End of Finals Week (almost)

Here it is the end of "finals week" for the university. I haven't felt the real pang of that since I'm not teaching, but people around me keep mentioning it so I feel somewhat in the mix. Work is very busy these days as we make any and all preparations for the Teaching & Learning Symposium before January. My big project has been working on the program and gathering headshots of the presenters. It's amazing how slow professors can be. Give them a month to get a picture to you, and they all wait until the last day (hour even) to do so.

I'm looking forward to next week. I'm staying home (in Romeoville) and working, yes working. I have a lot of work to do -- editing to finish and two diss chapters to prepare for "the Director." I also need to start my analysis chapter so that I can enjoy my break as much as possible. I said I'd get a draft of that to him shortly after break. I do feel good that I finally got my Illinois English Bulletin article off to Jan. I've had that sitting on my desk since mid-October. I also need to revise a ReadWriteThink lesson that I finally got feedback on. It'd be nice to have that money before the end of the year, but I don't think that I'll quite make that (self-imposed) deadline with everything else that's going on. Maybe I'll get to it in January.

I'm also looking forward to another visit from Suzie and Rachel who will be stopping by on their way down south for the holidays. It will be nice to see them and Baby Jackson before we head back to Iowa.

Ken got his official start date for Deere: Feb 18. Thank goodness! I was so worried it'd be early January as the original offer letter stated. Now we at least have some extra time to prepare. With the Symposium, dissertating, looking for a job, and planning to move, January should be interesting, to say the least.