I've been Tagged!

Now, this was worrisome at first, because after reading Vitals the word "tagged" has whole new and mind-controlling connotations. But I got over that, and am now responding to the tag. Thanks Bastya's Tall Thing. I needed a break from the papers and thesis.

10 Favorites:

Favorite Season: Spring
Favorite Sport: Hockey
Favorite Time: Nighttime
Favorite Month: I'm fond of March, though April is kind of nice
Favorite Actor: Sean Connery, Johnny Depp
Favorite Actress: Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon
Favorite Ice Cream: Cheap Strawberry (the generic is often better than the brand)
Favorite Food: Seafood, Rosa's, Italian, Chinese, Vietnamese
Favorite Drink: Water
Favorite Places: Cottonwood, Egypt, Whiterock, Wisconsin

9 Currents:

Current Feeling: 1 part anxiety, 2 parts exhaustion, 2 parts ill, 1 part frustrated
Current O/S: Windows XP Home Edition
Current Windows Open: Microsoft Word (4), Opera (3)
Current Drink: Cranberry Juice (no sense in another dr visit)
Current Time: 3:58
Current Mobile(s) Used: just the cell.
Current Show on TV: I gave my TV away.
Current Thought: What day is it?
Current Clothing: Painting jeans, orange cami, off-white long sweater, scarf, boots

8 Firsts:

First Nick: Scooter Pie
First Kiss: In high school
First Crush: Some 5th grader (was in 4th myself) whose name escapes me.
First Computer: The old Tandy desktop (late 80s, I guess)
First Vehicle I drove: 1987 Grand Marquis (ugly yellow, but very solid)
First Job: Reading tutor in 4th grade (probably didn't get paid, but it was work)
First Pet: A gray kitty cat named Tinkerbell (male, but probably with identity issues)
First Shave(men)/hairstyle(women): A girlish sort of bowl cut (teach me to play with the round brush, huh?).

7 Lasts:

Last Chai (Tea): Never
Last Movie: Monty Python's Life of Brian (sadly, for a research paper)
Last Time I Drove: 2 hours ago
Last Time Shaved(men)/Beauty parlour visit(women): Over two years ago.
Last Web Site Visited: Bastya and Vincent's blog (hey there you guys!)
Last Software Installed: Symantec Ghost (for the job, you see?)
Last Pill I Had: Lactase enzyme

6 Have You Evers:

Have You Ever Broken the Law: Probably, but you can't go the speed limit all the time
Have You Ever Been Drunk: Nope, the stuff just tastes gross to me
Have You Ever Climbed a Tree: Many of them
Have You Ever Kissed Someone You Didn't Know: Nope, it's a germ thing
Have You Ever Been in the Middle/Close to Gunfire or Bomb Blast: Yes
Have You Ever Broken Anyone’s Heart: Unfortunately, Yes

5 Things:

Things You Can Hear Right Now: JP typing at his desk, the space heater (they turn the heat off on the weekends), beating hearts as students take finals next door
Things on Your Computer Table: Water bottle, 15 books, cup of pencils, bag of yarn, cranberry juice, Fagin gloves, a lamp, a rubic's cube, a bottle of DayQuil, a box of kleenex, more sticky notes than I'd like to count, a jar of mandarin oranges, a digital camera, a herd of plastic frogs, three pictures of Charlotte (whom Idesperatelyy miss)
Things on Your Bed: Sheets, fleece blanket 1, Cat quilt, fleece blanket 2, pillow, Charlotte,
Things You Ate Today: Small handful of pecans, seven cheetos, piece of toast with butter, mandarin oranges
Things in Mind: Thrillerland paper, Drama paper, the Thesis, Thrillerland final, my next shower

4 Places You Have Been Today:

My apartment (put out food and water for Charlotte, play with Charlotte, change clothes)
The car
My office
The Boss's office

3 People You Can Tell Anything To:
God
Charlotte
Emily

2 Choices:
Black or White: Black
Hot or Cold: Cold

1 Thing You Want To Do Before You Die:
Finish grad school, with all that entails

And individuals I wanna tag-
I guess Emily, if she reads this, and
John, because he mocked me for having to do this (take that, John)

***

And now, I must return to working. Fare well, all you blog-reading folks out there!

End.

Updates

It is currently 17* out, and feels like 2*. Or that's what the weather folks said. Yea fun. What's better is that in seven hours or so, when I'm coming back to the building, it will feel like -6*. At noon it will feel like 0*. And be 10*. What fun we are all having, with our running noses, sore throats and hacking coughs. All three slumber bunnies here are sick or rapidly becoming so. We're a generally upbeat bunch tonight. And that's a lie, except that you can't hear the sarcasm I type.

I got passed by a cop today. He zoomed up on me and swerved around me. Going quite a bit over the speed limit, but with no lights. Not sure what the hurry was.

Chicken McNuggets do not go well with cough syrup. In fact, the two will wage war in your mouth, and you'll lose. Finger lickin' good.

Last night (or maybe the night before last night--they all become one long night after a wile), I smushed my glasses. I've since managed to retwist my glasses, so the depth perception problem is not so bad. I still can't navigate stairs well, but my driving's improved. All the same, I'm going to try very hard to get a ride in tomorrow. There's no sense in being unsafe.

Well, aside from all that, my little kitty is warmer than I am right now, and I've got my current paper half-finished. At two or two-thirty, I can leave! AMS and I can toast a shot of cough syrup and flee this horrid place.

End.

Argh

I just finished documenting everything and filling out all the paperwork on my newest academic dishonesty case. It took me all day. All Friday. My novel day. Do you know how long I was scanning stuff? Do you know how many emails it took to transfer all the PDFs? Do you have any idea how many more meetings I'm going to have to go to because someone couldn't take the time to write their own papers? I've got stuff to do, too, and I'm not getting paid any extra to spend over 21 hours dealing with this over two days.

I was supposed to write 4 full scenes today. Finish the Works Cited for my Thrillerland paper. Do my laundry. Play with my poor, neglected Charlotte. What did I accomplish from this list? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I haven't even gotten a chance to open the thesis today.

And do you know the worst part? I found another this evening while doing a check of all students. It isn't as obvious as the last one, and it will take longer to figure out what happened and when. Here comes the ethical dilemma. How much time can I afford to spend on this? Do I do the easy thing and let it slide? Do I throw my hands up and hope someone later on down the line catches something sneaky going down? Or do I further sacrifice precious hours of my already stressful paper/thesis writing flurry to deal with freshmen who made a mistake? It would be so easy to let it slide. To pretend I didn't see. But I've got a tickle in my gut when I think of doing that. I fear I'll be spending at least part of my Saturday dealing with this one if only because it is, unfortunately, the right thing to do.

Sometimes, I hate having a conscience.

I need to reward myself somehow for spending quality time doing somethingunpleasant that I don't get paid for or graded on. I just don't understand. Why would anyone do this? Don't they have any pride? And why do they insist on trying to drag others down with them?

It has been a discouraging day. I look forward to further discouragement later this weekend, and early next week. Hopefully after that I'll be free of this tangle.

I'm so tired. This sort of thing drains me. I feel just empty all over from caring so much about folks who obviously don't care about themselves or others. Maybe I'll just go to bed early.

Sigh.

It is FINISHED

No, not anything really big, like my thesis, or a term paper.

But I taught my last 1301 class today, and I have rarely been happier about an ending in my life. I was swarmed with folks who wanted last minute clarification (why they don't ask for these things during class, I'll never know), and Em brought a few of her students to my office (they had signed up for my class next semester, and wanted to see me).

On the negative side, I've had a string of "academic integrity violations" (not allowed to use that other word, ever) in my classes. And this, after I told them that stupid shit like that would be discovered and punished to the greatest extent available to me. You would not believe the paperwork involved. It's enough to make folks like the good doctor vindictive.

Back on the positive, I've had hot-or-at-least-warm water for the last few days. Pretty much since I blogged about it. Dreams really can come true for the young at heart, or whatever that saying is. Not that my sarcastic self could be considered young at heart, but perhaps I qualify as sufficiently jaded young adult at heart. I'll think on that. Jade's actually a very pretty color green, but not a great color for hearts. Like cars. The resale value for a green heart is through the floor.

Let's see. That didn't end very positively, did it? I'll try again. I've decided to adopt discardia as a personal holiday. It's a great principle, and I really think it could help me out. Less is more, and all that. Certainly, less is easier to move, if such activity becomes necessary.

And yes, SR, in response to your query, I am compiling a list of greivances. I'll probably go see them next Thursday, Dead Day, when I can be home during regular business hours.

Exciting news. I can help alleviate disaster in the English Department when it strikes. Yeah buddy, the IT job rocks seriously.

And that's it. I've got another handful of papers to grade, some pages to write, some books to read, and so on.

End.