work-life balance
Feb. 28th, 2015 04:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aryanhwySometimes, it's easier than others.
Back in November I found a CfP for a special issue of a journal on a topic that I don't currently work in but which I've always maintained an interest in -- it was actually what I wrote my original Ph.D. proposal on when I was first applying to grad school!: philosophy of fiction. The deadline was March 1, and in December I was going to be covering fictional discourse is Language & Mind. That topic ended up being so interesting, I changed the schedule so that we spent two weeks on it, instead of one as planned. I came away with a lot of ideas, and the sure knowledge that while I couldn't work on it over Christmas break, it was going to be first thing on the top of the priority queue when term started again.
And then Joel went to the US for two weeks, Gwen got sick, I started another paper with a student, student requests for lecture notes increased, Joel returned but continued to be working 70+ hours/week (TODAY. TODAY WILL BE THE LAST DAY.), I got sick, we got serious about looking for a house, and suddenly, the deadline was a week away. I'd know from basically the start what I'd wanted to say, and had written up two blog posts (1), (2) sketching out some of the ideas, but that was as far as things had gotten before they basically stalled. But I looked at my calendar at the beginning of this week and saw: Tuesday afternoon free, Wednesday morning free, plus part of the afternoon depending on how long a meeting went, Thursday afternoon free (assuming no one came to my office hours, which is a reasonable assumption), and ALL DAY FRIDAY free, a rarity which I treasure like gold. The paper is due tomorrow.
Nursery called at 12:30 Tuesday. Gwen had a fever of 39.8C. Took her home, dosed her with paracetemol, by evening she seemed much better, slept great all night long, No fever in the morning, she was perky and happy, so back to nursery she went.
I got out of my meeting Wednesday and they called about 5 min. later; her fever was back. Same story, it was gone by evening, she slept great, by morning was feeling fine. Thursday I taught a master's seminar in the morning, and then my usual Philosophical Logic lecture in the afternoon. In between, Joel let me know nursery called again...so I told him I'd cancel office hours and come home after lecture. We didn't even bother yesterday to take her to nursery, and, like clockwork, she spiked a fever around mid-morning -- and by evening, the snot faucet had turned on and she couldn't stop coughing. It was a rough night last night, for both of us. She was definitely still quite tired and not feeling the best this morning, but she'd been an invited to a birthday party and I knew if we didn't go she'd be devastated, so we went knowing that we could always leave early if necessary (and, as I rather expected, she perked up some when she saw the soft play play, and when she received a promise of ice cream after lunch).
When Gwen is home sick, all she wants is to cuddle up with me; I can usually placate her by playing videos in one corner of my monitor and working in the other 3/4, but the work I do is not very good, since Peppa Pig episodes last 5 min., so I have to stop every 5 min. to put a new one on. (We did managed to watch all of "The Sword in the Stone" one afternoon, that reduced some of the interruptions). I finally managed to bang out a draft. (I'm not even sure I would call it "rough") last night before bed. It is a few words shy of 4,500. The limit for the issue is 12,000. I had been hoping to hit 6,000.
Thank goodness for supportive friends who have nothing better to do on a Saturday morning than read other people's very messy writing, I sent it off to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gothwalk and he was kind enough to say it was at least interesting. Tomorrow I will try to read it start to finish one more time and decide if there's any point in trying to submit it. (I probably will. I've long subscribed to the belief that the paper that DOESN'T get submitted will definitely NOT be published, but the one that is....) And in the meantime, placing those 4500 words on one side of the scale, and all the times I've lost my patience with Gwen for being sick (yesterday, convulsive sneezing resulted in mucus come out of orifices on both ends, which resulted in a lot of washing of underwear) in the other, on neither side do I measure up to the standard I want to meet.
But she'll be better eventually, and there'll always be other deadlines.
Back in November I found a CfP for a special issue of a journal on a topic that I don't currently work in but which I've always maintained an interest in -- it was actually what I wrote my original Ph.D. proposal on when I was first applying to grad school!: philosophy of fiction. The deadline was March 1, and in December I was going to be covering fictional discourse is Language & Mind. That topic ended up being so interesting, I changed the schedule so that we spent two weeks on it, instead of one as planned. I came away with a lot of ideas, and the sure knowledge that while I couldn't work on it over Christmas break, it was going to be first thing on the top of the priority queue when term started again.
And then Joel went to the US for two weeks, Gwen got sick, I started another paper with a student, student requests for lecture notes increased, Joel returned but continued to be working 70+ hours/week (TODAY. TODAY WILL BE THE LAST DAY.), I got sick, we got serious about looking for a house, and suddenly, the deadline was a week away. I'd know from basically the start what I'd wanted to say, and had written up two blog posts (1), (2) sketching out some of the ideas, but that was as far as things had gotten before they basically stalled. But I looked at my calendar at the beginning of this week and saw: Tuesday afternoon free, Wednesday morning free, plus part of the afternoon depending on how long a meeting went, Thursday afternoon free (assuming no one came to my office hours, which is a reasonable assumption), and ALL DAY FRIDAY free, a rarity which I treasure like gold. The paper is due tomorrow.
Nursery called at 12:30 Tuesday. Gwen had a fever of 39.8C. Took her home, dosed her with paracetemol, by evening she seemed much better, slept great all night long, No fever in the morning, she was perky and happy, so back to nursery she went.
I got out of my meeting Wednesday and they called about 5 min. later; her fever was back. Same story, it was gone by evening, she slept great, by morning was feeling fine. Thursday I taught a master's seminar in the morning, and then my usual Philosophical Logic lecture in the afternoon. In between, Joel let me know nursery called again...so I told him I'd cancel office hours and come home after lecture. We didn't even bother yesterday to take her to nursery, and, like clockwork, she spiked a fever around mid-morning -- and by evening, the snot faucet had turned on and she couldn't stop coughing. It was a rough night last night, for both of us. She was definitely still quite tired and not feeling the best this morning, but she'd been an invited to a birthday party and I knew if we didn't go she'd be devastated, so we went knowing that we could always leave early if necessary (and, as I rather expected, she perked up some when she saw the soft play play, and when she received a promise of ice cream after lunch).
When Gwen is home sick, all she wants is to cuddle up with me; I can usually placate her by playing videos in one corner of my monitor and working in the other 3/4, but the work I do is not very good, since Peppa Pig episodes last 5 min., so I have to stop every 5 min. to put a new one on. (We did managed to watch all of "The Sword in the Stone" one afternoon, that reduced some of the interruptions). I finally managed to bang out a draft. (I'm not even sure I would call it "rough") last night before bed. It is a few words shy of 4,500. The limit for the issue is 12,000. I had been hoping to hit 6,000.
Thank goodness for supportive friends who have nothing better to do on a Saturday morning than read other people's very messy writing, I sent it off to
gothwalk and he was kind enough to say it was at least interesting. Tomorrow I will try to read it start to finish one more time and decide if there's any point in trying to submit it. (I probably will. I've long subscribed to the belief that the paper that DOESN'T get submitted will definitely NOT be published, but the one that is....) And in the meantime, placing those 4500 words on one side of the scale, and all the times I've lost my patience with Gwen for being sick (yesterday, convulsive sneezing resulted in mucus come out of orifices on both ends, which resulted in a lot of washing of underwear) in the other, on neither side do I measure up to the standard I want to meet.But she'll be better eventually, and there'll always be other deadlines.
