TGIF: Covid-Hair/Don't Care...One More Day of Consummate ZOOM Meetings (Then Actual Time to Work)

Four of the last five days have been 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. ZOOM meetings, back-to-back. I've posted with my distractions (poetry, dog walks, spring flowers - just to make it seem like there was calm in the world). The trouble with holding one job, which actually two jobs, with no CWP administrative support is that...well...in times like this - it's simply overwhelming.

Meetings with potential grant foundations, meetings with K-12 teachers, meeting with the wonderful national network, meetings with research participants, meeting with potential summer instructors (if there will be a summer), meeting with colleagues, meeting with collaborators...

It's just been a lot of ZOOM - too much ZOOM. Granted, we are a particular type of human being who work in higher education, and those of us who have National Writing Project jobs (and network voraciously with K-12 schools) are another breed of animal, too.

We know what works. We fight for it. Yet, it's one obstacle after another. I will go to my grave stating, "We know what works. We know what is best. We know how to succeed. Yet, our infrastructures, systems, and institutions will stand in the way every time."

State and federal support has all but disappeared.

Meanwhile, teachers and administrators (and young people and their families) want more excellence because they love it and they benefit. It's very frustrating.

Of course there's this Covid-19 thing, too, that is hitting us each and every day. The grief is creeping in as more and more close-to-home stories become reality. We are 30+ days of online teaching and absolute lockdown. The numbers have not dwindled. We hope for the best. For some that get it it, it is brutal. Others are luckier. It's a strange bugger, this one.

But I did wash my hair yesterday. I got up at 7 a.m. and said, "Crandall, let's start today with optimism and hope. Take a shower, then drink some coffee before you head up stairs for the 1st 8 a.m. call." And That's what I did. Then, I spent almost 12 hours at my desk behind a screen.

I'm fine. I'm just exhausted...

Trying to keep graduate students going until the finish line, colleagues high-fiving on University work, teachers doing good work with their K-12 students, and writing more grants so there's a slight chance we can maintain the CWP excellence established since 2011 at the University.

All of this, of course, from a single chair on the 2nd floor of Mt. Pleasant.

It's something.

Hope Hope Hope Hope Hope Hope.