Tag: preparation

Easing into Summer Professor/Writer Version

An end-of-semester status report:

  1. All I have left to grade is final essay exams for my Personal Adjustment students.
  2. I’ve successfully weaned myself off the lithium with apparently no difficulties. We shall see.
  3. I am done with Kringle Through the Snow (Kringle Christmas romance); struggling with Carrying Light (Hidden in Plain Sight series; a novel about Barn Swallows’ Dance and societal collapse)
  4. My summer will be spent supervising 10 interns (a smaller amount), putting together two new classes for fall, and writing. I foresee lots of Starbucks time. Starbucks will have to learn to love me.
  5. Summer trips: A conference in San Francisco end of May, New York Hope (disaster training exercise for which I am moulage coordinator) at beginning of August, and hopefully a writing retreat here and there.
  6. My writing/publishing goal list for summer: Finish Carrying Light; prepare Kringle Through the Snow for Oct. 1 release; prepare Reclaiming the Balance (Hidden in Plain Sight series) for Jan. 1st release; Set up my social media posts through December on Loomly.
  7. My wish list: That amazing bit of happenstance that will propel my writing into notice, continued health for my family (one husband, four cats, extended folks), and inspired writing.
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Semper Gumby

“Semper Gumby” is a saying in the emergency and disaster management community (and military) that means to always be flexible. This has been a fine week for the motto.

LOS ANGELES – NOV 27: Gumby at the 85th Annual Hollywood Christmas Parade at Hollywood Boulevard on November 27, 2016 in Los Angeles, CA

On Monday, I broke the projector screen to our big lecture hall, readying for my general psychology class. My boss says I didn’t really break it, but I know better. With quick thinking, I projected upon the not-so-ideal whiteboard.

On Wednesday (same class) the projector screen functioned. But the projector did not. So I had to use my PowerPoint slides as notes and give the lecture without visuals, and send the slides later to the 75-person class.

On Friday, the projection unit worked, but my lecture strangely vanished from my computer. So I gave a whole lecture (without notes) on research. Fortunately, I could deliver the lecture without referring to my notes. Next week’s lecture on parts of the brain would not be so easy for me because I’m not a visual person.

All this bad luck seems focused on my gen psych class, which I’m teaching for the first time this semester. If I were a more superstitious person, I’d incense the corners of the room to drive away evil spirits. But I’m a professor, so I rely on semper gumby to get through the daily disasters.

I’m hoping next week goes well.