The three months of Christmas

We set up Christmas in November. It was a record for us. We knew that the little was coming, so she became our excuse. Nearly every other year of my life since I was 14, I have been the family scrooge. Most recently, Christmas has reminded me of finals, grading, grades, term papers, and deadlines. This semester with my busy schedule I thought that it would be worse. It turns out that Christmas couldn't last long enough. We took the decorations down in mid January. We spent the entire break at home. My sister and family had us up for dinner and there were things to do, but mostly we just stayed home. Our house was lit by our tree every night - from the day we set it up until the minute we took it down. I would come home from my wintersession class to a nicely lit living room and just enjoy it. We actually thought about taking the decorations off and just leaving it as our requisite houseplant (fake greenery). It became slightly embarrassing, so we caved to peer pressure. That and the fact that it never felt like Christmas outside. I think that I had to wear pants a couple of times, but living in shorts year round makes it difficult to believe it is Christmas time.

The newest little

My wife gave birth to our third child, a beautiful little girl, two days before Thanksgiving. She came out very small, 6lbs 14oz. Within a few weeks she didn't seem so small anymore. That didn't stop all of the fear associated with knowing that she completely depends on my wife for everything. Obviously I help out when I can, but I simply don't produce milk.

What frightens me the most is when the newest little chokes. Breathing seems like such a simple thing to us who have taken nearly 20 million breaths, but when you have only done it 1,000 or so times you aren't going to be good at it. Today she is somewhere close to 120,000 breaths and at least 100 of them scared the crap out of me. All it takes is a little bit of spittle at the wrong time and 'BAM!' she struggles to breathe. Maybe it is because I think that suffocating would be one of the worst ways to die, but I start to panic. She has always made it through, so until she doesn't, I should just enjoy her.

She's nice.

Haitus

Dear readers,
Sorry for the unannounced hiatus. Had I know that my next post would be nearly 3 months after my last post, I would have apologized in advance. Here it is, the end of January, and I finally have a chance to write. Needless to say I have been busy. Here is an overview of my future posts with titles (more to come on these in the following days).

• "M. C. Tucker - the newest little" My wife gave birth to our third child, a beautiful little girl. I am always amazed at that process and the subsequent terrors associated with having to take care of someone so helpless.
• "The three months of Christmas." We set up Christmas in November. We took the decorations down almost three months later. Normally I am a scrooge, but for some reason, this Christmas was more than enjoyable.
• "Management by Rationale" My scheduling project looks like it is a tentative go. This would make my life and everyone else's much easier here. It is odd that no one had looked at our department in a comprehensive manner or made a plan on how to meet student needs in 30 years. If we would have done it earlier, each faculty member may have never had to teach more than 3 classes per semester.
• "The lessons learned about bargaining in an open Saudi market, while never leaving the USA." I supervised my first 2 Master's theses. One was unbelievably good, the other not so much. I learned a lot about negotiating and defending standards through the eyes of my son.
• "The Perils of the Academy - pt. 1" The end rush of the semester - finals, papers to grade, and theses to supervise - left me very tired. Fortunately for my pocketbook, but not my psyche, I got a wintersession class. 16 weeks of material crammed into 3 hour classes 4 nights a week for 3 weeks - all for an additional 10% of my salary. Hopefully my summer class will also make (have enough students). Oh, and I got a fellowship to do some extra work for Environmental Studies. Putting it nicely, I'll call this problem prostituting your brain.
  
• "The Perils of the Academy - pt. 2" I turned down a job interview in another place. It is much prettier there. I still have one job application pending elsewhere, but this is one of the most difficult processes for me - the choosing, not the interviewing. A quote from my current department chair "we are like major league ball players, except that the money isn't good and we can't just tear up our old contract and negotiate a new one when we want."
• "The Perils of the Academy - pt. 3" Professors face an interesting problem in that they don't make enough to live near people with similar standards, interests, and goals. Maybe this isn't true outside of major metropolitan areas, but it is true for me, and that is all that matters right now.
• "Cracked: Student Edition" A raging tirade of emails after a student request for a scholarship recommendation. I now watch carefully at school in case he shows up.

I am scheduling these to show up over the course of the next few days so that you aren't overwhelmed with material.