Found It! (An Update on My Last Post)

The Reticent Supervisor and I spent the other day together, doing our respective work, at my house and throughout the course of the day I found the Christmas Spirit. (I know, I should remember where I put it so as to avoid the crab-fest that was the preceding weeks.) I was in the middle of wrapping presents for the urchins in our family when I suddenly found myself in a good mood. Will wonders never cease? So, was it the wrapping of presents for children that did it? Or could it be a nice day spent with a friend? I think we all know the answer to that question. We topped off the day with a lovely dinner, respective spouses included.

We are nearing our Trek East. It will be good to see family and friends again and enjoy each others company. Wait, is that a Christmas Carol I am humming? "It's the most wonderful time of the year..."

In Search of the Christmas Spirit

The academic year makes the end of November and December a very busy time. I am not saying academics corner the market on busy in the weeks leading up to Christmas (or winter break), but the work load tends to mount. Each year, I find it harder and harder to be ready for Christmas and to really soak up the "spirit" of the season. (Again, this is not necessarily a problem I alone have.) Right now, we are nearing the end of the Fall Semester and anticipating our Trek East for the holidays. It is difficult to mark out time to think about Advent and Christmas in amongst all this chaos of grading and other work.

In years past, we made an effort to get together with colleagues for a "Holiday Party," but lately, that has not happened. People are too busy to organize it, plan it, and the faculty and staff live in all different directions. Few made an effort to attend when it did occur. More and more, the most important thing about this time of year is getting all the work done to get away. While it is good to see family again, I wonder what I am doing to make community here. I understand I need to make time for that--make an effort to be social and engaged. This seems to run counter to the nature of academia. By the end of the semester, many are so overwhelmed by correcting and the omnipresent problems with students, that social events become complain-fests. Negativity abounds and I am just as guilty as the next of wallowing in it.

As Christmas has approached, I have become more and more negative. Where is the Christmas Spirit? I have made stabs at being festive, including decorating our house. While that helps a bit, I still feel as though I am saving up my "merry" for Christmas elsewhere. It is easy to blame someone else or something else for my negativity. The job, students, exhaustion, really depressing music at weekly Mass... (Why is it that Catholics Can't Sing?) These are real causes of a negative attitude and a degree of anxiety (well, the level of anxiety over the bad music is minor), but should I not look inward at how I react and change my response? Should I not turn that frown upside down?

The Importance of Little Things; Or Making the Right Choices

I have a big deadline looming and it has required some long days. Those long days became an early rising today and as I stood in front of my coffee maker, ruminating on what a lovely coffee maker it is, I thought to myself, "make sure you get the right mug."

One cannot underestimate the importance of a good mug for coffee at 2:30 in the morning. The instinct might be to pick a big one. Holds more coffee. If one is up at this hour working, one needs fuel to keep oneself on track. The danger however is that the coffee gets cold too soon. Then where are we? Running down to the kitchen to microwave it and who wants that? One might select a small mug, with idea that frequent trips to the coffee maker will keep one alert. This, too, is not the right choice, for one has to run to the kitchen all those times. And we know the key to successful writing is sitting in the chair and actually writing. No, this morning, I needed a moderately big mug, without being excessive to buoy this industrious soul along.

So, in the wee hours of the morning, I chose this one:

What makes this one nice (and comforting) is that it has been with us (my Beloved Husband and I) for many years. I used this mug many a late/early night/morning when completing my dissertation, compiling notes for lectures, and correcting papers. As I have mentioned in a previous post, I have emotional connections to things like mugs and I enjoy the experience of coffee, just as much as the caffeine boost. Another helpful quality is the size of the handle. My hand fits, just so:


And so, I made the right choice as is evident from not only these pictures, but the number of pages I wrote.