"I have a question: If you have an appointment with a professor who has a Ph.D., is it a conference or is it a doctor's appointment?"

I laughed out loud. That was where one of my best students ended his conference with me. He's ultra-super bright (can't write very well, but the rest is wonderful) and he's yet another military veteran with an actual adult life. It was great to end my week on that note.

The two veterans I have as students this semester--one in each class--have very similar affect: sense of humor, confidence, dedication to their work. Interestingly enough, they're both also fire fighters. Maybe that contributes as well (and come to think of it, they both have qualities that are somewhat like one of my nephews, who is also a fire fighter though not a military vet).

I'm happy to report that having the good student at the end of the day managed to remove the twitchy anger I felt after meeting with the Media Mogul. I asked how I could help--with his revision of his essay--and he made a snarky comment about all the articles he has to write for the student paper. He didn't really listen to or give a half of a shit about any of my feedback. He gives a lot of "gotcha, gotcha" head nodding and it's utterly obvious that everything is just bouncing off the surface. I hate to say it, but part of me is actively looking for the infraction I can use to boot him from the class. He gets on my nerves. That overweening confidence is guaranteed to raise my hackles. I try to maintain a calm and professional demeanor around him, but all I want to say is "Get the fuck out of my face, you obnoxious little shit."

And then a young man walks in who is worth 50 of the Media Mogul, infinitely more intelligent and articulate--and he not only is prepared with specific things he wants me to explain, he is very humble about his abilities.

At the end of class today, I talked with a couple of students about the essay topics, formatting, submitting to Turnitin--and one stayed even longer after class because he's been slaving over his reading notes and getting marks that are below passing. He spent 10-1/2 hours on one set--but it was all, all, summary. He said, almost wailing, "But I'm including more quotations!" Yes, but you don't do anything with them except summarize. I asked him how much benefit he would gain for his forthcoming essay from reviewing his notes. He conceded that he wouldn't get any. Ah: there you go then. So I've suggested that he make an appointment with me so we can sit down and talk in detail about notes--and I've made an agreement with him that if his notes improve, I'll give the same marks to his earlier summaries that I give to the notes that actually do what they're supposed to do.

He was one of two students to be upset about getting low marks on notes no matter how long they were--and both were summarizing. I know what I'm asking isn't easy. That's part of why I'm asking it.

In the "more good news" department (or perhaps the "be grateful for small favors" department), I did have just enough time between appointments to mark all the homework I'd collected from the SF class (prior to today's), so I could return that (whew), and to get all the various assignments from the 101s organized into "need immediate attention" and "can wait" stacks. I still need to make sure I have the handout I need for Monday already placed my wheelie pack, and I have a tsunami of work to try to paddle through over the weekend, but it's organized, which feels much better than having things strewn all over the map.

I just took a minute, too, to complete my record keeping of all the appointments. That feels good to have done. And now, I'm going to water the plants, put the needed handouts in my pack for Monday, and head off--while it's still light outside. My "evening supervisor" hours have been truncated (as I'm getting paid for fewer of them: this is the second time my hours have been reduced); I am sorry not to get the extra money, but getting to leave earlier is some compensation.