Special Thanks To @ryanpcolwell & @enca21 - Keeping Me Sane During GSEAP Dossier Time

I arrived to my office early Saturday morning to crank out a "Statement of the Case" to go with my materials for the 2014 Annual Dossier collected by my colleagues in the Graduate School of Education and Allied Professions. I didn't bother to shower, as I knew I was going to sit at my desk for the majority of the day, trying to make sense of grants, presentations, publications, community service, teachers evaluations, and the other work my 365-days-a-year job entails. I took the photo to the right when I arrived,  already harried by that point that the work needing to be done once again.

New to the weekend writing bonanza, however, were the faces of my other untenured colleagues: Erica, Ryan, Evelyn, and Belihna, who also gave up an entire Saturday to prepare materials for review. Throughout the day I heard yelps, gripes, sighs of exhaustion, and outright laughter as all of us #@$@#$ about the process and timing for the materials to be turned in on February 2nd. And yes, we all know that there's another snow event coming to Fairfield County tonight, so we wanted to get as much done as we could in case the campus closes down.

Three Amigos, Canisius Hall, On a Saturday

 I discussed with Erica and Ryan that my goal was to be out of the office by 3 p.m., because I wanted to hit the gym and head home to prepare for teaching this week. Of course, at 5 p.m. I looked up and was not done with the work. That's when Erica greeted Ryan and me with a plastic cup of wine.

Wine for our whine, and we took a much needed, "it must be 5 o'clock" somewhere break in our day. Well, it was 5 o'clock and we deserved more than a glass of wine.

Through academic communities, this is the life of untenured faculty who are trying to make the case that the work they're doing is impacting the research world and campus life. Although all three of us would rather be out in the field doing, in Rome it is more important to detail for others all that you do so they can uphold your intellectual integrity to other seasoned scholars.

It is either the work of excellence or the labor of insanity - the verdict is still out on that one.

I will say that by 7:30 p.m. last night I was more than ready to call it a wrap. This morning I have the Run For Refugees and I need to get to grocery store, prep the driveway, and prepare for the classes (whether they'll be cancelled or not). Also, I think there's a football game tonight.

Is it Scott Walker in Wisconsin who is on a campaign (as a college dropout) that college professors don't have enough work to do? If it is, he's welcome to visit the three of us any day of the week and we'll show him otherwise.

Here's to our motivation from yesterday and our willingness to spend a Saturday in the office! Cheers to Us!