Best line of the day

I'm in draft-commenting jail (slightly lower security than grading jail)--nonetheless it has its rigors. The following speaks for itself:

"Culture has now become an important aspect in our society today."

O it has, has it?

New Plan

A few posts ago, I wrote something about how I was going to read for my revisions for the next 6 weeks and then write feverishly through November and edit for the first two weeks of December. I have decided that that was stupid. That it was a stupid, terrible idea. The Path to Anxiety is Paved with Exactly That Plan. It would've been way too much to keep in my head with way too little to show for my work on a week-by-week basis.

Therefore, the actual revising revising begins today. I have two major points that I want to start to address. They're kind of complicated, but they're both pretty much in the introduction, so I think that it'll be manageable. (Manageable to address by mid-December, I mean. Not manageable to address them entirely today.)

Luckily I have NO grading and NO class-related reading to do this weekend. How on earth did that happen? Magnifique! Also, in a whirlwind of domestic activity, I cleaned my whole house, made bread, and did the laundry yesterday afternoon. I'll probably have to set up a batch of yogurt tomorrow, but that's nothing.

(I'm trying not to think about next weekend, though. 31 comp papers + 9 senior midterm papers + 11 seminar journals + 23 survey midterms, dear God!)

I Have Arrived

Today, I taught a complicated passage from Judith Butler.

We spent 45 minutes on 4 pages.

But I think that they understood something by the end.

Yes, this was my first excursion into theory-teaching. How I got a Ph.D. in comp lit without ever teaching theory is a mystery. Well, no it isn't. One word--strategy. And medievalist. So, two words. Actually, wait--here's six more--little support for graduate student teaching. Eight altogether. Never mind.

What's kind of sad is that I felt really chuffed that I could make sense of this difficult text and that they, at least initially, couldn't. It meant that I'd actually learned some skillz in grad school. Pathetic that I'm comparing myself to undergrads to remind myself of that, isn't it? (Even if they are seniors?) Evidently the Academic Impostor Syndrome that I thought I'd managed to get over is still hanging on around the edges.

Ah well! It was a good day.

Teaching Block

I think that my teaching is faltering a bit. Well, in one class, anyway. Or maybe it was just today. I can hope?

We're starting Twelfth Night in the survey. A fun play. Reading it brings up very fond memories of seeing it performed with my family about 8 or 10 years ago; we were at the Folger and had seats right up on stage, and the performance was lively and hilarious. I like the play--much better than some of the Shakespeare I read for the independent study I directed last semester, by the end of which I was heartily sick of The Bard. But for today they'd read Acts 1 and 2, and I couldn't for the life of me think of a way to teach it.

Does that happen to other people? I was like, yeah, okay. Viola is in disguise. Um...disguise is important here? There are a lot of double meanings and irony? What do we do with that? Um...wait and see what happens?

Yeah, it was rough. I ended up lecturing for a while on the period (we're only just out of the Middle Ages, in week 7, for that is how I roll), then waffled around with them for 20 minutes trying to find something to have a discussion about. I had notes; they were just kind of dull and disjointed. I don't know if this is because we'd only read two acts, because there's not a lot of thematic depth to the play,* because I'm a lousy teacher, or because I was just mentally worn out this morning. All I know is that this is the only new text I'm teaching in the survey this semester, and apparently that's thrown me for a total loop.

I'm tempted to go with "mentally worn out." Teaching 5 classes--even if two of them are the same class (comp) and one only meets for an hour a week--might be catching up to me; I feel like I'm in a constant teaching rotation where no sooner does one class end then I've got another one to gear up for. And, to be perfectly honest, I haven't been devoting all that much time to my teaching. If I'm going to get this revised manuscript back to the publisher by mid-December (= the goal), I have to make that a top priority. I'm reading a lot of new stuff for the revisions; my plan is to read like crazy through October and then start working in the actual changes to the MS in November. That seems like a manageable plan--but only if I keep up with this thing of doing virtually all of my course reading for the week on, like, Saturday, and then doing all of my prep in the mornings (which is tough when my MWF schedule starts at 9 am).

With the possible result, of course, that I'll be punting a lot in my classes.

Hm. At least Comp and the senior-level seminar are going well (the latter in particular--I heart it). But it's funny--I loved the survey last year, and now I feel like I'm just sort of waiting it out. Part of that might be the dismal black hole of a classroom they stuck me in--way too big for the enrollment and in a basement with no ambient sound so that when I stop talking the silence presses in on all sides; one can only hope.

Sigh. It's 9 pm; I suppose I ought to read for tomorrow's class (the one I didn't get to on Saturday).

*I am not saying that this is the case. It is merely one possibility. In my weakened state, I am incompetent to judge.

Three Immutable Rules

1. Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, perhaps especially those placed on very high ceilings, will only ever run out of batteries and begin emitting shrill beeps between 3 and 4 am.
   
   
2. Setting one's alarm for 5:30 on a day when one doesn't teach until 11--in order to "get a jump on things"--will never work. Especially on mornings after Rule # 1 goes into effect.
   
   
3. Every fall, there will be one freshman who simply cannot get hir shit together to go to class. Inevitably this student will be administratively withdrawn, but not until ze has engaged in lengthy email exchanges with hir professors, missed numerous scheduled meetings, and required hir professors to correspond extensively with the registrar's office, thereby wasting a great deal of time and energy.
   

Boring Sunday To-Do List

Because I'm feeling a little overwhelmed and I need the accountability:

• Read/skim half of a book for The Book [DONE--or will be by bedtime]
  
• Type up notes on book read last week [DONE]
  
• Type up notes on article read last week [DONE]
  
• Finish reading other article
  
• Grade 5 composition papers (I'm doing 5 a day until I'm done--no binges this year! Because 32 comp students is a luxury after last semester's legendary 57!)
• Grade Middle English translations
  
• Figure out how I'm going to grade Middle English translations (better do this one before the preceding)
• Read and prep for comp [DONE]
  
• Prep for the survey
• Read for Tuesday afternoon class
• Make yogurt [DONE]
  
• Finish making granola (i.e. put it away) [DONE]
  
• Get laundry on the line [DONE]
  

That doesn't look...so bad. Is there something I'm forgetting? Most assuredly!

Edited to add:

Oh, and also:

• Write up prompt for composition paper [DONE]
  
• Revise and finish mid-term prompt for senior class [DONE]
  
• Make food items for this week's lunches: [DONE]
  
• split-pea soup [DONE]
  
• cucumber gazpacho [DONE]
  
• baked tofu strips (great protein snacks for the days when I'm stuck on campus) [DONE]
  
• salad dressing [DONE]
• This also requires a quick trip to the store [DONE]
  
• Swim [DONE]

ETA (2): Okay, so, I have not done 5 out of 21 things, and I am now very tired. Note, however, that of the 5 things that I have not done, 4 are for class, and will therefore get done sooner or later. I was very intelligent today and put off all of the things that I have to do in a very short time, meaning that I actually got through the things that I ought to do but that were not pressing. I'm pleased with this system. And the world will not end if I wind up returning all of my papers--gasp!--a week after they were handed in. (Didn't I used to strive to hand back papers in only a week? When did 2-5 days become my hyperefficient norm? eh?)

In other news, I have a lot of mosquito bites. They itch.

Well, I Did It

I bought my airline tickets for winter break/MLA. I'm zigzagging across the country on a 3-city tour, flying in and out of obscure airports at my end and my mother's--and yet I somehow got all the tickets I need for only $750! Not chump change, but not as disastrous as I feared. (Yesterday, in fact, the lowest price I could find was $811. I wasn't able to buy it at that moment, and I had all kinds of panic--those "Only 1 ticket left!!!!" notices were everywhere--and yet?)

In fact, I just had a little panic attack and had to go verify that I hadn't accidentally bought a return ticket for December 30, 2009, or something.

So hey, I'll be at the big stressfest, and hope to see some of y'all there! (And if anyone needs a roommate, I'm available! Is that pathetic? I don't know. Whatever. There it is: my desperate plea to the internets.)

I still haven't reserved a hotel room, though. Or paid the registration fee. Or renewed my membership for next year. Feh. That'll all have to go on a later credit card bill.