Eye of the storm

As you might guess from the length of time between my posts lately, my schedule this fall has been a little taxing. I seem to have insane weeks followed by empty ones - and neither extreme is quite what I like! This is an empty one. Next week will be insane, and then I'll be off for Fall Break when I'll go to visit a friend in Istanbul. And then, it'll be six quick weeks till Christmas. How the time gets away from me, I'll never know, but I do feel a bit bad that I haven't kept you readers and friends better updated! I put some pictures up on Flicker today, so that'll give you some glimpses of life at LCC, Year 3.

My focus and energy this year is directed in a different direction than in the past, which is not bad, but has given my life a different flavor. I am teaching more students (60 first- year writers, plus another 30 in my other classes) than ever before, with a heavier marking load. Moreover, my big task for this year has been to help develop a tutoring center, which we're calling the ARC, and training writing tutors. This has turned into a fairly big project with lots of little details to oversee. I am really glad to see some academic resources being developed on our more "community-life" oriented campus. I am hoping that when I go from LCC at the end of the year, there will be a good system in place to continue to promote student writing in the future.

Additionally, my roommate has left this year, 2 of my close friends in the English department have gone on to new positions, and my good friends, the Hoelterhoffs have moved to Northern England. This has meant some redrawing of friendship boundaries and a move to a one-bedroom apartment, as well as a much different rhythm to my days. I am happy to say that I get myself to the swimming pool 2 or 3 times a week for lap-swims (and eyefulls of old ladies, as referenced below!), plus I've been taking more time to write, and the outcome has been that I have a poem forthcoming in the January 2008 issue of The Priscilla Papers (this is Christians for Biblical Equality's exegetical journal). Yay!

I find myself missing home and, - sigh, as usual - my mountains, and I'm looking forward to 3 full weeks in Colorado at Christmas. Fortunately, today is a beautiful fall day, and the weather has turned to a beautiful, frosty October afternoon. I'm going for a walk with two friends after lunch and learning to enjoy the tempo of this new year.