Wee-Hawken!

To quote Churchy LaFemme from the Pogo comic strip: "wee-hawken" was his exclamation of choice whenever something was startling or alarming (such as the realization that Friday the 13th is on a Saturday this month).

One course remains unassigned; even though it's got good enrollment, we may have to cancel it, if we can't find someone to teach it. A smallish handful of classes belonging to FT faculty are right on the cusp of having sufficient enrollment to run. Both my worrisome courses have just crossed over the threshold: if the counts hold until tomorrow, I'll be off to the races--and running around like my hair is on fire, trying to get ready for the start of classes next week.

Christ, this break really was not not not long enough. Not. Not long enough. Not.

Cathy and I very nearly had the blind staggers by the time we got everything straightened out and nailed down. I am quite certain that the department's adjunct union rep will find some reason to threaten us with a grievance, either on her own behalf or on someone else's, but we'll burn that bridge as we cross it.

I just graded the first version of an essay submitted by a lovely student who got an incomplete in 101. It felt oddly normal to be back in grading mode. I wonder how long I'd have to go without grading an essay before doing so started to feel at all unusual. Decades, maybe?


Back to the "hair on fire" thing, I know it is relatively early tonight, so I probably "should" do some work on my classes, but I expended so much energy keeping track of the domino chains for the adjunct scheduling (and fixing FT faculty schedules that were in trouble) that I am afraid any work I tried to do tonight would have to be done over tomorrow anyway.

Tomorrow, Cathy and I will spend some time reassigning the courses that people throw back into the pool as unwanted. Other than that, I should be able to start clearing the decks up here in the office: making sure I have copies of whatever handouts I'm going to need for the face-to-face classes, checking what's up on Blackboard, scheduling a Library class for the 101, that sort of thing.

But for tonight, I think retreat is in order. An organized rout is what it feels like. The best news of the day (other than that we figured everything out as well as we can) is that I didn't accidentally erase all my work from Sunday when I was copying things onto USB drives. I have it; I just have to make sure it's proliferated everywhere it belongs (home computer, work computer, Blackboard, various USB drives). But the fact that I actually have it is quite a relief. (That was a lovely little moment of panic, when I thought I might have lost it all.)

And with that, my faithful readers, I am blindly staggering out the door.