A Post Not About Orals
It is late, but though I am yawning I am not actually sleepy. Tish has work to do and I don't have anywhere I have to be first thing in the morning. I am full of good food and good conversation and still have a slight buzz from the wine we shared at dinner. Clearly it is time for me to write an lj post about bits of my life other than what I have been reading lately.
I have taken to remarking that I have too much life in my life lately, which is not a problem generally speaking except for the moments when I am seized with panic about the amount of stuff I am attempting to pack into any given bit of temporal space. Today was booked solid from 9am to 11pm. Tomorrow is a bit saner, Wednesday looks about the same. Thursday I work for eight hours and then fly to Chicago for the weekend to spend time with Tish's family. Tomorrow I need to read both some more Derek Walcott and a significant chunk of Benjamin in order to be on top of what I said I would be on top of for my weekly meeting with annenotshirley. I am actually quite cheerful about all of this. That might just be the wine talking, but I don't think so. I've always known that I like being busy, it's only when I feel hopelessly behind that the busyness actually freaks me out. At this point I am organized for the first week of teaching as well--course packet sent to copy center, course calendar and syllabus not only ready but printed and stapled and sitting in my campus mailbox to be distributed to my new batch of Freshman a week from tomorrow. I find that I am eager to meet my new students, see what I have in the mix this time around and test out new materials and ideas and ways of running my classroom on them. One of the best things about teaching English is that even when I return to teaching material I've covered several times before a new group of students will always help to make the texts new for me again. This will be my sixth semester of teaching, and by now I have a much better sense of how to pace a class and build a semester than I did two years ago.
While the beginning of the semester will, I think, help me settle down into a more regular work schedule I'm also deeply appreciating much of the extra-curricular stuff that is filling my time in these last few weeks. I have been, for most of the summer, in rehearsals for a dance piece that will be performed in early October. It's been a bit of a stop-and-go process but I'm more excited about what I'm dancing than I have been in a long, long time, and the piece is finally getting to a point where I begin to see the shape of it and of what I'm doing in it. Finding the time for the work is challenging but I know I'm growing as a dancer and that is the most satisfying thing. This weekend integreillumine came to visit. We haven't been face to face in six years but the connection is as true as ever and seeing her made me deeply happy for all the right reasons. I got to see hawver and bloodstones married on Saturday, and their happiness and joy in each other is inspiring to behold. Tish and I spent this evening with beah and mrf_arch celebrating a new kitchen, a new job, and our engagement. My cheeks are noticeably tired from smiling.
And like that, I am out of things to say. The cats have stopped romping. The yawns are becoming more serious. Time to curl up with some piece of reading NOT for orals and then drift off to sleep.
I have taken to remarking that I have too much life in my life lately, which is not a problem generally speaking except for the moments when I am seized with panic about the amount of stuff I am attempting to pack into any given bit of temporal space. Today was booked solid from 9am to 11pm. Tomorrow is a bit saner, Wednesday looks about the same. Thursday I work for eight hours and then fly to Chicago for the weekend to spend time with Tish's family. Tomorrow I need to read both some more Derek Walcott and a significant chunk of Benjamin in order to be on top of what I said I would be on top of for my weekly meeting with annenotshirley. I am actually quite cheerful about all of this. That might just be the wine talking, but I don't think so. I've always known that I like being busy, it's only when I feel hopelessly behind that the busyness actually freaks me out. At this point I am organized for the first week of teaching as well--course packet sent to copy center, course calendar and syllabus not only ready but printed and stapled and sitting in my campus mailbox to be distributed to my new batch of Freshman a week from tomorrow. I find that I am eager to meet my new students, see what I have in the mix this time around and test out new materials and ideas and ways of running my classroom on them. One of the best things about teaching English is that even when I return to teaching material I've covered several times before a new group of students will always help to make the texts new for me again. This will be my sixth semester of teaching, and by now I have a much better sense of how to pace a class and build a semester than I did two years ago.
While the beginning of the semester will, I think, help me settle down into a more regular work schedule I'm also deeply appreciating much of the extra-curricular stuff that is filling my time in these last few weeks. I have been, for most of the summer, in rehearsals for a dance piece that will be performed in early October. It's been a bit of a stop-and-go process but I'm more excited about what I'm dancing than I have been in a long, long time, and the piece is finally getting to a point where I begin to see the shape of it and of what I'm doing in it. Finding the time for the work is challenging but I know I'm growing as a dancer and that is the most satisfying thing. This weekend integreillumine came to visit. We haven't been face to face in six years but the connection is as true as ever and seeing her made me deeply happy for all the right reasons. I got to see hawver and bloodstones married on Saturday, and their happiness and joy in each other is inspiring to behold. Tish and I spent this evening with beah and mrf_arch celebrating a new kitchen, a new job, and our engagement. My cheeks are noticeably tired from smiling.
And like that, I am out of things to say. The cats have stopped romping. The yawns are becoming more serious. Time to curl up with some piece of reading NOT for orals and then drift off to sleep.