Frustrations and Amusements

As I sit here, in a bit of a lull between piles of work (it seems I am almost to the bottom of work and have found a speck of breathing room before the next deluge of work), I find myself fortunately more amused than frustrated. Here are some of the forces behind my F&A:

• After months and months of trying to find affordable flights for a study abroad trip to Costa Rica (my institution does not have a point person in charge of study abroad so it is left up to faculty to do all the legwork themselves to put together trips that bring FTE to the institution), my science buddy and I declared WE GIVE UP yesterday and cancelled the trip. We had enough students to fill the trip with plenty more interested. Who wouldn't be interested in pairing a Field Biology class with an English Comp II (research) class and getting 7 credits while exploring the rainforest and ecology of Costa Rica! We've been trying to work with the system and get flights secured since August, but due to forces beyond our control, delays and delays occurred and the end result was unaffordable flights on days we couldn't travel. So no trip for the students and no trip for us.
• We have a department produced writing handbook that is intended to be used across disciplines, yet has not been fully integrated into the campus culture. Teachers from other areas assign a fair amount of writing and are frustrated when their students don't produce the type of writing they expect. There is still a disconnect between a source available and a willingness to fully integrate/adopt that source. This should be championed beyond the English department, as more of a school philosophy toward Writing Across the Curriculum, but it has not. In theory people believe this, yet in action it does not occur.
• I heard the best excuse for not attending a meeting yesterday that I am considering putting into place. "I am just not in a place emotionally to be there today."
• While finding time to read some of the blog postings listed on my Bloglines (since I am in a lull), I came across an entry about eavesdropping in a coffeehouse. Reading it over it became familiar. Somehow the writer had overheard a colleague and I discussing something and captured it in a blog. Ah the blogosphere.

Even though the frustrations look longer than the amusements, I am seriously amused.

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