The Blur

Katherine: Is that enough to keep you busy for the next week?
Me: Or month, even.

It's recruiting time for the writing project which means brochures, postcards, mailings, press packs, and various other kinds of packs that need to be assembled, counted, sorted, stuffed in envelopes, tracked... well, you get the idea. The office is coated with a layer of various papers and mailing supplies, and I'm working my way down the list of what needs to be done. I'm almost out of breath just typing it.

On the bright side, the brochures I helped put together look good and in the past couple of days we've been able to make a visible dent in the To Do list.

Although, in the midst of all of this, we've begun to have candidates (those interviewing for two faculty openings) flying in and visiting/interviewing. The first candidate came yesterday. I was able to do lunch with her as one of the campus representative-type folk and go to her presentation to staff/students (i.e. the sales pitch). I'm ideally situated for the search because my schedule allows me to help out with making candidates feel welcome - I'm already slated for lunch will all of them - but I don't have the stress of being on the search committe or having to actually organize the visits. Lots of chaos on that front because there's just so much to do.

Today Katherine asked me if I'd be willing to pick one of the candidates up from the airport on the 14th, so I'm going to do a bit of chauffering as well. I'm looking forward to it. So far, having seen the search for David's replacement and having met the first candidate yesterday, I've met some really intelligent and interesting people. The rough part about the process is that out of the group of candidates, all of whom are great, they can only hire one. Tough call.

In any event, between SCWP recruiting, the candidates visiting, having classes, and teaching a class of my own, days on campus are flying by.