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June. Soon.

I’m not sure exactly what to do with myself starting in June.

For context, it’s been a a really hectic year. I hoped to take it a little easy once the tenure stuff was done, but I ended up doing an extra consulting gig and taking on an entire semester-long class I hadn’t planned to teach. In the midst of all that, my mom fell and broke her neck (which was not quite as serious as it sounds) and had to move to a new facility for the second time in a year. I’m also chairing a  search committee, I have a grant application in play, and I’ve published three articles this year. And then there’s that whole “selling my house, dealing with the $22,000 oil tank, and moving” thing.

But somehow, all the major stuff seems to be ending pretty much simultaneously over the next few weeks. I’m not quite sure how to react.

Vacation will be a good start. I haven’t decided on the ultimate destination. I thought about going back to Pittsburgh because I enjoyed being there so much last weekend for my conference presentation. I’ve also considered Toronto and/or Montréal, because I probably won’t be headed that way this fall like I usually do. I may go somewhere I’ve never been. Or I may just sit on my ass watching “Cagney and Lacey” reruns and Criterion films on Hulu.

But it should be lovely…

Still alive…

I’ve just been saying more on Twitter than anywhere else because I’ve been really busy. A lot going on at work, plus I made a weekend run to Baltimore a few weeks ago.

And I’ve been spending a lot of my free time working on Groceteria, both on research and on the site itself. It feels really good actually having the time and inclination to do that again. I didn’t realize quite how much Id been missing it. I’ve been doing things here and there over the past couple of years, particularly for the past six months or so, but my activity level is way up now. And it really helped keep my mind occupied this weekend while all the shit was happening in Orlando…all of which just gets weirder and weirder.

And speaking of surreal: Der Fuhrer is in town tomorrow night. I’ve already planned ahead so I can avoid leaving the house till all the buildings stop burning and the street fights end.

Sigh. Should’ve emigrated when I had the chance…

What gets the credit?

I’m not sure if it’s due to my having gotten rid of the cable, or my minimization of social media consumption, or maybe the fact that my life is much less complicated now that I’ve made tenure and have also ended all the consulting projects and extra work I was doing the past few months. But I feel like the lights suddenly came on again and I’m actually doing things at night and on weekends other than just mindlessly staring at the TV and occasionally going on random and moderately unsatisfying drives.

For example:

  • I’ve gotten really very much into Groceteria again. I’m doing new research, filing and tagging all those articles and images I’ve been avoiding for a couple of years, doing software and UX upgrades, and even diving into some low-level coding for the first time in quite a while (which I’ve also been doing at work). I didn’t realize how much I’d missed my databases.
  • I’ve been reading a lot. Actual books. Not stupid clickbait journalism. It’s been nice.
  • Dinner. With other people. Imagine…