Yuck

Cold, rainy and windy here in Carrboro. Helps me sympathize with people in the UK. No wonder they conquered so much of the world--they're weren't after tea, spices, etc. It was the weather.

It's the busy time in the semester. By Monday I need to:

• Finish reading a book and write a 5-page review.
• Research and write a 2-page summary of social policy in Venezuela.
• Prepare to lead class on Monday night.
• Write an 8-page paper on political cartoons from 1898.

By the end of the semester I need to

• Grade fifty-some 8-page essays (all handed back by the Monday after next)
• Write a proposal to present at a local conference next semester.
  
• Write a 20 page research design (It'll be on trade liberalization and hunger).
• Write a term paper (research on anti-hunger policies in Venezuela)
  
• Write a 15-page reflection on the course on 1898 (no additonal research required, thankfully).

Sounds like I'm a grad student or somehting. There's also the marathon of grading finals, but everything else will be done by then.

So, I was thinking I'd complain about all of this, but as I was in the library tracking down books and articles I was having fun and was reminded how lucky I am to do this for a living. No promises how long that attitude will last. I think it's not that I don't enjoy my work, it's just that I'd like a little less of it. But plenty of people are in the same boat and the rest just hate their jobs.