summertime goings-on

Hi y'all. I haven't been around (here) for a while -- something to do with feeling like summer's really gotten started -- hot, humid weather, especially this week; trips out of town; a baseball game, including rain delay (I always seem to jinx them); the winding down of German class; and finally, an imminent departure to spend the next 6 weeks or so in New York. And honestly, it just felt like I had to take a break from typing into my computer for a while (though I've still been reading blogs).

Summer is the time for reflection -- what have I done this past year, what *haven't* I done that I'd like to do, what I'd like to do in the future. Living on an academic calendar, I never make New Year's resolutions, I make end-of-summer resolutions. We're not quite there yet, thank goodness, but there's the impulse to start planning already, to start kicking up the energy for the next push. How and what will I teach next fall? What seminars to take? Most weightily, what will my next exam list look like, and what fields will it identify with (and will I self-identify with)?

On the other hand, the brain is tired. And even though the past six weeks have been academically light, I haven't taken a real vacation (without working) since last summer.

Vacation won't happen yet -- first, I need to put together a syllabus for next fall's writing class, which is a fun piece of work, but work nonetheless. But I'll be traveling to North Carolina for a week on the beach in July, bracketed by some visiting with friends and family in D.C. and Baltimore, and hopefully featuring the sand, the surf, the seafood...

I haven't decided whether or not to keep blogging regularly for the next few weeks. I think I'd like to ease myself back into it, but I may be almost ready to go into total shut-down mode. Let's assume, though, that I'll try to get back in the swing of things, and take it from there.