Oh what a beautiful morning!

Well, I woke up this morning to find Tenured Radical had called me "ever-fabulous" and "younger", noting that she, and not I, was the one up writing on the blog on a Friday night. I have to thank her for thinking I am fabu, and I send the compliment right back to her, but my youthful exuberance was in bed early on Friday night, not out partying.

I am happy to say that I am back home after my week in the field! I took the early plane and the gf picked me up at 8am. It was great to see her. I spent the day in a fog of sleepiness, came home to be greeted by my smiling dog, and hit the sack quite early.

The trip was great and I will start planning the next trip on Monday, when I also plan to hire the person to begin transcription of this week's interviews. Today, I will check in at school and start prepping the office for painting next week.

So, just a few bullets of info/commentary before I head out:

• Cheney can just decide he isn't part of the Executive branch? Really? Then I want to know who came to the Energy meeting. I mean, he gets Executive privilege only when he wants it? What is that? My lawyer-friends tell me that either you are a strict constructionist or you are not--you don't get to opt-in to strict constructionism when it suits you.
• In light of Cheney's declaration, I have decided that I am no longer a faculty member or an administrator. I inhabit a netherworld of facadministration, where I am the Supreme Leader (who still has tenure, by the way). And I hearby declare that this post comes with regular subsidized massages twice a week!
• Grad students need to be trained about the concept of faculty governance. We (those of us who think it is important) should all pick a week to hold university-wide trainings on the history, role, and importance of appropriate faculty governance and the ways in which faculty members can work to support it. Perhaps we can invite an old-time AAUP member to come and discuss why they joined in the first place!
• Discipline-specific academic organizations have their place, and subcommittees within these groups are also useful for doing work within the discipline, but have you ever considered the ways in which they inhibit LGBTQ organizing across disciplines and within the larger purview of academe? For example, each discipline has at least one major organization and, within it, a queer group (e.g., Sociology has a committee, the Folklore Society has a section, Psychology has a division (44), Philosophy has a committee, etc.). My question is how can these groups work together to get something done on a larger basis? How can we learn from one another?

Okay, I seem to be full of rabble-rousing spirit now that I am home, so I am gonna take some of that middle-aged/youthful energy to my office to do some scut work.