Very, very glad this week at work is over.
It was the first week of classes for the majority of the language classes I administer. Which meant fielding anywhere between 10-15 phone calls/e-mails a day of "where's this class being held" and "what textbooks are required" despite the fact they're posted right on our website. And you had to scroll past the links to them to find my phone number or my e-mail. People are fucking dumb/lazy. But, I wouldn't have a job if they weren't, so I suppose a certain amount of gratitude is to be called for. Plus, I have instructors who fail to request that their textbooks be put on the list of texts to be carried at the University Book Store, so I get students e-mailing irate letters to that fact, which kinda makes one feel like crap even if not the person at fault. One more last minute flail to take care of; my paycheck thanks you. Corraling new instructors to get their payroll paperwork submitted if they ever want to get paid and it's amazing how many of them seem to think they should be exempt from filling out forms. You want to get paid, you fill out the damn form! Talk about herding cats, university lecturers are worse. These guys are supposed to have these forms filled out before they start teaching, sometimes I don't get them signed until after the class is over and they didn't get paid when they expected. "Oh, do I really have to fill those forms out?" ::headdesk:: So, yeah, that first week of classes is downright insane if I do my job right.
Combine that with taking over another function of administering the LSA online courses that turned out to be much more involved than anticipated and requiring perhaps a good six to eight hours of my time devoted to it, I ended up feeling rather over-scheduled this week. If I'd realized how much time it was going to involve, I would have pushed the transfer of that task into next week, instead. Fortunately, it's something that only needs to be done on a monthly basis, so from now on I can make sure it gets done at a time when I'm not so deeply absorbed in other duties. The start of the semester is always intense and won't happen again until January, so this isn't a situation I'm going to have to scramble through again.
To top the week off, it turns out that our dear President Obama is going to be stopping in Madison to speak next Tuesday. And he decided to do that on our campus. Interesting fact: the last sitting president to speak on campus was Harry Truman. I didn't even hear about it until Thursday and at first I was excited at the opportunity to go listen to him speak. Then, the DCS Dean stopped by my office on Friday and asked "how many language classes are scheduled for Tuesday night? They may be closing the Humanities building, do you have any classes in it? (Two, for the record.) Do you think we should send something out to warn people about traffic and parking congestion?" Yeah, real V-8 moment there. Turns out to be eleven classes total. I consulted with the program coordinators and decided canceling the classes was probably the smartest option. So, me, one of my compatriot PAs and the LSA/PDAS chairman sat and stuffed 135 envelopes with letters announcing class cancellations by 3:30 so we could get them into the hands of a student hourly who would run them four blocks over to the mailroom to go out in the last outgoing mail at 3:45. Whew, job well done, but, boy-howdy it would have been nice to have just a little more warning!
So, very intense week, very glad it's over. I think this calls for a trip to Starbucks and maybe trying to write on one of my h/c prompts. Or, maybe even start outlining something for space_wrapped. Really looking forward to participating in that and reading all the fic it will generate. However, before I do that, I think I need to take care of one or two small chores around the condo. I got nothing done during the week (other than scooping litterboxes, those are a must), I was just mentally exhausted by the time I came home every day. I think this calls for a list.
Things wot need to be done this weekend:
• Dishes
• Litterboxes
• Vacuum
• Trash run
• Laundry
• Deep clean kitchen
Combine that with taking over another function of administering the LSA online courses that turned out to be much more involved than anticipated and requiring perhaps a good six to eight hours of my time devoted to it, I ended up feeling rather over-scheduled this week. If I'd realized how much time it was going to involve, I would have pushed the transfer of that task into next week, instead. Fortunately, it's something that only needs to be done on a monthly basis, so from now on I can make sure it gets done at a time when I'm not so deeply absorbed in other duties. The start of the semester is always intense and won't happen again until January, so this isn't a situation I'm going to have to scramble through again.
To top the week off, it turns out that our dear President Obama is going to be stopping in Madison to speak next Tuesday. And he decided to do that on our campus. Interesting fact: the last sitting president to speak on campus was Harry Truman. I didn't even hear about it until Thursday and at first I was excited at the opportunity to go listen to him speak. Then, the DCS Dean stopped by my office on Friday and asked "how many language classes are scheduled for Tuesday night? They may be closing the Humanities building, do you have any classes in it? (Two, for the record.) Do you think we should send something out to warn people about traffic and parking congestion?" Yeah, real V-8 moment there. Turns out to be eleven classes total. I consulted with the program coordinators and decided canceling the classes was probably the smartest option. So, me, one of my compatriot PAs and the LSA/PDAS chairman sat and stuffed 135 envelopes with letters announcing class cancellations by 3:30 so we could get them into the hands of a student hourly who would run them four blocks over to the mailroom to go out in the last outgoing mail at 3:45. Whew, job well done, but, boy-howdy it would have been nice to have just a little more warning!
So, very intense week, very glad it's over. I think this calls for a trip to Starbucks and maybe trying to write on one of my h/c prompts. Or, maybe even start outlining something for space_wrapped. Really looking forward to participating in that and reading all the fic it will generate. However, before I do that, I think I need to take care of one or two small chores around the condo. I got nothing done during the week (other than scooping litterboxes, those are a must), I was just mentally exhausted by the time I came home every day. I think this calls for a list.
Things wot need to be done this weekend:
• Dishes
• Litterboxes
• Vacuum
• Trash run
• Laundry
• Deep clean kitchen