A completely unproductive day, save the chickens

Boy has some chest-something sick, and ran a fever yesterday. All night he was fine and into the AM, but he's banned from the day care for 24 hours after a call to fetch him has been made. I understand the policy, and agree in theory. But it makes things hard on me to not be able to work with such short notice. I still have not found a place/ person that will watch him while "sick". Besides, my babysitter budget is running out for this month.

I have no classes right now, how could I possibly be stressed out about not being able to work at the office?

Here are the things that demanded my immediate attention today:

1. E-mail from dean of students. A student has too low of a GPA, and will be put on academic probation. Student argues that a grade in my class will be changed as soon as I get the grading done (^%#&^!!!), therefore can't be put on probation.

2. E-mail from colleague running the summer school I will be participating in. Needs my course plans and description asap.

3. E-mail from dept'l chair wanting to set up a meeting to look at course evals together.

4. Phone call from local doctor wanting to donate samples to the school, but needs a decision this week.

5. Two phone calls from incoming students / parents. We (faculty!) call prospective students to help recruit them, and I did my calling last night. These students wanted to know about the status of their application for a program in which they have applied. This is info I don't have privy to, and will take communication with my other colleagues to solve for the incoming students. Moreover, I called these students from the admissions office last night (there was a "calling party") and don't have their numbers to call them back. More interdepartmental communication required to solve that problem.

So I felt a bit stressed about bringing the Boy into work for a few hours today, and he was in his finest form- very active and curious- making sure that he could not be left to play quietly while I got work done. Luckily, we have some animals around the science center that made HIS visit a particularly exciting one. He got to feed the chickens and was completely thrilled with his adventure. He even ended up clucking back at them several times. BOK! BOK!

So I went into work with boy for about 3 hours and got perhaps 20 minutes of work done. The rest of the time, we were having 19-month-old fun in Mommy's office and science building.