Monday, September 6, 2010

Laboring on Labor Day

I didn't get as much labor completed on Labor Day as I had planned.  This morning I marched with the two kids and their elementary school in the annual Labor Day Parade for our town.

About half the town marches in the parade, the other half watches.  Kids split into two groups--thrower of candy (in the parade) and catcher of candy (watching the parade).  My kids love being in the spotlight, so naturally they marched.

I marched with them, but I marched next to my daughter's friend's mom, who is also a professor at my university and is in the same discipline.  So we chatted about work (and kids) while marching in the parade, which was good for me because we got to vent a bit.  Plus, I was multi-tasking, and every bit of that helps.

The girls are in a "I want to do it myself" stage and so kept marching ahead us.  But they allowed my son to march with them (indeed, they felt honored), and he was rather sweet about it.  Maybe that will become the norm for him....

Then I dragged myself to work, which wouldn't have been such an effort if I had been able to go in the morning.   But I completed a lot of busy-work tasks plus sent in an ms. review for a journal--only 6 days late.  What?! Like I'm the first one to commit that crime! Plus, they only gave me 3 weeks to complete it.  The new norm is 1 month in my discipline--but if you are the one submitting, don't expect to see your ms. reviewed for at least 3 months.

In sum, part of my work-life balancing act requires that I work on Labor Day.  Hmmmphf.

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