a lesson in balance

I'll start with my Wednesday schedule from this past week:

11:30-1:30- Lunch meeting with other professors and a few local teachers, two of whom had just told one of my student teachers days earlier that he couldn't teach in their building-- and he hadn't even taught a class yet.

1:30-4- Try to make sense of my chaotic office papers and get working on an article due Monday the 27th.

4-7- Methods class. During the last ten minutes, while I was trying to wrap class up a bit early because we had a guest speaker coming to a 7 PM Student Education Association meeting, one of my students confided that she worried about being able to balance the demands of teaching with having a real life and family. Crucial discussion that we started, but had to postpone for next week because we were out of time.

7-8:30- Student Education Association meeting with guest speaker from George Mason University. Fabulous presentation, but I hadn't eaten since the lunch meeting.

8:30-10- Girls' Night Out at Cheddar's. I finally eat dinner (tortilla soup).

Ironic that my student's comment in class came on such a crazy day. I've been thinking about it all week. How do you maintain a balanced life in this teaching world many of us have chosen? Before Thanksgiving, the following are due:

article for National Writing Project professional writing retreat anthology

faculty workload report (all done except for copying- whew!)

article for English Journal (currently in draft form)

revision of JAAL article

NCTE presentation

Needless to say, October's looking a little crazy, and I'm wondering if I'm a big hypocrite to my students who want to believe they can have a life outside of living in their classrooms, sleeping on a pull-down bed.

Good thing I had a fun weekend planned to re-establish equilibrium . . . It included a new women faculty "slumber party" at a colleague's cabin in Canaan Valley. On the way to the cabin, we passed the "smallest church in 48 states"-- we HAD to stop for a picture. The pews have room for twelve people. Twelve skinny people. I even bought two postcards. Then on to the booming metropolis of Davis, West Virginia for pizza at a place with the grumpiest waiter I've ever met. The food was great, though. We stayed up late talking and eating at the cabin, then got up early the next day for . . .

A trip to FallingWater, a house Frank Lloyd Wright designed for a really wealthy couple and their son. It's a weekend house, built literally right over a waterfall. It was built in the 1930's for the whopping sum of $155,000. I know that was huge for the Depression, but I kept thinking, "Hmm, my house cost $135,000. Where can I find an architect . . .?" The coolest thing about FallingWater is the sound of the waterfall. It was rainy today, so that added to the effect. So restful. Windows that can open out into gorgeous views without any house frame getting in the way, cantilevered decks for sunbathing (literally balanced over the waterfall), cool built-in closets and shelves. Yeah, I could live here. Well, the tubs are set a bit low into the ground. Okay, minor flaw.

On the way home, a stop in Uniontown to buy a new winter coat. I bought my present winter coat my first year of teaching. Hmm, that would have been in, oh, 1994. The friend who was with me said that if I plan on this new coat lasting that long, the cost of wearing it will be a HUGE bargain. What was it Olive wrote in her blog about a cost per wearing ratio . . .? I think this coat will cost me maybe $.20 per wearing. Or less.

Have I touched any school tasks today? Nope. Will I before Monday? Nope. Do I feel bad about that? Nope. Maybe I'm starting to figure out this balance thing after all.