Progress has been made

Despite my lack of sleep and thanks in no small part to the fact that today's P&B meeting was canceled, I not only got everything marked for the 101 class, I got all the reading notes marked and back to the students in SF--and I just went through last week's discussion board posts from the Nature in Lit students. (I haven't given them grades yet, but at least I provided comments.)

That was feeling pretty good--until I realized that I have two sets of essays to grade (the second essay for both lit electives) plus a batch of revisions from the SF students.

The fun just doesn't quit until the semester ends, does it.

I also was--I admit somewhat shame-faced--delighted that a dinner tonight with Paul and Cathy was also canceled. I was simply not in the mood to be social. I think I'm having a slightly delayed difficulty with re-entry after my weekend upstate; I was fine Sunday night, but last night, oof--and today I was carrying last night's existential malaise with me. Just as well to avoid a situation in which it would behoove me to be pleasant.

Class today was fine; they weren't on top form, but they still were doing well, and they're still a grand bunch to work with. They're all sort of imploding over essay due dates and requirements (as in "forgetting" or not checking Turnitin uploads, not turning in required hard copies until ridiculously late), but ... enh. I'm not inclined to fight 'em too hard about it.

I did get the final essay assignment cleaned up a bit and copied to give to them on Thursday. Part of me hopes that there is some kind of miracle tomorrow, so I can get a whack of work done in Advisement, but I know that's a pretty forlorn hope. It's not the kind of mad scene we can get between fall and spring, when students know they don't have much time to register, but it's still a pretty steady stream of students, wanting everything from "I need you to do my schedule for me" (um, no; we don't do that--but I can make recommendations for which courses to take and show you how to make your schedule) to "I don't know what I want to do with my life" (which makes it a bit difficult to know what courses to suggest). I think enough of them have had the experience--or have heard from others who have--of not being able to put together a decent schedule because classes are filled to the cap or canceling for lack of enrollment, so more of them are taking the whole "register for fall in the spring" thing a bit more seriously than used to be the case. That's great for the students, and I'm glad to see it--but, well, selfishly, of course, I want the time to grade.

I also have some P&B stuff I have to crank out soon, but, well, I'll figure out when to do that later.

Now, while there is still some light in the sky, I am going to toddle off into the evening, secure in the knowledge that tomorrow will be yet another in a long series of days--which I hope continues for a long time into the future.