a week for the record books

I have been so busy this week I can barely wrap my mind around it myself, so I thought I'd blog about it so that in the future I can look back and say, "Wow. I was totally insane. What was I thinking? I'm glad my life isn't like that anymore." Except I won't be saying that a) because my life will always be like this and b) because I absolutely adore being busy. It's the only way I can ever get anything done. When I have a lot of time, I sit around and feel restless and bored and accomplish absolutely nothing. But this past week I went a bit overboard--an exercise in madness, I'd say.

Things start out fairly low-key on Monday and Tuesday but spiral out of control to near untenability by Saturday night:

Monday:

• spent morning working on grant applications
• 4:30-7pm: taught karate
• 7:15-9pm: attended screening of Blue Steel (Kathryn Bigelow, 1990) for the course I'm teaching

Tuesday:

• spent most of day working on grant applications and/or moping around
• went shopping for something for the girlfriend, also bought cute shirts from H&M
• 7:30-8:30pm: jiujitsu class

Wednesday:

• 12-3:30pm: attended two lectures and luncheon on campus
• 4:30-7pm: taught karate
• 7:30-9pm: horseback riding

Thursday:

• 9:30-11am: attended meeting about professional development with yesterday's lecturers
• 12-1pm: swam with my friend V. while wearing my new waterproof mp3 player, which I love
• 1-2pm: office hours
• 2-3:20pm: prepped for class
• 3:30-4:40: taught class. Most of my students hated Blue Steel, which I found a bit frustrating since I think there's so much more to the film than its rather implausible narrative. My students also turned in their midterm papers which I haven't had a chance to look at yet.
• 4:40-5:45: returned home to feed cats, dropped off backpack/laptop, switched wallet and cellphone from backpack to purse
• 6-7:30pm: cocktails and dinner with the Board of Trustees in my capacity as speaker for university graduate group here (they invited all the representatives of all the student groups on campus. There were probably ten of us total, undergrad and grad, from various groups, and forty or so Trustees.)
• 8-9:30pm: special performance of Garth Fagan Dance for the UR's Meliora Weekend (alumni and parents' weekend). Because I was part of the Trustees' "party" I had amazing seats in the fifth row. The performance was incredible, as always--I love modern dance.
• 9:30-10:45pm: returned home to change into my 80s outfit for an 80s dance party at a local bar in town: black short skirt, black tank, fuchsia tights, fuchsia nail polish, fuchsia felted wool hat (which my aunt made), hot pink satin tie, hot pink earrings, hot pink eyeshadow
• 10:45pm-1am: picked up my friend V. and then went to join a few of my other friends at the bar. The dancing itself was kind of lame because the DJ wasn't playing very danceable 80s music. But dressing up was fun.

Friday:

• 10:15-11:30am: attended the General Session of the Board of Trustees. Decided I either want to somehow become famous and very wealthy and become a Trustee or work my way up the academic ladder and become a Dean and/or Provost. What can I say? I like power.
• 12-1pm: Luncheon with Board of Trustees and other student reps.
• 1-2pm: Meeting with officers of the campus-wide graduate group. Brainstormed ideas about up-ing grad student involvement.
• spent the rest of the afternoon at home decompressing and shopping for groceries
• 7:30pm-12am: went over to my friend K.'s house, made her dinner (tacos carne asadas), watched Gia, which I had seen before but she hadn't (and I think she liked it but was utterly depressed afterward)

Saturday:

• 6am: got up (ugg!), showered, dressed, picked up three other students to drive Cornell (approximately two hours away) for a video art conference
• 7-9:30am: drove to Ithaca/Cornell U.
  
• 9:30am-12:50pm: first session of the conference
• 1-2pm: lunch
• 2-4pm: second session of the conference and the hideously long Q&A in which the moderator didn't seem to understand ending things on time (they went half an hour over). The conference affirmed my suspicions about why video art is not useful for my work and how it doesn't fit with my project. This may sound like a negative, but I actually appreciated the reassurance of what I already suspected.
• 4:30-7pm: picked up coffee at Dunkin Donuts and headed back home
• 7pm: talked to four different friends on the phone to solidify evening plans despite the fact that I was exhausted (there had been a plan to go dancing, but I was getting the distinct impression this was going to fall through)
• 7:30-8:30pm: got a second wind, showered away the day's grim and redressed in less formal clothing
• 8:30-9:45pm: dinner with friends V., N., B. and A. at an excellent Italian restaurant managed by a friend of mine (he always gives me free food even though he doesn't have to--I love the food there and would go back again and again anyway)
• 9:45-10:00pm: dropped off V. and N. at home, picked up flowers for my friend K. at the grocery store (she was having a bad day)
• 10:00-10:15pm: talked briefly to April on my cell
• 10:15pm: re-joined A. (who had dropped off B. at home) in front of some guy's house who was supposedly having a party. I told A. I'd go with her for a little while since clubbing plans had fallen through but when we arrived there seemed to be no party happening. We decided to go have a drink and come back in case people were just late in arriving.
• 10:15-11pm (ish): drank margaritas with A. and chatted
• 11pm-1am: returned to guy's house but it still didn't look like anyone was there. A. didn't really know him very well so we decided it would be awkward to knock in case the party is actually next week. And then we decided to go out dancing anyway even though everyone else flaked out. Very fun and cathartic and lovely to hang out with A. even though it would have been great if others had wanted to join us.
• 1am: dropped by K.'s apartment on my way home from dancing to give her the flowers (she's a night owl, I knew she'd still be up)
• drove home and talked to April on the cell for about 30 minutes (she's in a different timezone so it wasn't even midnight yet for her) until I had to go to bed or risk falling over from exhaustion.

Whew!

And then today, I've spent most of the day working on the aforementioned grant applications, catching up on email and reading the proofs of a forthcoming article. It feels nice to have a day off, so to speak (although all I've done is work all day), but somehow I feel oddly restless again. Ah, well, another week is ahead of me.