After the excitement of yesterday, it was business as usual. Or rather ... business in the New Usual, which as Director of Graduate Studies meant heading in to the department to proctor an 8.45 a.m. 3 hour language exam, and then xeroxing the translations and sending them to the examiners, and and and. And talking to students, too, but that's the good bit of normal. But as one of our former office staff said, moreover, one of the things that The New System doesn't allow for is anyone being out sick, or for family issues, or - well, anything. There simply is no slack. So there were some other things - answers that I needed to, say, complex grad financing questions - that were just unretrievable. And that, of course, makes me feel as though I can't deliver in my particular role what I should be able to deliver. The end of this semester can't come quickly enough - and yes, it's only Week One.
A picture of autumnal leaves? I got home when the light was waning, and I was visually uninspired - but very struck by the pathetic fallacy of the autumnal suiting well the mood of the day. Only it's January. The Asian Pear, however, is always the last tree whose leaves turn golden - in a perverse way, it's a sure sign of spring.
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