I am a PIMP

... or, as one of my students told me, a Postive Individual Making Progress. I will remind myself of this consistently, as the next several weeks involve a flurry of CV-padding activity such as:

1. The ENG 201 Summer Institute: where lost comp teachers go to learn how to teach comp
(Unofficially: The ENG 201 Summer Institute Happy Hour Club, where lost comp teachers go to learn how to forget how to teach comp)

2. Teaching my first-ever section of ENG 201. God, it effin' sucks to pop your academic cherry on a summer class.... but I'll remind myself, "It's only six weeks long," and just treat it like a really hot boyfriend who I only find semi-interesting and who I plan on dumping after the honeymoon wears off.

3. Academic advising during Freshman Orientation season. The training week is Western, like "Howdy Pardner", themed. I know that one of the required "team-building" events involves country line dancing. This, and I get three meals a day on the university. My orientation duties aren't theme-related at all-- they involve helping freshmen plan their fall course schedules-- but, I do plan on telling incoming freshmen to "Get along lil' dawgies" if they're dawdling with selecting their classes and stuff.

(Sidenote: I love themed anything-- as most Americans do-- casinos, parties, vacations... Americans also like anything with rides-- Disney, Epcot; The Scottish Whisky Heritage Center, New Lanark; there aren't any rides in Ireland that I'm aware of, so maybe this is why I felt like some of the tourist attractions were sort of second-rate)