Giddy up! Packing up and moving out.

My office at UMaine.
I had four different offices over the past two decades.
Click on photos to enlarge.  

 On Tuesday, I took the 122 mile drive to Orono to pack up my office as I leave UMaine (I won't use the "R" word because I'll continue to write and work). Packing up wasn't difficult (except for the 9 hours of packing, sorting, tossing, lugging, and sweating); I wasn't sad, though I found dissertation work by two of my doctoral student friends who died over the past 10 years. I couldn't toss their material, and I suppose that made me sad. 

Speaking of tossing... I dumped file upon file, old book upon old book into these neat rolling dumpsters. I would have been a walking mess trying to clean out that place with just garbage bags. But these rolling gems worked like butter! And someone from the recycling department kept coming up to take them away when full.   

What about leaving? I've worked for schools and colleges for 45 years. I've always thrived on change whether it's a minor adjustment or a life change like leaving a job. I'm entrepreneurial, so I think it's a normal part of my make-up to find energy in new adventures and tasks.  

This year: I may have to help out at UMaine for a bit. Two of us are leaving Literacy and now my friends may be understaffed especially managing the graduate writing program that I started back in 2008-09 with my pals, Ken Martin and Dave Boardman. We have 35 graduate students in the program, but my work would be online and I wouldn't have to do a whole lot of meetings or the like. We'll see what happens. 

Now, it's on to new work... a book, a bit of travel, maybe a puppy, and lots of hiking. 

That Geek Soap is a gift from my Nephew Tyler back when
I was studying out in California in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He 
laughed and laughed... he's the kid I married a couple of years ago to 
his sweetheart, Andrea. 

This photos outside my door greeted visitors. 

And this photo and quotation from tutor and friend,
Michael Armstrong, is on my door... still.  

This quotation from James Britton, my professor at The Bread Loaf
School of English at Middlebury College, changed my teaching life. 

Nine hours later. 

A better close-up of my door. Love Michael's quotation. 

Packed!

Wicked packed! 

Cookies from Bailey's Sharon... wine from California.