In like a lion!

March arrived, not with warmer temperatures or an early start to Spring, as the groundhog incorrectly forecast, but like a lion, with snow and icy sleet and below-normal temperatures. February is the cruelest month because by then we are both sick-and-tired of winter but March can be the most fickle and disappointing because it behaves like winter even though the crocuses, the snow drops, and even the tulips have started to burst from the soil.

At home, Hamlet spends a lot of time doing this (above) because he is now grounded for life after managing to get one of his ears sliced the last time my husband let him out (his tail is already funny-looking because of a previous fight injury). He's too much of a Tom cat and appears to go directly to his cat enemies to pick a fight. Thus, he is now, permanently, an indoor cat (which doesn't make him happy so he spends a lot of time yowling in despair).

I took time over the break, with the help of my handyman husband, to reorganize my basement office. My husband pulled up the dirty old cream-colored carpet to leave the concrete floor bare, which makes my office so much easier to clean and maintain clean! He helped me relocate the desk against the far wall and now everything is much more functional and comfortable. Once I can open my little window vent, as the temperatures warm, I'll be able to enjoy a little bit of the outside even in my "dungeon."

My break ends tomorrow and it has been wonderful. I am so privileged and grateful that my small college on the hill gives such a long Spring Break and these times reaffirm how right I was to pursue my Ph.D., not just because it allows me to teach and to do scholarship on what I love, but also because it allows me to have this kind of schedule.

I should be hearing next month about the results of my tenure process, which means it's time to start thinking about what goals I want to set for myself over the next five or six years. Obtaining tenure was the goal I set right after receiving my doctorate in 2008 and this year will, hopefully, etch another "start" line for whatever the future may have in store over the next several years. Here's to always having a goal and to making it ever more about how to make a real difference in this difficult world!