You can't please all of the people all of the time

I have been consciously writing about the non-work related aspects of my sabbatical experience because I received a few comments that my blog was too boring. Now I am getting comments that I must not be doing any work since all I write about is going out to dinner, sports, etc. So I vow to include enough work-related stuff to convince all of you that I really am doing something of socially redeeming value. This morning I read in the Chronical of Higher Education about a researcher who thinks he is closing in on the search for a universal flu vaccine that began with a sabbatical project 20 years ago. However, I doubt that my sabbatical project on the scholarship of teaching will save the world from infectious disease or bring about world peace.

Today I am thinking about my husband who is celebrating his birthday without me. Since we have both reached the age when birthdays cease to be fun and are mainly reminders that another year has gone by, I think he won't mind having a low-key birthday. I do need to remind him, however, that he is older than me--even if it is only 2 days.

Yesterday I made my first trip to Whole Foods. I have avoided going there since my arrival because it is likely to be an expensive experience--both in dollars and calories. I managed to escape with a small container of white chicken chili for dinner and a loaf of bread.

Well, it is time to get to work. Who knows? The scholarship of teaching may one day save the world.

Rain, rain go away

I awoke this morning to the sounds of thunder and pounding rain at about 5:45AM. It was raining hard when I went to bed last night also. I'm beginning to think it was fortunate that I did not get a ticket to the UK-UF football game today. It might be very unpleasant at game time. But I was planning on catching up on some errands that couldn't be so easily accomplished in Virginia including a badly needed haircut. The rain will make erranding much less fun.

The trip home was much more pleasant and easier than I expected. We made excellent time through the DC traffic thanks to Ken Miller's expert directions. As we drove through western Maryland, the trees were already changing and the scenery was beautiful. I wish I had taken some pictures to post. We stopped in Morgantown for breakfast, gas and a driving break. As always, the food at IHOP is good--apparently too good. It seemed that there were an unusually high proportion of very large people eating there. By large I mean 300+ pounds. That was a good reminder that the IHOP menu contains many pitfalls for someone attempting to eat healthy, so I ordered from the healthy selections page of the menu. That didn't stop me from admiring the stacks of pancakes topped with fruit pie filling and whipped cream as they passed by.

We listened to a book-on-tape (actually the 21st century version, a book-on-Ipod with attached speakers) as we drove. It was Brimstone by Robert Parker. We previously listened to Appaloosa and Resolution so it was a continuing story of some characters in the old West. If the stories are historically accurate, I am quite happy to be living in 2009. Times were tough for women in the old West.

Things look good at home thanks to our housesitter and the guys who take care of the yard. I am enjoying those comforts that I miss in the condo in Alexandria--my own bed and, to a surprising degree, my Cuisinart coffee maker. The tomatoes I forgot to throw out before we left would make a good science experiment, but Mike made me throw them away.

Last night we met John and Brittany at Sal's for dinner. I appreciate that they made the trip to Lexington to see us especially since they have both had a hard work week. I really enjoyed hearing John's story of the theft of the picker (a device that looks kind of like a tractor and picks up the golf balls on the range) and a golf cart including a member's golf clubs from the Cardinal Club. This is a chronic problem due to the proximity of a Job Corps training center across a corn field that unfortunately provides great cover for the teenagers who sneak on the golf course. I am encouraging John to put the story on paper while it is fresh in his mind. It would make a really funny published essay at some point in the future.

I'd better get to work enjoying my morning coffee and get those errands done before it's time to watch the football game. As always, GO CATS!

Another Visitor, then Going Home

I'm up early, having some coffee before we get on the road. We need to be through DC before the morning rush hours start. Being caught in the morning traffic here on the Capital Beltway is not a place for a girl from Kentucky.

Last night Mike and I had dinner with Jeff Hughes, another friend from Kentucky. He was in town for the same NIH study section as Mike Jay. Jeff was a student of mine quite a few years ago and was a faculty member at Florida (yes, the dreaded Gators) for a long time. He recently took a job with Roche in New Jersey. It was fun to see him and hear about what it is like to work in the drug industry these days. We went to LaPorta's, had some excellent food, a few drinks and listened to music.

This morning we are heading home. Mike has to begin his teaching block for medical students next week. He worked hard during his month as a house husband (not just taking care of me) but also updating his lectures and handouts for the semester. He is taking the car home since I won't need it, and I am riding along so he doesn't have to travel the 540 miles alone. I will fly back on Sunday . I am not looking forward to the drive. I have decided that West Virginia, particularly along I-79, is the most God-forsaken road I have ever travelled. But we have some books on tape to help pass the time.

I am looking forward to dinner with John and Brittany this evening at one of our favorite Lexington restaurants and seeing how everything looks at home.

It's great to have company

Mike and I have been looking forward to a visit from North Carolinians, Mike and Susan Jay. To me they are still Kentuckians. I understand that during basketball season, they fly their UK flag--Wildcats Forever!

We ate at The Wharf and had some great seafood. Mike is in town for an NIH study section meeting at the Hilton--just two blocks from us. Once again, it is a small world. That seems to be a theme of my sabbatical experience.

We got to catch up on what is happening in their family. Steven has started a post-doc at Harvard. This follows a PhD at Yale. Pretty strong credentials for the job market. He knew both the graduate student who was killed at Yale as well as the guy accused of the killing. Okay, I've got to say it again--it's a small world.......

Susan spent the summer at the Finger Lakes in New York and is considering giving up the life of leisure for a part-time job. I'm hoping she will return for a weekend visit later during my time in Alexandria so we can do some sightseeing together. We are going to meet for a cup of coffee in the morning so I can wish her happy birthday.

Who is out there?

If you are following my blog, I would appreciate an occasional comment. We all need positive reinforcement! Thanks to Melody who has posted a few comments. I think you have to have a gmail account to post something. Look at it this way. You will have a throwaway email account to use when you sign up for stuff but don't want to clog up your real email with lots of junk mail.

A sliver of hope

I have spent the day reading literature and working on a short project proposal to share with my colleagues at AACP headquarters tomorrow. I was beginning to feel like my head would explode from all of the thoughts I had stuffed inside, so I took a break to see what was going on in the world of the internet. Much to my delight, I see a report that the flu is rampant on the UF campus and a few players were affected during the UF-UT game over the weekend (maybe an explanation for the closer than expected outcome). Is it possible that Tim Tebow could be at less than full strength on Saturday? Probably not. He is superhuman. If all the receivers are ill, could Tim throw the ball and then run down the field to catch it also? I know tht is illegal for other players, but surely the referees would let Tim do it.

I will follow the kentuckysportsradio. com closely this week. Hope springs eternal.

The world keeps getting smaller

Yesterday we wanted to watch the UK-UL game so we headed down King Street in Old Alexandria where all of the restaurants are located. We wandered into Bugsy's Sports Bar, owned by a former professinal hockey player. They had the game on one of their many screens. We sat down, ordered a beer, and immediately noticed a family of four right next to us--wearing Louisville Cardinals T-shirts!!! They were very nice (although misguided sports fans). After a few minutes of talking (Frank, both Mike and I engaged them in conversation), we found out that the wife is from Frankfort and they are living in Alexandria because the husband is stationed at the Pentagon. He is an Air Force pilot who flies the C17. So we talked not only about UK, U of L and Kentucky, but also about Air Force stuff. He told us that he flew a flyover at an Academy football game a few years ago.

The family left at half-time because the two small children were getting restless and we settled down to watch the second half. Of course, the third quarter was a disaster. We were getting upset and making some distressed noises. A guy who kept looking over at us finally asked if we were from Kentucky. When we said yes, he told us he was a graduate of the UK law school and asked if I knew Will Vincent (for those who don't know, he just finished a UK pharmacy residency). Before long, another couple sitting a few tables over said they were from Somerset and the husband was a UK graduate.

When the game was over and we recovered from the near heart attack, we mosied down the street to The Fish Market so Mike could have some oysters (yuck!). We watched part of the Tennessee-Florida game among others on the 8 screens. But since it was not possible for both teams to lose (my preferred outcome), we went home at half-time.

It was a great day. Not only did we have a good time and great weather, but UK and Ohio State both had victories.

Sunday was a quiet day for me. Mike played in a golf scramble with Ken Miller and Buzz Kerr. He had a great time and they unexpectedly finished second. He came home with lots of "stuff".

It was my first day alone at the condo, so I got a taste of what it will be like when Mike goes home on Friday.

Boo hoo It's UK-UL football and I'm not there

I am glued to my laptop reading the morning game coverage - John Clay et al - and thinking about my friends and students already at the stadium tailgating. And if I know Frank, he is already packing everything up and heading for his seat. According to the paper, UK has a chance to do something they have never done in football (again)--beat UL for the Governor's Cup three straight times.
There are lots of sports bars around here but I don't know if anyone will be showing the game. If all else fails, I will watch on ESPN 360 on the laptop.

When UK-UL is over, I definitely want to watch UT-Florida. Normally, in this game, I don't want either team to win and try to figure out a scenario where both teams will be unhappy when the game is over. (Sorry Mikael and Mandy) But this year I am rooting for Florida. Lane Kiffen can't be too smart to have made the comments he made about the mighty Gators and give them so much time to think about it.

In any case, it is September and that means football in the SEC. What could be better? GO CATS!!!

P.S. Please note that I avoided any mention of Ohio State.

What a great deal

I have only been in residence at AACP for three weeks. Today, I got to attend the annual celebration to show appreciation to the staff for all of the hard work preparing for and executing the annual meeting. I felt a little guilty (not too much) about participating since I didn't do any of the work. Then I remembered that I attended the meeting and I worked hard too! So I enjoyed myself thoroughly without any guilt. We went to the National Harbor in Maryland and had a clambake. I'm still learning my way around so it was interesting to see things on the other side of the river. The bottom line is that I only worked half-a-day today. What a great deal!

I saw the notice on my UK email today that Mikael Jones has been named the ACCP New Educator for 2010. Congratulations Mikael for the well-deserved recognition.

Nothing else to report--only one more day in the work week. It has certainly gone by quickly.

A meeting is a meeting

Today there was an all staff meeting. As I listened to the discussion, I noticed that there are a lot of similarities in the meetings here with our faculty meetings at UK. There is an agenda that looks quite reasonable and it is assumed that the meeting will end on time. However, somewhere along the way, the discussion gets out of hand and the meeting goes on longer than planned.

Interestingly, the majority of the conversation was the annual meeting debriefing. I noted that faculty evaluations of meetings have a lot of similarities to our own student course evaluations. Those who have something good to say are usually quiet and those who have complaints, often about a single incident, are quite vocal. In many cases, half of the respondents complain about something that the other half of those surveyed really liked--living proof that you cannot please "all of the people all of the time." It is hard to focus on the bigger picture and the overall themes that come through in the evaluations without getting bogged down in detail. And it is even more difficult not to take the comments personally.

I remember that my favorite critical comment from a student evaluation went something like this - "I don't know what Dr P does for this class. She has her rotation students do all her work." This comment referred to an audience response exercise that I had the students prepare and use in class. We probably worked 4-6 hours on the exercise (about twice the time I would have spent if I did it by myself). Something went wrong during the hour because the students changed a question and forgot to rekey the answer. Out of approximately 45 class meetings, 90% of the comments referred to this day.

When the staff explained why some of the decisions were made in planning the meeting in Boston, it was easy to see that there are a lot of factors involved in planning the meeting that attendees do not see. As always, lack of communication leads to complaints and conflict. We experience the same thing in the classroom. It all looks so easy to the students who don't understand what went in to the preparation for just one class session. I guess we all need to be a little more tolerant when dealing with issues outside of our own expertise--or at least ask why before complaining.

It's a small world

It has been suggested that I am a bad blogger and should post more often. It isn't easy for me to blog because it seems somewhat self-absorbed to think that other people have nothing better to do than read about my life. But I will try to make more frequent posts from now on.

Today's topic is my latest reminder about how small the world can seem at times. On Saturday, I decided to get an earlier flight out of Phoenix and get back to DC a few hours earlier. As I was waiting for the 7AM shuttle to the airport, I started talking to another traveller waiting for the same shuttle. (Yes, Frank, I did engage.) As it turned out, he was a former UK resident. I think he said R89. We talked a bit about what is going on at the COP. When we got in the van, the third traveller turned out to be Trudy Banta, the assessment guru from IUPUI. She asked where we were from and when I said Lexington, KY, she told me that she grew up in Lexington and went to Henry Clay High School. So the three of us spent the rest of the trip discussing Lexington.

Of course, my plane was late and as we taxied out, they discovered a mechanical problem. I missed my connection in Detroit and had more than 2 hours to wait for another flight. I was sitting in the SkyClub watching the Michigan-Notre Dame game and saw a man watching from a distance. I invited him to sit down and watch the game (another engagement!). We started talking and I found out he is a retired history professor from the US Military Academy at West Point. We talked about the military academies for a while and he asked if my family had seen the series, Band of Brothers. Certain members of my family have seen it multiple times and we own the DVD too. Winters (I can't remember his first name), one of the main characters in the story, is a good friend of his and they wrote a book together about Winters called Beyond Band of Brothers. Another coincidence!

The evening ended badly as I arrived back at the condo in DC just in time to see Ohio State embarrassed once again on national TV.

Back to Work

After my travels to Colorado, I attended the Curriculum Summit in HOT Phoenix with a team from UK. It was 104 degrees during the day although it wasn't much of a problem since we were in air-conditioned meeting rooms from 8:30 to 6 each day. As usual at this type of meeting, we found that we are at the norm or ahead of the curve in many areas. But there are always thought provoking ideas on how to improve. Since our college is currently involved in preparing to move into a new building, welcoming ACPE for an accreditation visit in October and searching for a new dean, I think curriculum revision will be waiting for a little longer.

This is my first day back in the office in Alexandria. I'm glad I started here a few days early. Otherwise, it would feel like starting over again. So, it is back to my literature searching and getting my research project underway. I think my next post will talk about the differences between working at an association and a college of pharmacy.

Greetings from Colorado

After only 4 days in the office, I headed to Colorado Springs for Parents' Weekend. I'm glad I started early at AACP so that I could get settled and be ready to accomplish something on my return. It was kind of like the first day of school. I had to learn my way around--where is the bathroom, the copy machine, how to login to my computer, meet the staff, etc. I spent the majority of my time doing literature searching to date. Hopefully, this will help me focus my project. However, the more I read, the more ideas I have floating around in my head.

Yesterday, we went to class with Chris. I was disappointed that he only had one class--Law for Commanders. I really enjoy going to class at USAFA. They have a lot of advantages over UK. There are usually 15-20 students per class. Everything is electronic. Students have access to all their assignments and exams (called GRs) on the first day of classes. Students are expected to read (horrors!) and held accountable by being called on in class. The session we attended was definitely an active learning class. The instructors reviewed what constitutes a lawful order (it was actually quite interesting). Then each family had a different situation. We had to compose a lawful order, or so we thought, and give it to our cadet. Each cadet analyzed the order according to the critieria they discussed and decided if it was truly lawful. We could have filmed the class and shown it as an example of appropriate active learning. Today is the opening season football game for the Falcons. Imagine our students going to the game in uniform, and no alcohol. They also have the most awesome flyovers I have ever seen.

Getting started

For someone who has lived in the same house and worked at the same job for 25 years, packing your bags and heading to Alexandria,VA is a daunting proposition. But it is also an exciting chance to broaden horizons and develop new skills--not to mention sampling what the greater DC area has to offer.



The first challenge was getting here. Mike and I left on Wednesday evening with a plan to travel about 3 hours and spend the night in W Va. This would get us to the DC area before rush hour on Thursday. What we didn't anticipate is the "No Vacancy" situation we encountered starting just west of Charleston. We ended up driving to Morgantown where we got the last room at a Hampton Inn at 3AM. On a positive note, the remaining trip on Thursday got us to Alexandria about 2PM.



The AACP condo is comfortable and having living quarters so close to the office that are provided at no expense to the scholar-in-residence is quite a benefit. We have solved the most pressing problems of getting the right set of keys, access to the mailbox and locating local grocery stores and restaurants. I am, however, in withdrawal from TV because the cable will not be connected until September 3rd. This presents an opportunity for extra reading in the evening (or exploring the Alexandria nightlife). I'm sure you can guess which option I have chosen.

In the next post, I will describe how I spent the first weekend and what I have been doing during my first days in the office.