A very late posting after a very busy Easter Sunday. AJ was up at the crack of dawn wondering whether the Easter bunny had in fact arrived. He was up so early, that we didn�t have a chance to hide any Easter eggs. Instead he plundered his Easter basket � the first of four. Later in the morning his grandmother and uncle drove out to deliver another Easter basket. Already buzzing from a sugar high, AJ didn�t have much of a nap, despite his apparent exhaustion. This afternoon we headed over to his aunt and uncle�s house for Easter dinner combined with his uncle and godfather�s 50th birthday party, where he received two more Easter baskets. I think we now have enough Easter treats to safely keep him on a sugar high until he leaves for college.

In the calm after the storm, I am curled up in bed watching Holiday Inn and going over the materials I need to present at the college fair I�m staffing for my alma mater tomorrow night. In looking through the current course catalog, I was struck by a couple of things. First of all, as far as I can tell the vast majority of my college professors are still teaching there and those that aren�t are almost all in the emeriti listings, meaning they retired fairly recently. The sole exception was my major advisor who committed suicide a few years ago. Considering I�ve been out of college for well over a decade, I was surprised by the consistency. I imagine it speaks well for the academic climate there � people who get jobs there don�t want to leave. The other thing I noticed was a little more alarming. Two of my favorite professors have still not reached the full professor level. As an undergraduate I took absolutely no notice of the gradations of professorial titles � assistant, associate, lecturer. But as an aspiring academic, I find the promotion timetable rather disconcerting. On the one hand, in terms of publication requirements, the tenure process seems to go terribly fast, especially considering the capriciousness of the academic publishing market. On the other, after so many years in school, it seems like it takes a ridiculously long time to achieve the rank of full professor � nearly 20 years. At the rate I�m going, I�ll be close to retirement age by the time I�m up for full professor. I find this very depressing.

But I�m looking forward to representing my school. I�m not a flag-waver about very many things, but I strongly believe in the quality and uniqueness of the education I received there. It continues to serve me well in all areas of my life.

I�ll conclude this schizophrenic entry with a photo montage of AJ�s Easter.

AJ amongst the daffodils

Watching the eggs dye

Examining the contents of Easter basket #1

AJ as Easter bunny

AJ in his Easter best

0 people said it like they meant it