As I’m waiting, I’m pondering a few different things. It’s dumping rain outside (an oddity in May in Chico), and I’m wondering how my friend Alicia‘s first century bike ride went yesterday. We had a break in the storm for most of the day here, but I’m not sure if the same was true in Redding, where the ride happened. I’m marveling that she can pedal for a hundred miles. I’ve been spending more time on the road with my new 36″-wheeled unicycle, but I think around 14 miles is the longest I’ve gone on it so far. That hardly compares to a 100 mile endeavor. My riding buddy, Gary, and I are mapping out some endurance rides in the Team Bigfoot series–mostly 8- and 12-hour races over the summer and into the fall. I’d like to see some improvement in my performance at these kinds of events. I seem to always lose it at around the 5-hour mark; I want to get some better results. Maybe if I continue to lose weight–I’m down below the 200 lb mark (from around 225), and would like to hit 185 ideally–I’ll see some improvement. I need to keep hill riding, too, just to get my legs into better shape. 

On the professional front, I received notice on Friday that, as of next school year, I’ll be promoted to Professor. For those not attuned to the ranks of academe, those hired in tenure-track jobs at colleges begin as Assistant Professors (and spend, usually, 6 years at that rank), then are reviewed for tenure and promotion to Associate Professor. After a period as Associate (generally another 5 or 6 years, depending on the institution), another review occurs, and promotion to Professor ensues (if one is successful). Particularly strong candidates–those who publish a ton, or who secure lots of big grants–get on a fast track. That wasn’t me. I was 6 years to tenure, and another 5 now to reaching full prof status. It’s a little odd to feel like, in a way, I’m done with all the little games that have to be played to help find success and surety in the academic world. It’s not that I feel like I no longer have to work hard–far from it, in fact–but I do feel that, to a greater degree, I can make decisions about where to direct my efforts without trying to simultaneously predict how those efforts will be interpreted by others at my university. That’s a pretty nice feeling. And it’s also not like I had to make strenuous efforts to make my colleagues see and/or value the work I’ve been doing, either. It’s cheesy, yes, but it feels a little like a Sally Field moment (“You like me! You really like me!” ). And when you’re an educator, you take as many of those moments as you can find.

And speaking of educators … and the Summer Institute (okay, that was a couple paragraphs ago, but hey, you’re paying attention, and that’s a good thing, right?) … the NCWP held the orientation for the 2009 Summer Institute this past Saturday. Taking a cue from the awesome advice given by Tracy Baisden of the MUWP, and Bruce Penniman of the WMWP, my colleague Amanda and I structured the day as a kind of Summer-Institute-in-a-nutshell, so that the new participants could get a sense of what they’ll be in for when the summer rolls around. I thought it was a great day, but that’s the kind of thing that happens when you get interesting, committed teachers together. Thank Jim Gray for figuring that out 35 years ago. 

Okay, so the download of my backup is all done, so I can proceed to mess with stuff. It may be that I’ll lose this entire post when I do the upgrade dance, but that’s all right. Worse things could happen.

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