black on the outside, because that’s all I could find in my darkened closet…
Got home last night from day one of applicant interviews for the next academic year, ate the Pad Thai I had brought, placed my nearly dead cell phone on the charger, walked and fed Lehigh, turned on the TV stretched out on my bed when POP! out went the lights, in my apartment and few more on my side of the street.
I figured it was too late and localized to really be able to do anything about it, plus I didn’t really have enough juice in the phone to do much. so I just got underessed and went to sleep, hoping that the situation would have fixed itself by the time I woke up to go to day two.
It hadn’t.
So I pulled on some clothes, scrubbed as best I could, walked and fed Lehigh and came on into the office. Hopefully things will be in a better state when I get back there.
Tags: home, stress, workRelated posts
Another post about how I’m stressed…
Well, I just am. Going to try to squeeze in some sleep before heading to Tennessee tomorrow for some teaching. The next couple of months are looking packed as well. Have to figure out as better strategy for dealing.
Why do you need to know all this? That’s another question I’ve been asking myself with increasing frequency. I’m not happy with the blog becoming my very occasional vent spot.
Many good things are happening. I’m just not managing them especially well, and some old habits are reasserting themselves.
Highlights of the weekend? Seeing House, demented Japanese horror comedy from 1977. And then appearing in a sort of demented horror comedy shoot for a good friend. Took many pictures. A couple of good ones. Unfortunately no kissing, but there was kissing last weekend so that makes up for it.
Tags: daily photo, movies, stressRelated posts
Ear good, mouth bad…
How can it be almost four pm already? It’s the time of the year when everything just comes on the heels of everything else. The people I work with are short tempered and stressed. I’m trying to cultivate my calm.
I’ve also taken on a few days of additional teaching as a favor to a friend these past couple of weeks and it’s been instructive to compare the cultures of various schools.
When teaching, I always wish that I could listen more and speak less. I feel like I do alright in that regard in my regular classes, but sometimes the temptation to clarify and restate is too great when I’m in new situations. I end up feeling abashed for all my mouthiness. The classroom is an interesting situation, given that what I’m trying to teach is critical thinking as much as it is creative practice. For me, those two things have always gone hand in hand. But the trick with teaching them is that you can’t dictate them, you have to create the condition where people find their way to them. Hence the struggle to say the right thing.
Nine times out of ten, if I’m not saying something, it’s because I’m trying to figure out what to say. The situation is worsened in a medium like email, where emotions can run high and escalate at a moment’s notice. Emails seem to carry with them the injunction to be answered point for point and tone for tone, for good or for ill. I see people ratcheting up each others’ stress levels and look for a way to moderate that. But then again some people do not wish to be moderated.
Listening and breathing continue to be excellent sugestions, as much as I am tempted to ignore them.
Tags: daily photo, stress, teaching, workRelated posts
You know, even when…
…you think you’re being thorough, you’re not. And by you I mean me.
Projects project projects, at home and at work and in the extra-curricular realms as well. And all of them filled with details to be attended to, and prickly personalities on either side to be assuaged.
I am very happy to get home and wrestle with Lehigh, for the simple panty, snorty, licky experience it is.
And I’m also happy for those folks on LJ who make extra special eye-popping posts that take mind off of all those details on all those projects such that I get the feeling that I’m missing something. Like this one from Thor.
And I’m very happy that Dave White turned me on to Blut Aus Nord. It makes New York Subway rides so much more interesting.
And in further randomness, I have officially moved into “I don’t give a fuck about/ don’t want to hear any more about Watchmen” territory. Dunno why, but there it is.
Oh also, I finished up Zot, and can see much more clearly how it is that folks would like it, but it still wasn’t quite enough for me.
Tags: daily photo, stress, work