What is to be done

Ok, I leave tomorrow to go to my parents' house for Thanksgiving, and I have more small tasks than you can possibly imagine to get done before I leave. It is like this for every trip. I think if I only left to go someplace once I was completely ready to go, I would become completely immobile. I haven't even been able to draw up a to do list this time, because each time I start to, the items I list are so small, that I think I should just do one of them, since doing them would take less time than making up the list. But this leaves me with the sense that I am drowning in responsibility, and I feel sick.

I also have been literally feeling sick the last couple days. We are trying to get rid of some old lead paint in our house. Half the house is sealed off with plastic wrap, but you can still smell the crazy chemicals coming from the other side. When I felt sick yesterday, I decided to blame the chemicals, rather than the fact that I had three beers but skipped dinner. This morning I felt fine, after no beers, so I was all prepared to pronounce the chemicals innocent of my previous illness. But then I get to the office, and I feel woozy again. I'm a little nauseous, and my hands are shaking. I haven't been able to figure out what is going on, largely because I've been relying on everyone's favorite fallacious rule of inference: post hoc ergo propter hoc.

In any case, I'm am now going to share with you, the internet, my to do list. I think of this as profgrrrrl blogging, since she is the first blogger I saw doing this. I don't know why I feel compelled to read others' to do list, or share my own. It makes about as much sense as the gallery of grocery lists. But here it is.

• As many job applications as possible [answer, 4]
• 2 emails about the china course
• 2 emails about SOC
• 1 student email about grades--this requires actually tabulating some grades
• 1 letter of recommendation: at least set a deadline for yourself about it.
• Decide what work stuff to take on vacation with you
• Pack it.
• Do the grading that is sitting in your email inbox, so that it looks like you have less to do than you really do.
• 1 personal phone call.
  

Well, maybe this isn't so bad.

Update: is using the word "ecstatic" in a job application going too far? As in "I am ecstatic at the opportunity to work with the Alden March Bioethics Institute"

livejournalesque

I'm tired. I haven't entirely worked out what I'm going to say about Jose Padilla tomorrow. And I've got this framing thing for the talk about moral emotions and story telling which doesn't quite fit with my other framing thing about the importance of fair trials. But I'm tired.

I also see that I've already started missing job deadlines, some for good jobs. I keep saying to myself I'm going to send out my material, but then I think...my teaching portfolio isn't how I'd like it to be...oh but no one cares about teaching, it's only research...people think it's weird enough that you have put so much effort into your teaching portfolio...but if I could make it more succinct it would all make sense. IN any case, I’ve got to get my butt in gear for job stuff in the next couple days.

Of course, the teach in is tomorrow, and Saturday Bérubé is appearing on our campus, and Sunday I have an extra class I agreed to teach for reasons which escape me now. And I’m already blowing off the Fulbright seminar on teaching Islam, even though they were kind enough to give me all these free books, and one of them even discusses the definition of religion, which is something that I’ve always wondered about but never formally researched, and I hear that one of the other seminar participants has good things to say about the topic.

But in any case, I’m tired. And my hands hurt from typing too much.