Long Time No Blog

I guess I haven't been feeling very bloggy for a while. Summer quarter was insanely busy at work, in spite of my hope that things would slow down. I continued my streak of working with more students every quarter I work for CWU, seeing over 200 in three weeks fewer than a regular-school-year quarter. At the rate I was going, I'd have topped my record for the year if it had been a full-length quarter.

Add to that the fact that we successfully completed our move to Kent, and I have been completely exhausted and unwilling to do more than glance at my computer once a day to see if I have any email. Thanks to those of you who wrote to me, and I'm sorry I haven't written back yet--I promise, I will, just as soon as I can face sitting in front of a computer for more than a few minutes at a time. Some of the exhaustion is fading now, and I'm finally feeling like I can write again without second guessing every sentence (reading so many student papers really makes a person think about her grammar).

The new apartment is really great. Michael and I are really enjoying having "grown up" living room furniture. We continue to eat at the table on the balcony (thanks Dad for the terrific housewarming present!). It's so nice to have my own office (although I haven't used it much yet), and I know as the school year opens, I'll appreciate it more and more. I'm also enjoying the perk of living right next to the Green River Trail. I've been able to sleep in every morning, then get up and go for a nice long walk. It's been really rejuvenating and refreshing.

The biggest news on the work front is that I've just been offered a HUGE promotion. From simply being the faculty member in charge of offering writing center services on one of CWU's branch campuses, I've been made the Assistant Director of the CWU Writing Center (the WHOLE thing), in charge of ALL the campuses on the west side of the state. This means I'll have a staff of four, operating two full writing centers, and offering service to four campuses. In addition to a nice pay bump and a better contract, I get a nifty title that will enhance my resume in ways I hadn't even imagined.

Of course, there are new responsibilities as well. I will have to travel to all the campuses. Fortunately for me, they're all in the Seattle area, two within ten minutes of the new apartment, one about half an hour away, and the other a 45 minute drive. Only one of the campuses has a really established writing center (the one I spent the past year founding), so I'm going to have to go through the process again on the other campus that needs a full writing center. This time it will be easier though--the first thing I get to do there is hire a staff. I'll be spending less time on direct student contact this year, because I'll be training new staff members and doing other "directorial" things. I'll still continue to work with the graduate students (and other students with longer, more complicated papers), but I won't see as many of the undergraduates.

I still have a couple weeks of vacation time left before I have to head back, but I'll likely be spending some time on each of the campuses before then, starting to network and meet the people I'm going to need to meet. I'm trying to stay focused on relaxing because I know the upcoming school year is going to be insane, but I'm so excited about the new job that it's going to be difficult to not work during my vacation. Yesterday, I went to a craft store and picked up a bunch of beads, paint, and clay, and I'm going to distract myself by doing the creative little art projects that I haven't had the time to do in years. I spent the afternoon on the balcony, happily engrossed in beadwork, making Christmas decorations for the bigger tree we'll be able to have in the new apartment. See--I can relax!