A little work, a big wall

I actually did some work today. It's not the first day during my travels when I've spent a bit of time crunching through work, but it may be one of the best in terms of actual forward momentum--even if there was precious little of that (and every chance that I may decide to reinvent various wheels for the umpteenth time).

I had really hoped to make some progress on the schedule of assignments for the 101s, but I realized I can't do that until I have the handbook in front of me. Remember, this is a special edition of the handbook, including a section on sentence skills that I've not used before, so I need to work through the handbook assignments very carefully, not only checking the page numbers to be sure I'm assigning what I want when I think it will be most valuable but also including more assignments (or lengthier ones, or different references for the "mechanics review" stage). I just won't know until I am actually looking at the book.

On that front, however, I realize that my patience wears out pretty quickly. I know how important the information is for the students, but going over it myself is fucking tedious. Slog, slog, trudge, trudge. Yet it must be done--and quadruple checked, so I know for sure I really am assigning the pages that will be most valuable and am as sure as I can be that I'm not assigning certain pages multiple times (an error I have discovered on many an assignment schedule in the past).

And I have done zero work on the SF class--or the online Nature in Lit. When I get home, after a day of allowing my brain to catch up with my body, I'm going to have to dive in and push fucking hard to get everything done, copied, and ready to go without last-minute panic.

Speaking of last-minute panic: I took a look at the enrollment patterns today, and they're just weird. I don't know if students are signing up for all the early classes because they don't understand that they can scroll down to find more options (or are too lazy to scroll down for more options) or whether suddenly, in the last two years, we have a campus full of early birds and a significant reduction of late risers. The early sections are almost entirely full, across the board. The midday to late afternoon sections--including sections that used to fill to overflowing almost as soon as registration opened--are damned near empty (except for the sections taught by certain professors who are either justifiably beloved or who have reputations for giving everyone good grades, nothing below a B). In any event, it's weird as hell, and very worrisome. However, the last two semesters we had late enrollment surges, so I'm going to try to refrain from panic just yet.

And it seems word has gone out that when the SF course is taught my yours truly, it's a horrible experience: the same nine enrolled students are hanging out in that class, and no one else has decided to join the fun. Well, fuck. Again, I try to refrain from panic.

As for now, I'm just about cooked. I was trying to get folders on the computer organized, so I could find what's where, and even that seemed unduly daunting, which tells me it's time to pack it in for today--and maybe for the next few days. We'll see how things go. Which is always the case, I suppose. But I'm not entirely sure I'll even think about it tomorrow.