I woke at 5:00 again, worked on a manuscript for about an hour, then went back to bed. I was so tired from yesterday that it was hard to stay awake. Then I woke back up, pulled a clean shirt and socks out of the dryer, took a shower, gathered EJT, and drove him to pre-school. Then I made it to campus about ten minutes before my morning class, just enough time to get the cameras set up for the first set of studio shows. After class I responded to emails for an hour and fifteen minutes while eating lunch before leaving at 12:45 to drop off my car for an oil change. My friend Kristen drove me back to campus, where I intended to grade projects for a half hour, but abandoned that plan to meet with a student who caught me on my way to the office. Then I went to a Faculty Senate meeting at 2:00; I don’t know what time it ended because I left at 3:15 in order to make it to my 3:25 class, where students produced the second set of studio shows for the day. After that class, I met with two students in my office for thirty minutes to discuss their independent project.

Here’s what I planned to do today that did not get done: work on my manuscripts for another hour; grade seven video projects; draft a cover letter to be sent to the ACEJMC committee on behalf of the School; review the latest draft of my masters student’s thesis proposal; fold clothes that have been sitting in the dryer for the past couple days; spend quality time with my boys; exercise.

Don’t tell me college professors just loaf around. Don’t even.

I try to spend a couple hours a day working on manuscripts. At least, I’ve been trying to spend a couple hours a day on manuscripts for the past few days. I hope I can make it a habit. Today I spent one hour and one minute on my manuscripts. I hope to spend more time on them tomorrow, but that may be difficult. I also wanted to finalize the “Enrollment and Credit Hour” information for ACEJMC today, as well as grade several video productions, but I was unable to do either.

Instead, I helped a few students with pre-production work for their multi-camera productions, the first of which are due tomorrow. I also met with two students to discuss their independent projects, and prepped for a guest lecture in my sports production class. I also attended a lecture tonight and did not make it home until around 8:00. I then balanced my checkbook while watching Futurama on Netflix.

I woke at 5:00, nudged AMKT, and asked if she planned to work out this morning. She usually leaves the house around 4:30 or so in the morning to exercise, while I stay at home and work on my manuscripts while the boys sleep. If AMKT decides not to work out, though, I’ve started driving to my office to work there until around 6:30. That’s what I did today, spending an hour drinking coffee and annotating chapters on the couch in my office while the sun came up. Then I came home, woke EJT, took him to school, then went back to the office to prep for my 9:15 class. I thought to myself, “I’m the first to get to the office, and the first to leave, and the first to come back to the office a second time. And it’s not even 9:30.”

I posted grades for three productions. By the end of December I will have graded 167 video productions. Miles to go before I sleep.

I had a nice conversation with a couple students today about the Family Guy/Simpsons episode. One of the perks of my job is I get to talk about media with people who share my interests.

After lunch I picked up EJT and Addison from pre-school and drove them home. On the way they sang “The Alphabet Song” and “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” Then I made my third trip back to the office.

I talked with the president of the High Point Broadcasting Society today about this weekend’s 48 Hour Film Festival. I’m serving as a judge.

At 4:00 I took my class to hear Eason Jordan (formally of CNN) give a lecture titled “Heroes, Despots, Lunatics and You.” I asked him if broadcast journalists were heroes, despots or lunatics. He said there were unfortunately few heroes among broadcast journalists, and that many of them need to get over themselves.

I met AMKT and the boys for dinner at Rome Pizza, then went back to work to work on my manuscripts before leaving work for good for the fourth and final time today around 7:30. Then I put CKT to bed, took out the trash, ran a load of laundry, and composed today’s Daily Accomplishments.

AMKT and I woke in Boone, North Carolina. In a couple hours, we will sleep in our bed in High Point, North Carolina.

We ate breakfast at Waffle House, which is a special place for us even though we rarely eat there. We had our first sort-of date at Waffle House on January 1, 2000, in the early morning after staying awake all night welcoming the final year of the twentieth century.

After breakfast, I annotated a chapter from The Divine Commodity, which I’m reading as part of my research for my book project. While working, I ran into Heidi Campbell, who attended my research-in-progress panel yesterday at the BEA regional conference. We talked about my scholarship, and she gave me some good insights into studying audiences of Christian media.

AMKT and I left Boone around 11:30, and stopped by a fruit stand on the way to Salisbury to pick up the boys. She bought three bags of apples, and I shot the photo of the gourds above.

We got to Salisbury about an hour before we were scheduled to pick up the boys, so AMKT ate lunch then went to Big Lots, where I bought a new iPhone case and a ten-foot audio cable.

One the way home with the boys, CKT told us he wants to be baptized. When I asked him why, he said, “I want to get wet in church.” We had a good talk about what baptism means after that.

I took a nap for about an hour-and-a-half. When I woke, CKT was yelling at EJT in the living room to stop “messing up” his Lego creations. I told CKT he should play with his toys in his room if he does not want EJT to play with his toys. But I also told EJT he needed to apologize to CKT. EJT said, “No!” so I put EJT into time-out for the first time. He wasn’t happy, and was pretty apologetic when I finally got him out of his crib about five minutes later.

I took CKT to church tonight to practice the piano. While there, we saw a colony of bats flying in and around the chimney. It was pretty cool.

I’m sure there is a bat-tism joke in there somewhere.

I watched The Simpsons for the first time in years because I wanted to know which character was going to die. It was Rabbi Herschel Krustovski, which gave the show a good opportunity to address Judaism again. The show was okay, but the couch gag was noteworthy. I’m afraid that couch gag just may be the best thing The Simpsons produces this season.