Highs and Lows

What a week! It started with my chair reprimanding me on behalf of the dean for carrying out a plan that my own faculty suggested that I do in a faculty meeting. The dean disapproved of the recommended action and because she is too important to talk to me directly, she instead called my chair and told him to have a talk with me to convey her disapproval. The whole situation is a long and messy story but I have learned some important management lessons here about how not to behave when in a position of power. Not that I'll ever likely be a chair or a dean, but I can still make use of these lessons in terms of the people I do direct who work on my projects (grad students, post docs, secretaries).

And then at the end of the week, I found a vase of fresh flowers on my desk, courtesy of one of my grad students. I haven't really done anything to merit something like that from her, but she said "think of it as the world (and me, as a complicated grad student), saying 'thanks for being you'." OMG. How sweet is that? I almost feel guilty because I don't want any grad students on our paltry stipends ever spending any money on me! It should be the other way around, as often as possible.

Anyway, this has been an interesting contrast in the things that are bad and good about my job. The bad stuff (budget problems, departmental politics, bad management practices on behalf of my dean and chair) is mostly stuff that doesn't directly intersect with my day-to-day life. The good stuff? The faculty with whom I directly work in my area and on my cross-disciplinary grants. They're all great people. The students. All of our grad students - I like every one of them and I love our Friday seminar discussions together. The students on my projects are really outstanding. The post docs on my projects are also super awesome. Basically, the people I directly interact with on a daily basis are all wonderful colleagues; smart, dedicated, thoughtful, open minded. It's good to step back and be grateful for those things that matter a lot.

Tonight I sat down with the kids and wrote down words for them to try to read: Bat, Dog, Fun, Nod, Sit, etc. And Nora was able to sound out each and every one and figure out what they were. It's like something has just started to click with her. It's amazing to watch. Reading has been such an incredible pleasure and joy throughout my life that I'm excited to see it beginning for her. Milo isn't there at all at this point. He's in a different place, focusing on different skills right now, which is just fine. Over spring break he practiced learning his head stand and now he can hold a bona fide head stand for 30 seconds.

On Tuesday Milo is getting tubes put into his ears. The hope is that this will solve his hearing problem.

Now of course the thing I'd really like them to learn is to how to co-exist for more than 5 minutes without bickering...