More Evidence About Why I Am Horrible At This Sabbatical Thing (But Passionate About The Work I Do)

Part of my research leave this semester is a contract to stay AWAY from campus to focus on my research, my writing, my data analysis, and my LIFE. Ah, but I keep saying, "I can take a sabbatical from GSEAP, but it's somewhat impossible to take a break from CWP!" As much as I'm trying to avoid my office, I'm finding the need to go there almost every day: to meet with a teacher, to get files for NWP reports, to hand-off projects to graduate students, to work on the State budget, to retrieve books, and to print!

Every time I come onto campus I tell my colleagues, "You're not seeing me. I'm invisible. I am a figment of your imagination."

Today, I bumped up my game of being incognito. I decided to wear a hoodie and glasses so no one would see me. I entered ninja-style and hid from bushes so I wouldn't be detected. When I sat in my office to look at materials needing to be catalogued over the next week, I found my redneck teeth - a gift I bought for myself, I'm sure, from a $1 store. I put them in so I would be that much more a stranger on Fairfield's campus (he tells himself, knowing that anyone who knows me expects such moronic attire from me).

Then I noticed the hoodie I chose. Yes, the road to hell is always paved with silly intentions. I was wearing my Crandall hoodie! Nice going, Sherlock!

It's all good, though, because I only ran into a few people. I'm realizing from this September - December departure that my working bee tendencies, blue-collar upbringing, and passion for the National Writing Project does not match well with leaving the campus work behind. In truth, there's too much to do in support of CT K-12 teachers and youth. I'm not sure I'd be able to take passage on an airplane where the pilots were on sabbatical or board a ship without its captain. I am getting my day-to-day goals accomplished, but it has meant that I also must enter there which should not be named. I feel like a traitor to the intent of the break, but all I do is too much tied to the Directorship of my position.

And I'm sorry to report that no one came up to me to ask, "Hey, are you Jerry Lewis?"