Soooooo tired

I pretty much bailed on both classes this afternoon. I got very little sleep last night, on top of two days of not feeling very well (since developing celiac, any stress hits me straight in the guts: I feel rather like a ferociously squeezed toothpaste tube). I spent the whole morning trying to decide if I could make it through the day, going back and forth, and finally had used up what little energy I had about five minutes before my first class--by which time it felt a bit idiotic to cancel. I might as well have, however, as I let the students go almost immediately after taking attendance. In 101, I met with two students who wanted to go over papers with me. (I hope what we did was productive. They both felt more confident, at any rate, which is good.) The rest went off to work on their projects. In 102, I collected revisions, returned reading journals, talked to them a minute about reading journals, and then told them I'd hang out for anyone who wanted my help with anything, but that otherwise they could go and put the time to whatever was most productive for them--including a nap, which is what I was/am aching for. A few hung out for a while: one of them is having a great time with the novel; he's reading it with his work buddies, talking it over with them, enjoying having his mind blown by some of Le Guin's ideas. Very cool.

In terms of my own nap needs, however, now it's that awkward limbo time when it's too late to nap and too early to go to bed. Still, my eyes are burning, and I am utterly incapable of doing anything remotely productive. Despite being out of bed at 5 this morning, I accomplished almost nothing--and still have the papers to grade for 265, which need to be ready to return by tomorrow at 2. That means another morning of getting up well before dawn, but I'm hoping I can wind down sufficiently to get to bed at a commensurately early hour tonight. To do that, however, I have to regretfully miss dance class. I really hate missing it--but tonight it's way more important to be home and winding down (something I'm not doing very well at these days, I confess).

Sweet moment a minute ago: student from 102 came to the office to turn in his paper--and he asked me if he could use my poem about how students misread Sexton's "The Starry Night" as a critical source. I said that poems are not critical sources, but it was flattering--and he actually used lines from the poem in a way that made it sound like it could have been. Really, I was flattered and touched that he wanted to use my work that way. Another nice moment: a student from 101 is so worked up about the topic for her second paper that she joined the Sierra Club's fight against the Hetch Hetchy dam, sent them money.... Her family is making fun of her, but I told her I thought it was terrific. It is great when something clearly is getting through. It may not be what I'm most worried about, but it's something, and it is valuable to them, and that's truly uplifting.