Amelia

So there was a con and it was fantastic. And then back to rl and it has been a week of catch up. Even though I'm sort of caught up, I still feel behind. At least for life in general since the kitchen is a mess and I need to do laundry (and watch SYTYCD). But last night there was "emergency" Peking duck, and tonight there were cards and swing dancing with the boys (D., durdge, and B., Jem is out of town for work).

Unfortunately I'm also feeling nauseous and emotional. Not enough that I think I will actually throw up or cry, but close. I didn't want any dinner (delicious stir-fry) or dessert (and you know I'm sick when I pass up freshly baked chocolate chip cookies). I think the crying might be related to low blood sugar because I haven't been eating? I did have some water crackers and those were fine, but food? Um, no thank you. Ew.

I was planning to do laundry and grade exams tonight, but I think I am going to watch a little tv and go to bed early.

And probably skip the gym tomorrow (which is sad because I didn't go last week. I did make it on Tues. and am super sore so I was looking forward to getting back to my normal routine.)

Ug. At least we're quickly moving towards the 20th c. in class. We start Realism and Impressionism tomorrow and I can teach that with my eyes shut. I know there are people whose favorite period is the 18th c., but I'm not one of them. We moved through it pretty quickly.

Argh. So I was scheduled to teach a summer course, one of the 5-days-a-week for 6 weeks deals. It's a course I've taught before but I would be using a new book and my powerpoints are in a different format due to a change in classrooms.

For the past few weeks I've only had 2 students signed up so I assumed it would be canceled. Financially stressful, but more dissertation time. Okay. Also made some of my summer weekend plans less stressful.

Now I have 7 students which is in this gray area. I can teach the course, but for 17% less than my full salary (I'm not sure how many I need to make full salary, it depends on what they pay for tuition, but normally I have 10 or so.) The adjunct salary isn't great already, but some money > no money.

Also I ordered a desk copy of the text book from the publishers a month ago and it hasn't arrived.

The course is scheduled to start next week.

So I have to figure out if I'm going to teach it, then pay for the book myself (the correct edition isn't in the library) plus overnight shipping, and scramble for class prep. (Which shouldn't be awful because I've taught it before.) But still stressful.

Oh and this weekend we're doing a two-day-out-of-town ravenchase. *facepalm*

What to do? Effectively how (non) valuable is my time and how much do we need the money? Would the time I spend teaching really be spent on the dissertation instead? Or would getting me to campus every day actually help my dissertation work? (If students drop the class am I paid even less money?) Blargh. I don't know.

Had a great time at J. and A.'s superbowl party! Excellent food, interesting game, and cute baby. We also survived the roads. Today I shoveled out the sidewalk and did a bunch of stuff around the house (laundry, handwashing, crockpot gumbo, etc.)

School is closed tomorrow. I just got an email that professors can hold classes if we don't penalize students who don't come. I think I could get down there, but I have no idea about the roads once I'm close, or where I would park. I also anticipate that most of the class wouldn't be there and giving a lecture to half of them isn't worth the complications.

Yay snow day!

(One day is fine, I can adjust, but if we're closed on Thurs. it's going to really screw up my syllabus. Wow I feel old.)

10-20 *more* inches, really? Feels normal to me, except that the area just can't cope. House is holding up fine, although I'm starting to worry a bit about the back deck.

Best day for a snow day ever! School opens at noon and my class is at 10:15am. It's awesome because today was the midterm review. So I don't have to stress about cutting material and I can just throw my review powerpoint up on blackboard and let them do it at home. (With a reminder email that yes, the exam still will be on Wednesday). More time to grade papers, yay!

We went camping with durdge and J. this weekend near Shenandoah National Park in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was absolutely beautiful. The leaves were starting to change (lots of red) although not at peak yet. We didn't have a reservation until we were in the car Friday night. With all the park spots filled up we stayed at the private Misty Mountain campground.

( Camping details )


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I was almost embarrassed to say that I wen to trapeze again today, but then I convinced myself that I don't need to be embarrassed about becoming totally obsessed with enjoying something. (And also I want to keep a record of what I'm doing in each class.)

It was so awesome!!! It was a smaller class so we all had some extra turns. The weather was again spectacular. I worked on my whip. It takes a lot of core and leg muscles to hold that position. I improved but it still could use some work. They said I could try catching it even though I was still a little low (not snapping my upper body up enough). Mark (who was catching) said he would adjust his swing for me. I missed my first catch by about four inches because I didn't keep my legs tensed when I uncurled my upper body.

But I made my second catch!!!!!!*

Brian said this is one of the hardest catches to make. You go into it completely blind so the timing is tricky. I still want to to work on the whip, but it was so exciting to make the catch!! Really most of the credit goes to Mark.

Oh my legs are sore tonight and I think my abs and back might be sore tomorrow.

I was so excited the rest of my very busy day went smoothly. I went into school several hours early because it seemed stupid to drive home from Baltimore and then back, plus I had signed up to help out at the grad. student association book sale. I got a ton of work done and class was okay even though I had too much to cover and not enough time. Then I went to a "moving to the back end" class at the curling club. Sadly I haven't made it on to the ice yet, but soon. (Anyone want to get together and throw some stones?)

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*You only get two chances to catch each class. You discuss with them what tricks you will be catching, they may be easier than what you were working on. For example last class I was working on the whip but for catches went back to knee hang.

My summer class ended yesterday :( They were such a great group. We met 5 days a week for 6 weeks I'm going to miss seeing them. The final was a little rough for some of them, but the final grades came out okay (I turned them in last night.) They said some really nice things on their way out of class :)

I have something closely resembling a syllabus for my Weimar seminar, woo! The bibliography is so overwhelming I ended up borrowing a bunch of articles from the syllabus when I took the class at Williams. We'll see how it goes.

Today I went to the library to gather books for regular and electronic reserves. I'm way past the deadline for fall semester so I felt nervous about just submitting it electronically and ending up in the library's queue (they need the books by Wednesday.) Although I know that profs are late all the time I'm still too neurotic. The (older, male) librarian was surprised and amused that I was pulling the books myself. When I asked if I could put things on reserve he said "for who?". Yes, I still look like a graduate student :)

I really love the idea of electronic reserves. They do the scanning for me! I really hope once I see the scans I'm still just as excited. There are still a few things that I'm just putting on regular(?) manual(?) plain old book reserves because I want them to look at the pictures in color.

My modern class is coming along as well. I'm about half-way through reworking the syllabus of the guy who taught the class before me. It helps to have a place to start.

Now I just need to put together a lecture for the Modern class and some sort of opening remarks for the Weimar seminar. (Oh and everything for my UMD freshman connections class, but that doesn't start for a week and a half so I'm not there yet.)

The wedding was fantastic! Really wonderful, I'm so glad I went. It really felt like both of them, relaxed and lots of fun. The ceremony was beautifully set against the mountains and they just seem perfectly matched. Their families were great, I got to catch up with several people I haven't seen in a while, and met some other lovely people as well. The night ended with lots of dancing and then (for me) an hour and a half drive over the mountain back to my aunt and uncle's house.

Special thanks to lightgetsin for lending me her dress which worked very well (I even got a compliment on it). And for lending me a super-awesome shiny dress for next weekend's wedding.

I didn't get a lot of sleep before heading out to catch the bus and then plane home. Yesterday I was sort of useless. I got some sleep and am awake today which is good because it is the 1st day of my 6-week class. We have an 80 min. lecture Monday-Friday. 5 days a week. I hope we all like each other (it's a small class, I think I have 10 students registered). I have about half my lectures prepped (that's about half what I had hoped to have prepped). Wish me luck!