Pondering the source of a sour mood

I'm in a sour mood and don't want to do any research/writing today.  Possible reasons:

1. It is a great ski day.  But I've skied several times this week--Wed, Fri, Sat, Mon.  I don't think I'd have a good day skiing, but still I'm sour because I'm not skiing.

2. After two days of working till almost midnight and getting up at 5:30am, I am tired of working--even though that was teaching work, not writing work.  Yesterday was an intense 11-hour day--really nonstop work. I'm over it.

3. I know that since I'm not skiing, I really should go clean up my office.  I've only been doing the essentials in my office--prepping for class, grading, and meeting with students.  I wonder if I've put anything at all away this semester (I do throw away my trash--I'm in a messy stage, but not a gross one).

4.  In addition to office cleaning, I have to grade 5 papers.  Plus I have to read some work that colleagues/grad students have sent me--not drudgery, but a step below my own writing on my personal preference scale.

5. The writing I have to do involves turning a 10,200-word paper into a 9,000-word paper.  Not the most interesting task.  But my co-author/student doesn't seem to know how to do that at all (though she's great in other aspects, thank goodness).

6.  My daughter lost her jean jacket after wearing it one time. 

7. My daughter's little friend was a major mess-maker last week.  The major messes/disasters have always been committed by my kids' friends, not my kids.  Examples?  Neighbor boy spilled water on my laptop (yes, it was ruined).  Daughter's friend wrote her name in marker on the carpet--and she wrote it BIG.  Same friend, same day, put real lipstick on (apparently all over her face) and then used a bathroom towel to wipe it off (how can I get so much lipstick off a towel?--there is a square foot of bright red lipstick seemingly caked on).  My friend's daughter used up all my food coloring and several spices making "soup" with my son--that was an expensive soup! My son (5 at the time, 2 yrs younger than the girl) regularly played with food coloring and spices to make concoctions. He was always careful and only used a bit of each.  The girl went crazy!  And then her mom, my "friend," said, "Well, what did you expect?"

8.  My son found gray hair roots on my head and freaked out: Oh my god, do you have gray hair? Do you dye your hair? My mom is old!!  Duh.

I should have just gone skiing.  But hopefully I'll finally kick my cold by just hanging around all day.

Teaching in Europe, but Halloween in a Taxi

Did I mention I'm going to Europe?  Work-related.  Teaching-related, to be precise.  Last year's trip was incredibly labor-intensive.  But still, I look forward to it because it was also incredibly rewarding.  I teach a week-long class (3hrs/day) in my area of specialization, mostly to students from developing countries and particularly war-torn areas.  Many will work for NGOs in their home countries when they finish.

So I leave this afternoon.  The worst part is that I will miss Halloween with my kids.  I will be traveling from the airport to my hotel during the height of Halloween hour for kids in Europe, so I doubt I'll get to experience Halloween at all!

My kids were bummed at first, but seem to have adjusted--in large part because they've already had several Halloween events in the last few days that I accompanied them to, including at school. 

Speaking of Halloween at school...why was I one of the few parents of my son's class to bring food for the class party, to help set up, and then to clean up?  I, who have a full-time job and am leaving for Europe the following day? 

How do baseball tournaments fit into my work-life balance?

We had a parents meeting last night for the "competitive league" baseball team that my son is now on.  The season doesn't begin until March, but never hurts to start early, I guess. 

The coach is a very friendly, likable guy.  Wants the kids to come out of this loving baseball--says that's more important than winning.  He is also extremely organized, and distributed an information sheet that should become a template for campus memos and information packets, which are typically dense and not so informative.  And he even blocked off a week and a half for spring break, so that we could all go on vacations (if that sounds routine to you, you either don't have a child on a sports team or you have an abnormally reasonable coach like us).

I'm already accustomed to getting him to practices 3x/wk.  But I hadn't realized what "tournaments" involve.  They are 3 day trips to other cities!  And there will be 4 or 5 of them.  How, exactly, does that fit into my already hectic life? 

Actually, the more I think about it, all I have to do is drive some kids 2-4 hours away, watch a few games, make sure they don't burn down the hotel or something in their off-hours, and then drive them back.  If spouse and I trade off rather than both go, I could get a lot of work done.  My daughter is much more time-consuming than that!

My Kids' Vacation while I Work

Turns out my son made the baseball team.  We've been warned it will cost about $600, but Little League cost at least $300. Plus, there will be fundraising opportunities.  The worst part is that he will have to miss out on the annual camping trip that my extended family has been doing for the last 68 years.  He loves those trips, so I'm sad for him.  Plus sad for me because I'll miss him--but I'm going regardless, and taking daughter. 

The school district switched around the teacher prep days this year.  There is no school Thursday, Friday, and Monday--5 days straight of no school, and less than 5 weeks into the school year.  This has caused such parental confusion (it is hard to believe that the kids already have so many days off), that I've received 3 automated phone calls plus one email from the school district reminding me.  Of course, I am waist-deep in work and there is no way we could have gone on a trip--that, plus the onerous football schedule.

Fortunately, my parents are here this week and are caring for the kids Th and Fri. I don't know why, but lately I feel busier than ever when they visit.  I go to work, then come home around 5:30 and rush around prepping dinner, then when not attending evening obligations, I talk with my parents.  Which is great.  But the kitchen doesn't seem to get very clean on its own and the clothes aren't washing themselves.  So housework is totally piling up as I'm trying at least to catch up with work.  And no, my mom doesn't take over the housework when she is here--good for her!  She does help with meals, and my dad even cooked some burgers.

At work, I've finished the ms. review for the university press, the review for the journal, and the tenure review.  Now I just have the book review for the journal (good book, so not such a chore).  I am about to decline to review another journal request to review an article because I already reviewed the same piece for another journal.  That's the second time this has happened in a year.  Unfortunately, the first time I didn't realize it until the last minute, right before it was due (title was vague, and had changed a bit, so I didn't know until I started actually reading it).  Ooooops.  Those screw-ups don't make an editor's life any easier.

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.