Whoof

I've been pretty much nailed to the computer today, and although I know I'll have a lot of "oh, shit" moments, when I realize that there's a stupid typo in something or I'm missing a handout or I have something set up incorrectly on Blackboard, I at least have all the materials for both 101 and Mystery and Detective up on Blackboard and ready to roll. I think. I still have to print things out (and make sure I've printed the most up-to-date version), but I'm going to do that in the office--once the departmental tech guru figures out why my computer says the printer network is offline and gives us a new ink cartridge. Then I get to stand at the copier--and call the Printing office to find out how much time they'd need to turn things around, so I can farm out as much as possible to them.

Which pretty much frees my days to deal with the domino-chains of scheduling that Bruce and I will be facing over the next two weeks. First, of course, I will need to make sure my own schedule is set, and do what I can to fix the schedule for my colleague who needs to switch from afternoons to mornings--and find out why the rep to the adjunct union is calling me about a complaint. But then, Bruce and I are off to the races.

One tiny scrap of good news is that an adjunct wrote to Cathy asking for an assignment--and A) I don't think we had anything to give her but B) she's qualified to teach 100, so we may be able to open a section for her to teach. The problem of not enough seats for students who need 100 and not enough qualified faculty is a real one, as I mentioned, so if we can provide even 20 new seats, that is a sliver of relief. At the moment, the only sections of 100 with any room for students are the ones designated for ESL students.

We have a similar problem with 001, actually: there are a few evening sections that are going begging, but mostly it's the ESL dedicated sections that are still open--and one only has one student, so I imagine it's on the chopping block. There's more chaos with 101: some sections are filled and others still low, mostly evening sections but no discernible rhyme or reason for why some day sections are filled and others at the same time are not. Bruce has slashed sections all over the map, too. It will be very interesting to sit down with the master lists to see where things are now: I suspect that a lot of the work I did before heading off to ASLE had to be completely changed, and I don't envy Bruce the work he's been doing at home in the intervening weeks.

But that's all fuss and feathers for the days to come. Right now, I'm going to try to pry my ass out of this chair and force myself to get outside and walk around a little. It's starting to cool down enough that the prospect of moving outdoors doesn't seem intolerable, and heaven knows it would be great for my body--and might help normalize sleep patterns that have been wonky as hell for days now. Come what may, that alarm goes off at 7 a.m. tomorrow, and I have to get back into the morning routine of a day at work--heat wave or no.

Probably no post tomorrow, but maybe Tuesday? We'll see....