Day 1

I am a scheduled person. I have been on an academic schedule since Fall of 1980 when I started Kindergarten at Dollar Bay Elementary School (T.R. Davis represent). This, January 2013, is the first time since January of 1979 when I have not gone back to school. I am on sabbatical, so don't feel like doing math, but trust me, that's a long ass time. In that time, I graduated from Dollar Bay High School ('94) with nearly the same 26 people I started kindergarten with, I graduated from the University of Michigan ('98) with a BA in English, I flirted with a MA from Northern Arizona University but found myself back home at Upper Michigan where I earned both an MA ('01) and PhD ('06) in Rhetoric and Technical Communication from Michigan Technological University, and promptly found myself in a TT job at Washington State University where I recently earned tenure ('12). (wait, can you do that '12 thing w/ tenure? a sign of too much schooling...). Suffice it to say, I'm really good a jumping through other people's hoops, and I'm really good at starting semesters (and finishing them!)

So, here I am, a 36-year old recently tenured lady on her first sabbatical. A sabbatical for which I do have plans that involve more than swimming laps and watching Days of Our Lives. The proposal was too many pages long, but in short, it says this:

...In sum, receiving sabbatical for Spring 2013 will allow me to work on a book-length project, American Indian Approaches to Digital Pedagogy. My objectives for this project are that by exploring and documenting the crafting practices of the Anishinaabe peoples, I will come to a deeper understanding of how culture is maintained and transformed through teaching. This work will not only speak to those interested in the transmission of cultural knowledge, but will—most importantly for my work and areas of research—illustrate how looking towards non-Western epistemologies can enrich the production of digital media by providing diverse ways of understanding craft and cultural circulation.

The idea is that all of my traveling and powwows and interviews over the past three years are theoretically going to turn into something beyond a lot of computer files and a few presentations. But today, Day 1, is a strange day.

I should be frantically trying to finish my syllabi, putting all of my meetings into my calendar, updating my website and planning DTC events (dtc=digital technology culture=a program i direct). But no, the only thing I am currently responsible for is writing/composing/designing this project. Which, if I put my all into it, could be a lot. But, my problem in life is that I tend to have 2 switches: on + off. And right now I have a strong desire for 'off.' This blog, then, is my hope to at least in some way chart what it is one does while on sabbatical, and to hold myself accountable for more than Days (omg Chloe came back today....did you see?).

So, what did I do today? I tried to get to the bottom of my inbox so I can stop caring about it (sitting at 50 right now, was 87 this morning). I swam 2500 yards. I ate lunch and watched Days of Our Lives. I went to the chiropractor. It helped. Amidst all of that, I started bringing my brain back to my project....thinking about what it is I need to do to get this thing done. I downloaded a bunch of articles from American Indian Quarterly on craft/art/materiality. I started to remember that I do, actually, quite like this project. So, I suppose, that is a beginning.

Now, I shall take the dog for a walk.