Some New News I Won't be Advertising Elsewhere

Yes, I have secrets this year, which is weird for me.
One is that I'm quitting the senate at the end of this year.  Not just the executive committee, but the whole shebang.  I'm just not re-upping for another three-year term.  I may return to statewide service later, but for now, I need a break.  The only downside to this is that I will have to win a separate election to stay on my home campus's executive committee, on which I love to serve.  I'll cross that bridge later, I suppose; ultimately, it doesn't qualify as enough of a "con" to worry about now.
I'm tired of traveling to LA.
I'm tired of the politics, and as I have zero aspiration to be promoted into a statewide academic affairs job...really, any administrative job, WTF am I doing besides getting drunk a lot and buying books?
I've been missing my family, and want to minimize the number of days away...
Because the other secret is that I'm taking students to Taiwan and Japan for three weeks in April.  Jeff will accompany us for part of the trip, which is extra-special, since he's had to sit on the sidelines while the girls were too young to be without both parents.  I have always loved the idea of Japan, and can do it all-expenses-paid, this way.
(I really want to travel WITH the girls, but they are still too young...we'll get to that later.)
Anyway, and I will go back to teach in Vietnam later in the summer--CHA CHING--because we need the money for our house.

Anyway, AND I will apply for a sabbatical when the deadlines come around this fall.  I am really, ultimately, trying to clear a little space around my head for writing some kind of book.

There are a few other secrets which may surface this year.  My daughters are growing and flourishing, and part of it is because Jeff's willingness to stay at home with them while I'm off on these trips and on my gigantic--but doable--commute.  Our new life is awesome, but it is new, and it has come with some odd stress.  Things that didn't seem so bad last year are suddenly really bad now, and vice-versa.  I guess this is what it means to change inside-out!

The whole family is traveling to Houston over Christmas, too, which is very very exciting to me.  Leaving town for a week will no doubt give us some perspective on the often too-close-for-comfort stuff happening within my immediate family, as well as allow us to see dearly missed people.

On the domestic front, I am rehabilitating plants (mostly succulents stolen from LA) on my kitchen windowsill, which is a really good place to have plants, due to the sink squirter.  I haven't had indoor plants since I lived in Barcelona...for real.  None in Texas, none in any part of California, until now.

Word of the week: monocot.

I'm also thinking a lot about low-rent fun: things I love to do that have little to no fiscal impact:  lie in bed talking to Jeff, reading used books, drinking coffee, walking, listening to music, gardening.  These are things that anyone can do, if one has any free time (which is problematic, I know).