Of the Madness of Fridays (and other things)

Why do Fridays never feel productive? I'm putting together a list of things, and still I don't feel like I've done as much as I should have today. So far, I have:

• done two loads of laundry
• taken clothes to the dry cleaner
• made breakfast and done the dishes
• taken bills and such to the post office
  
• gone to the grocery store
• completed and submitted a teaching grant application

Of course, I still haven't managed any work on the book today. Maybe that's the glaring hole in my day (week/month/term, too). Two days ago I had my meeting with the Dean about my 3rd year review. It was painless, really, except when the question about how the book was coming came up. I could only laugh. Still, at the end of it, when it came time to kick me in the ass and tell me what I needed to do for tenure, the comment was "Keep publishing and maybe try and do something in the community." So I left feeling alright.

But yesterday one of my students came in. I've written numerous letters for graduate schools for her, and she was upset because she'd received her first rejection. She was rejected not because she didn't fit the bill but because all of her application materials hadn't arrived.

What was missing? Transcripts. Why were the missing? Well, technically, no one can say in part because the records office here doesn't actually - and this is capital-I irony - keep any record of when (or if) they send out transcripts. They know they were asked to send them out. They just don't know if they did. When she explained, they said they could re-send them but they'd have to charge her again. She was near tears when she said, "I'm really disappointed in the University right now."

What could I say to that except "Me, too."