clunking along

I woke up without the alarm at 6:24 this morning, but I allowed myself to snuggle back down and get more sleep. I'd been running at a serious deficit for a couple of nights (couldn't make myself get to bed and to sleep), but even so, the extra snooze time may have been a mistake. I felt very peaceful coming in to campus--and then remembered I was supposed to meet not one but two students and that the pile of work on my desk actually will require a little more brain than I had allowed myself to believe. By the time I was sitting in P&B, I felt a sort of cranky, petulant fog closing in, which led to my feeling like I needed to go home and get back into bed. A little coffee on my way to class helped, and the Native American Lit students--all five of them--were, as usual, such a treat to talk with that I felt much better. In the late day 102, it took the whole period to get the last two proposals approved--from students who are actually quite smart--so we didn't talk about the novel or the final two essays, but a couple of them were doing great work. One student in particular--whose proposal was approved last week, first try--was reworking her ideas, digging in to what she wants to do, and she's heading into territory that is much more interesting and complex than her original proposal. I told her to type up her new introductory paragraph for me: once I see it, I'll give her a higher grade on her proposal, as a revision.

Mostly I hope I can take a little time tomorrow to seriously think about how next week will work. I want to be sure I have a wrap-up day with all the classes, but that means that my T/Th students won't be getting the break-down of their grades on their last day. The mental scramble I'm going through is probably not worth trying to explain, but it arises because I essentially have one "extra" day with the M/W students. Well, whatever. It's not that hard to figure out, I just need to shut up all the other clamoring voices in my head for about five minutes, if that.

But those voices are yelping quite loudly. I did finish my year-end evaluation (about five minutes ago), and I'm neatly organizing my "mentee" evaluations in a folder: at some point I need to read them over and provide the P&B seals of approval (I think it's all boilerplated, but I don't remember). I could barely think in P&B today--resistance, I think, to still having to think at all.

There's a small stack of miscellaneous other bits on my desk that I need to sort through as well, just so I know what's there. Book order form for fall, I know (and I need to remember to send the 102 reader pages over to Print Services to get the copies made), some scheduling stuff: I'm not sure what else. And tomorrow, apart from my class, I'll be in with Bruce, creating summer schedules. But I know he won't be here late, so once he leaves in the afternoon, I'm hoping I can sift through stuff, get my grade forms set up, that sort of feet clearing.

And tonight, even though I'm a little tired and creaky (I don't know why for either one), I intend to eat my "brown-bag" dinner and go to dance class. And we all must remember that tomorrow is, after all, another day.