*tap-tap*

Is this thing still on?

Hi everyone, it is your friendly neighborhood blogger. Delinquent friendly neighborhood blogger. Very ashamed delinquent friendly neighborhood blogger.

I’ve been MIA for several reasons. One is that fiction has taken up much of my creative bandwidth, but there has to be a way to accommodate both blogging and other writing, so I will try (and likely fail, repeatedly and spectacularly) to be better at pursuing the two concurrently.

Another is Middle Boy, aged not yet 12 but wearing a size-11 shoe and being over 5′ 9″ tall. Every day I have to hunt and roast a buffalo in order to feed him. His basketball and general hormone-fueled middle-school shenanigans take up a fair number of my mental cycles.

I have had a lot of labor-intensive service. Rewarding, but labor-intensive. As I must’ve said a number to times already, I CANNOT WAIT FOR SABBATICAL NEXT ACADEMIC YEAR. I CANNOT FUCKIN’ WAIT. The first one I took a year late and I spent it writing grants, caring for a newborn (gotta love it when a request for a full proposal comes in when you have a week-old baby and they want the submission in two fuckin’ weeks), and organizing a sizable conference. I am taking this sabbatical again a year late, and while there is thankfully no newborn, there was almost a conference again. I won’t go anywhere for long because Middle Boy is a handful. I’m dreading the few years ahead, to be honest.

My research group is at its max size, computers and chairs are being purchased, and while it’s always tricky to start working with a brand new crop of people, it’s nice to have fresh not-yet-jaded folks around.  I am teaching extra this semester because I will be on sabbatical but have all the new group members who need the course, and all the extra teaching is not helping.

So the lack of actual time and head space is the reason for the lack of posts, but I am not going anywhere, I promise.

I do miss blogging, the stream-of-consciousness, personal-narrative nature of it, so hopefully more from me again soon, in this space.