Done #2 and #3 and completely

I intended to blog "Done #2" last night, but I was in such a rush to get out of here and get home to bake that I kinda forgot about it. I actually was done with the second class in the morning, and most of the way done with today's class by yesterday afternoon. Still, somehow, little niggly bits got in my way yesterday, so I ended up not being as productive as I'd planned. (I did get my baking done, however.) The same kind of "overwhelmed by niggles" threatened to happen today, but I got everything finished before the department party at 11:30 a.m. I spent the time after the party and before Advisement doing some filing that I've meant to do for the last several years--and that is not an exaggeration. I keep track of students' attendance and grades on index cards, and I have them going back for years. I've been intending for years to indicate which semester the student was in the class, and file the cards alphabetically--just in case sometime in the future someone asks about a former student.

That actually did happen once: I got a call from the Department of Defense: a former student--from almost five years prior to the call--was applying for security clearance as a member of the Navy JAG corps, and so the DoD was engaged in a deep background check. Fortunately, I remembered the student vividly, so I didn't have to rummage through my files--but there are others I don't remember as clearly, and one never knows when a question might arise. In any event, it was an interesting memory exercise. Some students I remember in detail the instant I see their names. Others, I can see the name, and the grades, and nothing so much as quivers in my memory banks. I tend to remember entire classes: where the class met, who was in the cast of characters. As I say, interesting.

And relatively useless, but it did feel rather nice to do a little of that, after all this time.

I cleaned out a few files, too, and am already planning possible new assignments/exercises for next semester, based on what I'm seeing in those files, remembering what worked, where the students need more if I can possibly provide it.

I also had great time talking with BYM. He was the only student from that class to drop by for a visit--and he did so largely so he could hang up fliers for Nature in Lit. We're both frantic for the thing to run. (Prayer, people. I'm serious. I'm not religious in any way, but I do believe in the power of prayer; don't ask me to rationalize that.) We had a great time talking, and I'm looking forward to working with him in the spring.

And now, the plants are watered as deeply as I can manage without a bathtub to submerge them in, and things are tidied away just well enough not to cause despair when I return to the office. I'll be interested to see what, if anything, I accomplish in the next few days/weeks--but I highly doubt blogging will be on the list until I'm back on campus the second week in January.

So, my dear readers, I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season. (I sure plan to.) And if you wouldn't mind, make a comment or something, so I know you're out there: I know about a few of you (thank you for reading, and for letting me know that you do), but I'd be curious to know just how big (or, more to the point, small) my audience actually is.

Happy merry joyous and bright, y'all. "God" bless us, every one.