Running the Race

Well, although it's Anthony who's on the track team, I sure feel like I'm running a race of my own. All my boys (including David) are on spring break this week, but my college did away with spring break a few years back. (Isn't that an oxymoron, a college without a spring break?) Things are kind of crazy, as not only would I like to spend time with them while they are on break, but the time I am used to having totally to myself during the day to plan and putter and process is not available to me this week.

This is some kind of crazy race - not just for me but with all of us going different directions. Of course there was Easter with its services and celebrations. Jacob is at a youth group camp right now. David and Anthony are leaving tomorrow for southern California to check out colleges (Harvey Mudd and Cal Tech) - taking advantage of this time while Anthony is on spring break. (They'll get to sit in on one of mathemagician Arthur Benjamin's classes while at Harvey Mudd. I'm so jealous!) It's a good thing Anthony is a quick healer. He had all 4 wisdom teeth removed Monday. He is still in some amount of pain and looks like a chipmunk at the moment, but he's being a very good sport about it all.

Poor Caleb is kind of being left in the dust - feeling rather bored and lonely on his spring break as David, Anthony and Jacob are all jetting around, and I'm working, revising a thesis and preparing for an interview - not much time right now for Mom to play!

My interview is Friday and is for a tenure-track position. I need to prepare 2 presentations. I do that sort of thing all the time, whether for lecturing to my class or for speaking at a conference, but when it's for an interview there's just a little different level of processing. There's a lot on the line. It's in a different category too than presentations I normally give; in this case I've been given the topics I need to speak on, but I will also be given specific examples to use in my presentations but won't have those until half an hour before the interview, which gives it kind of a twist. I usually plan very thoroughly, so I'm trying to figure out how to plan lessons with holes in them that examples I'm given later will fit into. Anyway, I'm pretty distracted away from family this week.

Sometimes Anthony has to run two races pretty much in a row, for instance the 800 meters and then the 2 mile. That's hard to do. When you give a finishing kick in one race you give it your all, and it's hard to recover to take on a new race. That's kind of what I feel like right now. Anything I do I give it my all, and I've got quite a few things I'm trying to give my all to right now.

It's all good stuff. Actually it's all kind of an interesting challenge, but I am eager for some down time. It's been a busy few years with my graduate program and teaching and with big family issues such as David's stroke and recovery. I'm eager for some time to just focus on my family in a relaxed setting for a while, and I sure hope we'll get that chance soon. Hopefully some of that can happen this summer! For now we'll all keep running the race as best we can!