Today/night:
print feedback for stack 1 of unit 2 portfolios, distribute correctlyprint extra credit assignments from emailread/grade extra creditteach 3 classesstay in a good mood the whole time (!!!!)make & print sign-up sheets for presentationsgrade discussion board postsbuy printer paperbuy assorted stuff at grocery storeeat somethingprint discussion board postsgrade proposals for researchedchange arguments- grade late submission ethics arguments
- read "Everyday Use" for tomorrow
- prep African American lit
- start the next stack of unit 2 portfolios
- finish the list above
- print Lucille Clifton's poem for African American lit
- read/grade the next stack of unit 2 portfolios, or at least put a huge dent in the pile
- teach 2 classes
- meet Student Girl at office hours
- don't forget to do presentation sign-ups in Research Writing
- update Final Portfolio prep assignment & get it posted to ereserves
- print up a bunch of those
- finish the list above
- prep African American lit
- write next short essay assignment for African American lit
- teach 3 classes
- don't forget to do presentation sign-ups in Research Writing, again
- some other stuff I've forgotten
- go see Keb Mo with SLP :) :) :)
Ok, today, I have:
- finished grading a stack of portfolios
- prepped for 3 sections
- gone to the employee meeting for My Bar
- answered student emails
- finish the next stack (major arguments turned in late, so it's not a full stack; phew)
- print feedback for the first stack to turn back
- print the extra credit that got emailed in over the weekend
- finish another stack
- teach three sections
- read a short story and a poem, so I can
- prep African American Lit for the week
- grade discussion board posts for African American lit
- finish another stack
- teach two sections
- print feedback for the stack to turn back
- finish the stack I most certainly won't have actually finished by then
- teach three sections
- write the next short essay assignment for African American Lit
- grade the extra credit that was emailed in over the weekend
- and a few more things I've forgotten
- print feedback for the stack to turn back
- teach two sections
- take a frickin' break
- My tooth hurts. Again.
- Gotta get some dental insurance, or maybe just some magically found money in an old purse.
- Just over half a stack of papers done; two and a half stacks to go.
- Shouldn't have spent so much time on the phone, but I got to catch up with friends, which I should always spend more time doing.
- Mostly clean house, which is nice. Did tons of dishes and microwave cleaning and whatnot today.
- New pajama pants, very softy nice.
- Cat peace continues to hold.
- Almost all of tomorrow off to play more catch-up.
- And SLP will be home. :)
Ahhhhh....
At the very, very good advice of my dear, dear friends Heartswater and PTM, I have canceled my classes at My Institution for tomorrow. I will teach at The Community College, but then I shall go home and grade, grade, grade allllllllllllll day and return, caught up-ish and refreshed-ish, on Tuesday. Or maybe on Wednesday. ;)
Hoo-boy, the squirrels are nuts today. They've moved into the one wall in my office, apparently. It's raining and windy and crappy out today, so they're having an indoor fun day, running up and down and up and down. The cats usually spend most Indoor Squirrel Fun Days going insane running back and forth at the bottom of the wall, but today they've apparently had enough. They are sleeping, squirrels be damned.
Going up north is like going to the mental health chiropractor. Blessed indeed.
Having not been up here in Voxland for a while, I was just reading back through a few of my old posts. I feel very fond of them, which is nice. I read this one just now, and remembered that Edward Abbey had actually written it before, in The Fool's Progress: An Honest Novel, although he managed to do it in just one line:
Home is where, when you have to go there, you probably shouldn't.
:).
And now it occurs to me that it might be time to read that one again. That and Cavedweller by Dorothy Allison. Excellent.
I need to get back to thinking in words, again, to writing. I've been floating in the blue for a while now, spacing out, staring at the sea. It's been worrying me lately, but today I'm noticing it's maybe fine, good even. L came into the bar for dinner the other night, and said as much. I told her I'd been wasting a lot of time lately, and made some sort of apologetic noises about it. She just looked at me for a minute, that look where she cocks back on her hip, tilts one eye at you, and takes your entire measure in a glance. Then she said, "It's ok to waste time. You should do that."
Wise woman, that L. Being one of the most driven, effective people I know, I feel she's got pretty decent credibility about wasting time as a right choice. She's my boss at My Institution, and she's one of the best mentors I've ever had---wicked smart, morally sound, in every way, and simply the most constructively challenging teacher I've ever had. And I've had some superb teachers.
At any rate, she's right. I've been thinking, furiously, at full speed, for a good chunk of years, now. I think now of Dorothy Allison's line: "A [person] needs some dream time." I've been on dream-time this past month, and now that I think of it, thank God! This past year, teaching full-time for the first time, recovering from grad skool, keeping my life happening and in good enough health---man, I was starting to get really properly tired. ;)
It's like I've been innertubing down narratives, on that laziest narrative river of them all---TV shows. Specifically, Numb3rs. I turn it on, with its easy-peasy-intellectual-inquiry quality, and its family-that-likes-each-other quality and its smooth-problem-resolution quality, and just float on out on my imagination, gently bouncing and toodling along, from point to point.
This dream-time will have to recede eventually, at least by August, and I think it'll be good for it to ebb sooner. So like I said, I need to get back to thinking in words, to writing. I find myself interested in making some poems again, just little ones, little snapshots. I like snapshot-poems. I made a ton of them a few years back. It was a delightful time of paying close attention and finding a lot of beauty and interesting things.
Hmmmm....
am:
the bed is rumpled
around us; i do not want
to get up and go.
noonish:
class went well; then fell
apart, but the room was bright--
they took care of things fine.
evening:
wet greendark out there;
cats and i are dry inside
he'll be back home soon.
Feeling better, which is nice.
