Almost certainly a mistake

It's ridiculously early, by my standards, but I'm calling it a day. I still have quite a bit of material to mark for tomorrow's class, but I have been so painfully tired all day, I can't begin to make sense of what I'm reading, not even to decide if there are punctuation or spelling problems. I actually was very nervous driving to work this morning: every time I'd blink, I'd nearly fall asleep. I'm slightly more awake now: I'm not sure if that's due to my natural circadian rhythm or the fact that I've gotten a little energy jolt from working, but I can tell that it's going to slip away from me very soon--and I'd rather drive while I still have some of it left.

I split the difference about Advisement today: I didn't go in, but I said I'd make up the time next week. And sitting here in the office, I did get the mechanics reviews marked for the 101 students and all the reading responses marked for the Poetry students (except one student who submitted such a chaotic mess, I couldn't tell what I was supposed to look at), and I finished up the last of the trailing homework for the 101 students in class as they worked on their mechanics reviews.

The borderline hostile male student was not there today--perhaps because I said that his second submission of his final paper was not a passing effort. Whenever I get a little fierce with a student and then don't see the student in the next class, I always assume the student has fled. However, Miss Confusing was back today, despite having missed to classes--and a huge chunk of her final grade because of missed submissions.

Whatever. Twice more with them and I'm done.

The Poetry class was briefly a little more fun today. We read Anne Sexton's "The Farmer's Wife," and after a little confusion--arising mostly from the fact that the students expected to be confused--they realized they actually did get the poem, and then they got a little hilarious about the kind of relationship that leaves a person (in this case a woman) thinking, "Is this all I get?" and dreaming of more while burying the resentment, not admitting to it.

If only they could have been like that all semester--but I'm glad we got at least a brief blip of it.

I don't have anything else to note today: I'm too tired to think. Tomorrow's post may be very brief, too: it turns out Kristin has to be on campus until about 6, so she and I are going to grab the chance to have an impromptu dinner together. (It usually takes us months to find a time to get together.) So, we're meeting right after she finishes up--early dinner for me, and early out of here. But I hope to get a blog post in of some kind, even if it is a brief one.

One more week with the students, then one week dealing with schedules (for full and part time faculty), and then, it's time to start those sea-cucumber impersonations.

But I have to get there first. So, until tomorrow.