Why Does Updating a Dossier a Few Times a Year Seem Like Gale-Force Winds, a Tsunami, and a Hurricane

Truth is, I don't update it a few times a year...and I only keep track of the Merit applications of year-to-year accomplishments. Yesterday, however, I decided I would check on my CV to see where I am with updates, and then went into Digital Commons (a request of Fairfield) to update materials there. That is what took forever. I haven't updated that framework since 2014. Every item of the CV had to be entered bit by bit, paper by paper, conference by conference, presenter by presenter. I did it, but am unsure who the audience for that material is...or who polices it, because obviously no one has come after me in the past to say, "Crandall. You know your online presence at Fairfield is bunk. We asked you to use Digital Commons, and you haven't."

As Sonya Huber calls it - tis the land of bean counting. 

I always tell other professionals, "Imagine if you lived in a world where you were expected to work 24/7, but then had to document every second of that day with...and then I did this...and then I did this...and had to list it, up and beyond your 24/7 job." That's academia.

Ironically, the Covid-19 year was a good year for me. Because I was home, not in schools as much doing professional development, and had a few more milliseconds to write, I got more into the world. And I went in to add that stuff, not knowing I haven't updated the University protocol since my early years. The result...I lost Tuesday catching up and letting the University know, "Yes, I've been working."

My bad. I'm up to date now...I think.

Truth also is that I joined a Challenger group last year at Syracuse and we promised one another 20-minutes of writing a day for the month of June. It was before my online programs began and it gave me a reason to focus every day for the month with writing projects I needed to get in. Part of me is thinking I should do the same for June this year, too. If I don't set time aside for the writing projects, I don't get them done. The accountability group works for me and I think we're in for another season. 

Meanwhile, my air condition kicked on yesterday afternoon. The house thermometer read 78 degrees. I instantly turned it off as I love sleeping in May/June with warm days and cool nights. No need for artificial air, especially now that everything is so fragrant. 

Okay, Wednesday. More writing projects to come. You have a June 1 deadline, and two projects you want to burn over the next several weeks. 

And thank the Great Whatever you don't have Edem's allergies right now. His eyes are so swollen, he looks like some sort of banshee or spook. Poor guy...gave him a Benadryl and wished for the best.