Chipping away

I finally got into the office today. Meant to come in yesterday but it was snowing, and even though the roads were perfectly passable, it just was too cozy staying home and frittering away the day (tea and jigsaw puzzle: perfect noodling activity). I had a bunch of errands to run before coming in today, so didn't get here until afternoon, and then ended up spending some time on the phone with my sister, dealing with some family hullabaloo (nothing critical, just garden-variety tangles, but tangled and thorny nonetheless). I also spent a lot of time figuring out what I need to get copied so I can get the students ready for their first papers, which are coming up any minute. I also decided I do want to create a schedule for 265 after all--again, having to do with their papers. I'm thinking especially about their final papers, and the fact that we're going to do more reading after they submit their proposals and (in theory at least) start working, so I want them to know what's coming. That way, they can consider the last few weeks' worth of poems in making their choices for their final papers.

I hope I'm making some kind of sense. I find my brains feel very much like someone is playing pinball in them. (Not me: I don't feel in control of this at all. Things are boinging around and making all sorts of odd thumping and dinging noises, so I have little sense of order or logic.) I keep glancing over at my desk and thinking, "OK, now what??" In order to finalize the schedule for 265, I have to refer to some poetry volumes at home, as the anthologies I have here don't have some of the pieces I know I want to use--or at least I want to consider a wider selection before choosing, especially when choosing from some of my favorite poets. I have my own volume of e. e. cumming poetry here and had a very hard time keeping the selection to a reasonable minimum--but at least I'm happy with what I chose. I know I'll face similar problems with Anne Sexton and Margaret Atwood. I have, however, lightened the load for the students a little: there are several weeks in which I'm assigning six poems to read, but I'm only requiring response sheets on four, their choice. I hope they feel they can handle that; it doesn't seem unduly onerous to me.

For the comp classes, I have a bunch of assignments to mark, but mostly I'm thinking ahead to what I need to set up prior to those papers being due. I have postponed the paper for 101: originally I had staggered the due dates so I'd have their papers a week before getting the papers for 102 (would have made life easier for me), but I need time to go over their draft intro paragraphs, and the snow days necessitate a shift. Fortunately, I'd left a day without a specific assignment, so I can easily shift things into that gap and then we're easily back on track--assuming we don't get another snow day (or several; my friend Martha, who lives in Missouri, says they've had something like 10 snow days already this year. I'm counting blessings and praying that we stay blessed.)

In any event, I will feel better about everything once I know I've done all I can to explain the paper process (to explain that it is a process). The assignments, enh. I'll chip away at them tomorrow: I have an appointment near campus at 9:30 tomorrow morning, so I'll simply roll into the office when I'm done and crank through whatever I can. However, first I need to do a fair amount of photocopying (which is good to do over the break, when I don't have to compete for the copiers), but I'm hoping I can crank through relatively quickly--and that I'll have slept enough that when I start marking, I'll have brain energy to last a while. If I'd get my head together sooner, I could have the copy service do my photocopying for me, but I never think of it in time. I do hope I can get them to do most of the copies for 265, however. That will buy me some time and energy.

I almost feel guilty for packing it in right now: I'm not absolutely falling over with exhaustion and am not ravenously hungry, so shouldn't I keep working? Um, no. I got the letters done for my two mentees; I finally visited human resources to check on their personnel files (and my own); I've sorted and cleared and thunk enough. I think more frittering is in order. It is supposed to be a break after all (hah!).