Less Crazy

Lest you think I have now collapsed into a sniveling ball of crazy I figured I should update you again. This weekend was a great time to rejuvenate and I am feeling much more on top of things. I slept a lot and knitted and watched my full DVR until it was nearly empty, and mostly stayed in my pajamas.  I wasn't entirely void of activity, though. A friend of mine plays saxophone so he came over so we could teach each other sax/flute. I am picking up sax pretty quickly, which is fun. Then I also had symphony rehearsal, and for the first time ever the two horrible student flute players actually did a passable job on their solo part! (They were still horrible after that, but baby steps.)  On Friday I had enough time to prep my classes for the first half of this week, so I am feeling very not under pressure today, and I even get to go home after work with no post-work activities!

I realized that one thing that may be adding to my time demands is a new volunteer I have helping me out. She is a retired member of the local amateur astronomy group and her daughter is an astronomy professor in the city. She was looking for something to devote time to now that she is retired, and her daughter suggested that I might need help with the observatory, especially as I am working toward tenure. This volunteer is extremely energetic and has a ton of ideas. She has been getting the word out about our astronomy programs, calling local schools and community groups and such, which has led to them being way over-attended.  She also has been contacting the media a lot, and is responsible for getting this article in the local paper. She had the idea for us to do a viewing of the film The City Dark, which looks super cool. She also has been spending a lot of time cleaning out our planetarium, which has been acquiring junk since the 60s. And finally she helps out with the public observing nights and will eventually get trained to do some of them herself. She is very mindful of the fact that I am busy and that I need to focus on other things for tenure, but at the same time she is super energetic, sends me tons of emails, and is always coming up with stuff for us to do. She tries to do as much as she can herself but at a certain point I have to come in (like paying for the movie and reserving the room, responding to the newspaper interviewer's questions, etc.). I think that this has been a bit more of a time drain than I realized. I am definitely getting way more out than I put in, but it is still taking time.

Wowza, I just had a student spend two hours talking to me about her future and what she wants to do with her life. Free time over, time to get back to work!