What a day yesterday was. Very admin, but also very Montreal. Blog’s been quite lately as I’ve had lots going on. Here’s one day. Some times are approximate.
7:10am: Wake up, get ready, get to school.
8:30: Breakfast with the provost and six other department chairs. Conversation ranges across various administrative initiatives. This is a once-a-year deal.
10:10ish: Arrive in dept. See two colleagues, one who’s on sabbatical. Conversation ends when non-sabbatic colleagues says “I’ve got to go teach.” Sabbatic colleague says “I’ve got to go read books.” I have to go to my office.
10:30-1: Admin, which involves email, talking with staff and colleagues, doing things that result from reading email and talking with staff and colleagues.
1:00: Lunch meeting with Chris Salter, prof at Concordia who teaches new media design and media theory. We talk about ideas and bureaucracy. Cool.
2:45: Back in office. More admin.
4:00: Phone call with dean.
4:07: Hang up. Imagine designing decanal fan club t-shirts
4:07:05: Realize this is a bad idea
4:07:06: Begin desk clearing for weekend (metaphorical only; mostly involves reorganizing my “little black book”[1])
4:45: Leave office to walk over to 5à7 book launch with colleague
5:15: Arrive at event. Have good time.
6:30: Dinner at Prato. During dinner, an acquaintance walks by, sees us in the window and waves.
7:30: Walk to sound art performance featuring Tara Rodgers, one of my students.
8:15: Arrive at sound art performance, Tara asks me how it’s going. I try to answer but feel as though my life sounds completely lame. I am actually excited about the spreadsheet of departmental spending I received today. This surprises even me. But then, you don’t occupy the chair; it occupies you.
8:30: Performance starts, root for the home team
somewhere between 9:45 and 10, performance ends
10:30ish: arrive home, catch up with Carrie, who has done a full revision of a chapter of her book. We watch some TV on DVD [2]
Strangely, I am too tired to go straight to bed. I finally settle down around 1:15.
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[1] Subject of a forthcoming post
[2] Ditto.