Realistic Vision for Spring Break

Tomorrow marks the first official day of spring break. This year, as opposed to years in the past, I have faced reality -- I don't accomplish much, academically, over spring break. Typically, as I head out of the office on the Friday prior, I will load up my bag with a book I'd been meaning to read, a few articles I printed out from CCCC, or maybe even a stack of student essays to grade. And each time I did this, I would see that bag sitting in the corner of the room nearly every day, and dismiss it with "I'll get to it tomorrow." Not this time. This year, I left everything at school. Sure there is some work I could do to get ahead, but if I know that I won't get to it, why bother bringing it home. And the best part this year, is that I was a bit smarter with my scheduling of assignments, and I don't have any student essays to grade! I will get some immediately when we start up again in a week, but I don't have them now. The one thing that I have to do is to start working on a project for the class that I am taking ... a review of a new media project, that I have yet to locate, based on criteria established by any foundational new media scholar. Aside from that, I'll work on a few projects around the house that I'd put off, play with the kids, and enjoy some quiet nights with my wife. Ah, now that sounds like a break ... too bad our daughters didn't get the message. Thus far, both nights have been the opposite of restful; I'm more tired now than I was on Friday!