So does anyone remember back when I was reflecting on teaching 5ive days a week and had the attitude of, "how bad could it be?"
Answer: I am prepping class at a bar.
But it is, of course, more complicated than that. While I definitely wouldn't recommend 5ive during a travel-heavy semester, I still feel like I have a nice little breather between the two classes and that as a result my teaching is a little better. Just a smidge better--more focused. I do less of the astonished "gosh, my one class is incredibly X, but my other class is so completely and utterly Y," because by the time I get to another class I've worked out, eaten, slept, and had coffee.
I also have lots of time to schedule graduate students and lunches with colleagues and still not put in 10 hour days like I do when my teaching and meetings and lunches all get crammed into my on-campus days. Also as predicted, workouts are easy and even.
Other areas are rather neglected. For example, my office at home, usually a lovely buttery-yellow writing haven, has become the center for packing and unpacking. Plastic bags for toting gels and liquids onto planes are strewn about. Tillie occasionally walks over to the drycleaning pile--sweaters and suits that appear to be oozing out of the wall itself-- gives it a bored sniff or two, and then walks away. Jada, however, the whippet harboring a deep fear of falling things, stays clear of the room altogether. And sadly, mostly, so do I, unless I'm searching for a liquid or gel or pair of wrinkly pants.
I would say that spring break might help matters, but we'll be in NY for Cs. Eh, at least I won't have to cancel class.
