Wrapping Upchuck: Tuesday, 4-13-10

Light Wrapping Upchuck for tonight, as I am dog-tired. But it was a good day. Started off with the usual wakeup routine, only this time I drove myself up to work where I parked and walked first to my scheduled physical therapy session for my left knee. Only one more physical therapy session to go. I'm already up to jogging some on the treadmill, which I guess is pretty much the last step on the road to knee surgery recovery.

Anyway, after my PT session, I had to rush up to a series of interviews of Runsdorf award nominees, all of whom are being considered for this award because of their outstanding community service over the course of their undergraduate careers at Tulane. We interviewed three students (and have one more to go tomorrow). I have to say that I am absolutely, thoroughly impressed with the quality of the accomplishments of our finalists. They are not only exceedingly smart and engaged students, but they are very self-confident, extremely well-spoken, and committed to their communities in so many ways. I think that being so much on the front lines of community engagement and in such direct contact with people of all kinds of ideas and backgrounds are principle causes for their confidence and capabilities to relate to others. The Service-Learning graduation requirement is worth it if for no other reason than having this impact on student performance.

Anyway, after this round of interviews, it was back to the office to work on class prep and some adminsitrative work. At 12:30pm, I attended our final faculty lunch gathering and found myself filling in for my boss and guiding the program of our meeting in his stead, given that he was away at another important meeting. It was a yummy lunch and a fun meeting. I think I did passably well in my substitute role.

After lunch, it was back to the usual duties of class prep, meeting with some students, and working piecemeal on some other ongoing projects.

By 3:30pm, I was in my regular Tuesday Honors Seminar, which took us until 6:00pm. After which, taking advantage of the Provost's course activity funds, I hosted the students from this class (most of them, at least) to a nice dinner at a place called Taqueria Corona, one of my favorite local Latin food restaurants. Good food, and even better conversation. I have some great students in my class.

So, today was a very encouraging and inspiring day in terms of being reminded of how talented and accomplished (and just downright nice and friendly) Tulane students are. I love my job!

Afterwards, it was straight to the homestead, where I put out the garbage (tomorrow's "trash day"), chatted a bit with my B-2/3 and talked about some upcoming weekend scheduling issues (looks like I'm going to be serving as "Assistant Coach" to my youngest's Spring/Summer Softball league, with our first organizational team meeting this coming Saturday morning), and eventually sat down to unwind in front of a Netflix instant movie which I had never seen before (but had heard good things about): "Donnie Darko." Wierd movie. Enjoyable and provocative, with a kind of David Lynch "Mulholland Dr."/"Twin Peaks feel to it. And now here I am, ready to call it another good day.