dual personalities

This week went by in a blur, kind of like this

Or am I?

In addition to classes and the usual spate of meetings, most of my time was taken up in preparation for the ‘War and Peace’ conference that  a colleague and I organized with our sister university down the road. We hosted it. Given our War Studies program and their Peace Studies one, we figured it would be profitable (and let’s be honest, look good) if we got our students together for a day of stimulating discussion and paper presentations. My colleague designed a beautiful poster featuring this detail from a painting  by Battini:

I don’t think the dragon approves of the lady

It all went off without a hitch; students were on time, appropriately dressed, well prepared, and (mostly) had intelligent things to say. The university president and provost both showed up and seemed very pleased (everyone loves cooperation between institutions). None of them would have guessed how much work went into scrounging for funding, fighting for rooms, negotiating food, strong-arming students into participating, bribing students with extra credit to attend, dealing late withdrawals, advertising, writing up the program and press releases, and getting everything printed and distributed. My department secretary deserves a raise. My colleague and I deserve a spa vacation. It was worth the effort.

I don’t deal with super busy all that well — never have. I’m too much the low energy introvert, I guess.  How my super busy sister and nieces manage, I’ll never know! I think they are much better organized than I am. Perhaps they rely on music, too. I managed to avoid a nervous breakdown mostly because I discovered “The Weepies” on Spotify.

Indie duo, The Weapies

Youtube won’t let me embed their tunes, but I can link. I particularly recommend Antarctica. This is some great ‘head-dancing’ music, but it’s also pretty gentle.

In other news, son # 2 had an epic tea-making disaster that left him with a very large second degree burn on his right arm. He has moved home temporarily so that someone can change the dressing twice a day as is required. He seems to be mending quite well,

blisters now drained and skin peeling

although his violin playing has taken a hit. And needless to say, we’ve taken on the tea making duties!

Here’s hoping you have some blossoms in your weekend. Would it sound too much like complaining if I shared the weather forecast with you?

Saturday Night

Lowering and thickening clouds. A steady snow developing overnight. Low 29F. Winds NE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of snow 80%. Snow accumulating 3 to 5 inches.

and for Sunday

A wintry mix in the morning will transition to mainly light snow in the afternoon. Temps nearly steady in the low to mid 30s. Winds NNE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of precip 80%. Snow and ice accumulating 1 to 3 inches.

Roll on winter! I think I need to go listen to the Weapies.

Have a great weekend!