The juggle

Well, I’ll admit to struggling this semester.  I have a lot fewer hours of childcare than I did last year (on child duty at 3, rather than at 6, with no one but me to make dinner), I’m teaching six courses, and Nathaniel’s been sick several times this fall.  Oh yes, and we now have a house of our own (lots of time with home-repair guys and yard work) and two cats.  Eek!  So, let’s just say that research has been, um, more of a desire than a reality.

But for the first week of November, I’m going to be taking off for a few days to drive up to see Sydney in Ithaca (yes, we’ll both be working, and I’ll be spending some time in the library archives) and then back down to Pittsburgh, where I’ll be giving two short papers at a major conference in my field.  One way or another, I’m going to be doing research-type things shortly.  I’m attempting to get things ready at school and home so that my parents can take over the kid-care while I’m away.  But Nathaniel’s had a couple of bouts of the stomach bug this week (one requiring me to cancel my classes for a day), and we just went through it again in the wee hours of last night.  Three all-nighters are well over my limit for a week!

Erin