No longer feeling guilty

Well, that period of feeling on top of things didn't last long! Turns out everyone scrambles toward the end of the quarter, in panic that they haven't accomplished enough yet - and all committee work seems to go full steam ahead! I've been working 12 hour days most days for the last 2 weeks, though I have still made some time for fun. I'm posting this from work on a Sunday night, though - and I do have more work to do before I can go home - I should get back to it!

The most exciting thing is that the classroom remodel committee was not only happy with my ideas about the changes to the large lecture hall I teach in, but they were practically willing to throw millions of dollars at me because they need a new prototype large lecture classroom - and I'm the one bringing forward ideas. And here I was worrying about how I was going to be able to improve our teaching spaces (one of the things they hoped I'd do when they hired me). Here is a pic of the room I currently teach in - it's a monster, about 266 seats and none of them comfortable - and many with poor visibility to the board.











Other than that, I've been taking a salsa class in town with a new friend (who is someone I work with and was hired at the same time as me - we actually had met once before that), have gone boutique shopping in Portland with someone who is the friend of one of my cousins in rural Alabama (what a coincidence!), done some more great hikes (including finally making it to the top of the big hill behind my house - it took 3 hours round trip - not bad), and been out to eat a few times (food here is still great!)

Busy - but no complaints here!