The End Draws Near

I was met with a bit of a shock this morning as I drove up to the parking lot to go to work. Overnight, the entire lot had filled with cars! I kept muttering to myself in a high-pitched, skeptical voice:

No. It's eight AM. Eight, people, eight. In the morning. You should not be here. It's early. Very early. Too early. You should all be asleep or hung over!

Alas, it was indeed a full parking lot. And at eight AM no less. Shock of all shocks, let me tell you. I remember [when I was your age] the young people dragging themselves out of bed to maybe hit the parking lot at about ten. But eight. Man-oh-man. Eight AM.

And what greets me as I slump into work? A class D (for potentially dangerous to my career) situation. Yikes. It was bad. So bad, in such a way, that I ought not to write about it here. And I won't. Because, like I said, it's class D.

But when the nightmare was finally over for me (my work day ended), I got to go to class. And I met my professor, a man with boobs. Or a woman with serious facial hair. At certain angles, I could have sworn she had a familial relationship with a certain captured dictator. Oh well. At least her voice was entertaining. I think she hit about three different notes the whole time, and maybe had two different volume switches: mumbling softly, and talking quietly. I'm in for a real exciting class.

On the plus side, we're going to be analyzing "The Life of Brian." I can't wait to see that again, and to tear it apart in the name of research. It'll be a blast, until the lecture begins.

Other than that, not much is happening. I'm now frantically re-doing my entire lesson plan, because (you'll never guess) they changed the assignments and the readings for this week. Last night, really late. I shudder to think of what kind of conflicting messages the Monday students got. Hopefully by Thursday each week the assignments will have been set in concrete. (Stone is too much to ask for around here.)

Well, the wrist is still killing me, but is, thankfully, going to serve as my temporary excuse for the horrible chalkboard handwriting. I'm going with a powerpoint presentation for all the stuff I'd have outlined on the board. We'll see how that goes. Oh! And I emailed my whole troupe of students (both classes) today and said an early "greetings and welcome" kind of thing. I told them to go to the Convocation, since it's T and I won't see them until R. There are some creative email addresses out there. I have 71 students. Makes me want to puke. Out of nervousness, anxiety, etc., not out of disgust. Wednesday night will be rough, I can feel it building.

Thursday morning, I will be a bag of nerves, leaking from the sides... but I will still do the HNT. And you'll all be pleased to know that blogging is on my official schedule of things to do, right up there with reading for class, and BIC time. That's Butt In Chair time, for the thesis. I've got about seven hours of it on F, and a 90 minute interval on Sunday and Saturday.

And, I've decided to do the Labor Day weekend writing marathon. That's going to be 90 minutes of writing followed by 60 minutes of not. Repeated the whole weekend long, throughout the nights, into the days, etc. Tuesday morning is reserved for sleeping it off.

And... nevermind. That's it. I'm tired and going to bed.

End.