*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.
xykademiqz 
THank you. AND good wishes with the children; that he grows up and matures also! Keep asking him to tell you what he thinks you think about things and how he sees the pros and cons of decisions…….
Looking forward to more posts! Good choice on the buffalo; enough acreage for a moderately sized farm should be enough food to get a 12 year old up to driving age.
We’ve missed you! I hope you find time to post soon. Curious about what’s going on with MB!
Good luck with your preteen. I am not looking forward to that phase at all! Hated it when I went through it, and don’t even know how to relate to what boys go through at those ages. And I’m also rooting you on for your sabbatical! You deserve it!
I find my blogging energy has peaks and valleys – and that’s OK because it is a hobby! I like reading what you write, but understand that time is finite so sometimes we don’t get to write as much as we’d like.
My older daughter is roughly the same age as your Middle Boy. She’s only 5.2, but yikes all of the sudden she looks so grown up and I can’t help thinking “here we go… hang on!”
My son’s preteen years were probably the easiest time—not as hectic as the full high-school years and past the stubbornness of the elementary years. But all kids are different, and I’ve found that the generalizations made in the media were usually applicable to only a small fraction of the kids I’ve met. (Disclaimer: the kids I met were mainly theater kids, science-fair kids, math or tech club kids, and home schoolers, so likely not a representative sample.)