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Monday, March 14, 2016
Back From Spring Break
Loyola is back in session after a week of spring break, which got me thinking, fellow prawfs: what do you do over your Spring Break? (I'm assuming some significant percentage of you either are, like me, just back or are just entering yours.)
I'll go first, of course. Since my kids' break won't arrive for another month or so, spring break isn't a big travel time for me; mostly, it's catching up on stuff I fell behind on and doing family stuff that needs to be done. But I did get in two big things last week:
- I cleaned my office. And that's a big thing. As I throw myself into various writing projects, piles of sources stack up all over my desk. But now those stacks are largely gone, either recycled or organized in places I can comfortably get to them.
- I practiced my saxophone. Years (and years and years) ago, I was a halfway decent musician. But the rigors of law school, kids, and apartment living have made playing a lot harder. Still, I love to play and, while my acoustic guitar and electric piano are fun, I miss what was my primary instrument throughout my teenage years. But I got five days of playing in last week, which is probably four days more than I've done in the last ten or fifteen years. Now the trick will be to keep it up when I'm at work during the day.
So how about you?
Posted by Sam Bruson on March 14, 2016 at 12:30 PM in Blogging | Permalink
Comments
I have written before that I actually don't like spring break. I hate the way it breaks up the flow of a semester, putting a full week between coverage, leaving us with about four days (two on either side of the break) in which students are not fully engaged, and requiring new review and ramp-up time the first couple days back. And we don't feel the need to have this in fall semester (at most we have the long Thanksgiving weekend and at some schools a long weekend, mostly for freshmen, early in the semester).
I would rather have along Christmas break
Posted by: Howard Wasserman | Mar 19, 2016 9:25:20 AM
Hi Sam, sounds great . . . nothing like making a little music when you're alone in the apt.
Posted by: Steve | Mar 17, 2016 11:02:52 AM
Let's start with what I DIDN'T do: In 2015, I made the foolish choice to schedule two speaking presentations during spring break. Promptly after I got back to Chicago, I went straight to my Google Calendar, scrolled ahead to March 2016, and entered the following 7-day long appointment: "Don't schedule anything work-related during Spring Break. Love, 2015 Nadia."
It worked. I spent this past week finishing edits on two articles, dealing with course-related stuff, organizing my home office, catching up on boring tasks I've been procrastinating on (making doctor's appointments! meeting with financial planners!), planning my garden, and reading for pleasure. Overall, decent.
Posted by: Nadia Sawicki | Mar 14, 2016 2:29:54 PM
I'll play, Sam. Many spring breaks, I'm feverishly finishing a draft, because my spring break and the public school spring break are out of sync. But this year, I submitted early, so I had a slightly different experience.
Monday and Tuesday, I traveled to the University of Kentucky to present a paper. Brian Frye was my most excellent host.
Wednesday, I hunkered down in my office to work on my next article.
Thursday, I took a field trip with my son, Gillespie, and a bus load of fourth graders to St. Augustine, Fl.
Friday, I spent more time on my next article. Then I took my four boys camping with our church group.
I did not clean my office.
Posted by: Jake Linford | Mar 14, 2016 1:46:35 PM
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