Today I have to go in to Lincoln Hall, a.k.a the office. I've been doing pretty well staying away during my sabbatical, only visiting there on the occasional Sunday to sift through my mail. Having one of my dissertating students writing her dissertation in my office also helps prevent me from sneaking in there. But I have to go in anyway, because I've agreed to meet with a job candidate (don't worry, dissertation student, I told the head I can't meet in my office!). It's a long boring administrative story about why I need to do this (the story, not the candidate), so I won't go into it at the moment. But it's going to be thirty minutes, in and out. Kind of like that episode of the office when Dwight shuns Andy, which means that he won't speak to him. Then it becomes necessary to speak to him, Dwight makes a vertical gesture--top to bottom--and says "unshun." After he's said his piece he reverses the gesture and makes the reverse gesture and says "shun." So for thirty minutes--and thirty minutes only--I will say "unsabbatical."
And then I'll grab lunch at my favorite vegan spot on campus.
