Le Quotidien (or: What's been cooking in my neck of the woods)

Well, it's been about 10 days or so since I filled you in on my day-to-day existence, which is basically as boring as can be.

Of course, the most important piece of news is that, as of this Sunday, April 27, Claire will have officially graduated from Pitt with a B.A. in English Writing (concentration in poetry.) She is pretty positive that she is graduating with some sort of "Latin thingy Honors," but is not sure which flavor (which, as you all know, are Summa, Magna, or just Cum Laude.) She will not be attending her graduation, since she is in Oakland, CA, and getting ready to move (with Jeff) to Providence, Rhode Island. The "big" move will be taking place on May 3rd (she is moving there this early, in hope of finding a summer job and of getting settled in her new digs before starting the MFA Program in writing at Brown University in the fall.) Needless to say that it's coming really soon. I will most likely visit her and Jeff in Providence sometime this summer. Rick will be going sometime next month.

Needless to say that both Rick and I are both incredibly proud of our daughter!

I am still struggling a bit with the end-of-the-semester fatigue, but I am surviving, although there are days when I just plain feel like calling in sick. I never do it, of course, and feel fine after I have been out of bed for no more than ten minutes.

There's a lot going on (to a point) on the work front, and I am trying not to drown, really:
1. I am only six days removed from having completed my one-year term as Chair of Faculty Senate. Believe you me, although it's not been really problematic, it's been work, and I am glad that it's nearly over.
2. I went through a very frustrating day on Monday, as a couple of colleagues did raise serious objections to an important report I had written (based on a survey circulated to Senators, to which I got four responses out of 21 people who received this survey.) I will not divulge here the nature of this report, for confidentiality issues, but basically, I was urged to tone down the report (which was not strident by any means, it just stated some truths that needed to be told.) I actually did tone down the report a bit - and, later on, figured out that this was actually the right thing to do. But when this "confrontation" happened, steam was literally coming out of my ears.
3. But, surprinsingly enough, the two individuals who had confronted me about this report (and who are senior to me by 20 some years each at my institution) e-mailed me to apologize for having had this "confrontation" with me. I replied with a very nice message to each one of them, and there are no hard feelings.
4. I did present my report yesterday to a group of "important VIPs," and things went extremely well. I am definitely relieved that this is over. I just have one more event to attend as part of my Chair of Faculty Senate duties (on May 8th), and I also have to compile an end-of-year report on Faculty Senate activities through this academic year.
5. Only one week and-a-half of classes left. I basically meet my French II classes five more times each (not including their final exam periods), and my French film class twice (once during regular class time, kids will be giving presentations, and once during exam week, presentations will continue.) Of course, the online class will be turning in final papers at the beginning of finals week.
6. I still have a shitload of grading to complete. I feel like I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but I have to control myself and not give my students that many assignements.
7. I still have to write a report for our Commission on Affirmative Action, and this is a royal pain in the butt, because my subcommittee has only three members (including me), and one of them is a staff member who is incredibly busy at this time of year, and has yet to contribute anything to this report. I did have a meeting with the other committee member yesterday, and we set up a meeting on Monday, May 5 to just sit down and bang out a draft of our report (by the way, your hair would curl if you read some of the racist and homophobic comments that we got in the ad-lib section of the survey we administered online on the "campus climate" toward "protected groups," such as racial minorities, gay/lesbians/bisexual/transgender individuals, the disabled, and military veterans. Of course, those were only the comments of a mere handful of lunatics, but this definitely points to the fact that my campus still has huge issues on that front.)

On a positive note, Marty will be here this weekend, and then will leave, on Sunday around mid-day, for D.C. where he has business to conduct for an entire week. He will be back here the following weekend (of May 3-4.) This is really great news, which he delivered to me last week, to let me know that he had to postpone his one-weekend visit, but that he would be coming here twice in less than two weeks' time.

I am a bit panicked, because I will be leaving for Indianapolis on May 17, which is only a week after my exam week is over. That does not leave me loads of time to get organized before leaving for the longest time that I will have been away from home since I moved here (I will be gone from May 17 to July 4!). But I know I'll survive.

That's about all that's cooking on my stove these days.