Music

I bought Bo tickets to see Gordon Lightfoot for Valentine's Day. He mentioned wanting to see him. I had no idea who Gordon Lightfoot was at the time, but thought it would be fun to go anyway. Here's a YouTube video of him performing one of his most famous songs, If You Could Read My Mind. I hope the video works. I've not posted videos here previously.


I recognized 5 or 6 of his songs during the concert. I heard a few people say that his voice was weak. He's 69 years old; I guess after a lifetime of performing you have a right to have a weak voice periodically. It was a nice show and I'm glad we were able to see him perform. I think this is the first concert we've been to since Callen was born.

He performed at the Alabama Theater last night. Here's a link to pictures of the inside of the theater (http://www.alabamatheatre.com/Default.aspx?tabid=68); it is a beautiful old theater. I heard someone sitting behind us compare it to the Fox Theater in Atlanta. The sound in it is just beautiful!

The Juggle

Are you a juggler? I don't mean literally - as in a circus performer who can juggle X number of balls at once. We're all jugglers in one sense or another - whether it is work and personal life, parenting, priorities of various kinds, etc. I wonder how people decide how much they can 'juggle' at one time.

I've been thinking about this lately as I seem to be juggling lots of 'balls' at once at work. I really need to write down all the projects I have in varous stages so I'll know how many things I am trying to 'juggle'.

This week in particular there are lots of things that have to be coordinated, finalized, submitted, etc. for 2 different projects. Knowing the best way to juggle all these things is an issue. In fact, I should probably be working on them rather than blogging right now. . .

How do you effectively juggle multiple projects, demands, etc.?

Who Schedules This Many Meetings on a Friday?

I was looking at Eszter's blog (http://www.esztersblog.com) the other day and saw that she had a busy, busy day of meeting after meeting. I've noticed my days are getting more and more like this. Although, if you recall, when I decided to try to be more proactive than reactive, I noted that I would try to compress meetings together rather than having them be scattered about, etc.

I looked at my calendar for tomorrow and noticed that I have 4 meetings (which is actually fewer than I've had on my other meeting days the past 2 weeks)! They start at 9 AM and the last one runs from 3-5 (a faculty meeting from 3-5 on a Friday - OUCH! There better be a happy hour after such a meeting!). I definitely need to be better about the 'days' I use for meetings.

As I was telling one of my grad students the other day when he questioned me about why I seem to have so many meetings of late, I think the longer you're in academia the more meetings you seem to have -- whether they're with students, research collaborators, committees, etc., they begin to add up after a while!

Here's to fewer meetings next week - especially on Friday!

Reunions

I received an email from some grad school buddies who are organizing a grad school reunion for a few of us who were in grad school together at NC State (http://sa.ncsu.edu/S&A/index.html). What a great idea!

It seems these days that I usually only run into old grad school friends at conferences. However, some conferences are so large that you can often both be at the conference and never see each other unfortunately. Even if you do run into each other, however, it isn't often that you get to see spouse/partners and kids. My friends have invited partners and kids -- very cool! I haven't seen some of my friends' kids in years.

Here's to hoping we all get to attend the reunion and enjoy some good, relaxing times with old friends this summer!

Reactive vs. Proactive

I sat at Panera and did some work this morning for the first time this year. My schedule has been so frenetic in January with submitting papers for our national conference, 2 grant proposals, and a continuation request for a current project that today was the first time I took the time to stop at Panera, have breakfast, and catch-up on some things.

While sitting there I realized that due to the busyness of this month, most of my actions have been reactive rather than proactive. Well, actually they have been a combination of both, but more reactive than I like.

How much of our lives do we spend merely reacting to what is happening to us, rather than being proactive about our lives? How would our lives be different if we spent more time being proactive, rather than reactive?

I think beginning tomorrow I'll try to start being more proactive with my life, starting with my schedule. I will attempt to cluster meetings, to avoid interruptions in my productivity during the day. I think I'll also be more diligent about keeping my time for writing sacred and not allowing last minute meetings, interruptions, etc. to impinge upon it. I imagine not checking email as frequently would help with this too : ).

What strategies do you use to be more proactive in your life?

Funerals and Cherishing Life

I just returned from the funeral of my 23 year old great niece at 1 AM this morning. It was a quick trip but I'm glad I had the chance to go to the funeral, be there for the family, and support my brother during all of this.

I didn't know Laura all that well. She was born with severe autism and had pretty bad seizures throughout her life. Even with all that going against her, she graduated from high school. She lived at Tammy Lynn Center (http://www.tammylynncenter.org/), an organization that offers educational, residential, and family support services for children with special needs. So many of the staff members came to her funeral and one woman talked about Laura's life. Her eulogy was so much better than that given by the preacher, as you could tell that she'd spent many years caring for Laura.

I can't imagine the pain my niece must be in right now, and has been in this week since Laura died. To have to bury your child must be the worst thing a parent can endure.

All I wanted to do was get home to my child after the funeral! I didn't think the 9+ hour drive would ever end last night. I was so glad when I got home to find that, once again, Callen was in our bed asleep. Bo said she just wouldn't go to bed in her bed last night, so he brought her into our bed. Maybe Callen knew that her mommy was going to need to have her close last night when I got home. Even as tired as I was at 1 AM, I laid in bed for over an hour just watching my sweet baby sleeping. I didn't want to take my eyes off her.

As my niece said to me before we left yesterday, go home and cherish your baby as you never know how long you'll have with her. I hope we can all cherish all the moments we have with our children, our families, and our friends. . .

What Would Be On Your Bucket List?

Bo and I actually got to see a movie in the theater this afternoon! We saw Bucket List with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. The reviews I saw panned it, but we both liked it. The basic premise is that they both find out they have less than a year to live. Carter (Freeman) has started a bucket list (a list of things you want to do before you 'kick the bucket') and he and Edward (Nicholson) take off to complete their combined bucket list.

I wonder . . . what would be on your bucket list now? And, would it change if you knew that you had less than a year to live? I'll be interested to hear your responses . . .