Random Wednesday night thoughts

* Too little sleep + 2 glasses of wine at dinner = one tipsy Jane.

* The last few assignments/quizzes/tests are always the toughest to grade. For me, this is because I move the worst ones to the bottom of the pile as I read through all of them. And I keep relocating them to the bottom. But there's only so long you can put them off. (How many pity points should one give in these situations? It's harder when you *know* the student is trying, but the answer is just way off.)

* Somehow, even though we have a speakers/colloquium person in our department, I still keep getting suckered in to organizing the logistics of these visitors. Seriously, I've done half of these this year. Usually I don't mind---and I've made some great contacts this year---but still. (Although, to be honest, I've blown off my "official" departmental task for most of this year, so maybe in a karmic sense I'm making up for it.)

* Last night I was reminded of why I love watching women's basketball. Last night's championship game was so much fun to watch (ok, admittedly not if you're a Duke fan). Those women rock!

* Somehow I have found myself included in an inner circle of junior faculty women who are trying to---well, in a sense, gain more power and influence on campus, but that's not exactly it. They are the more senior of the junior faculty, close to tenure, and trying to organize in various ways to "plant the seeds of meaningful change", so to speak. Anyway, I'm not sure how I got myself into this---although it's been developing for a while---but it's neat. I've met a lot of really strong and interesting women as a result. I aspire to be like them--confident, not afraid to take unpopular positions while still being aware of the political climate, and strong.

* I have also found myself firmly in the role of mentor lately to the more junior faculty in our department. I hate to say it, but I've been in need of a major confidence boost lately, so it's nice to feel like I'm needed and valued.