And did I mention my pseudo-boss can rot in hell?
Well, good news all around: I broke the mirror on the passenger side of the car, just a few days before I'm supposed to drive over the hills and through the woods to the in-laws house we go. I still have a stack of student response papers to grade, although I DID manage to plow through all of the first research essays (yay, me). Oh, yeah, and the student bookstore yanked all the copies of the last two books for my course and sent them back to the publisher WITHOUT TELLING ME! As a consequence, when I asked my students last Friday, "So, how's the reading going?" half of them said, "We can't find the books..."
And the best news of all is .. . wait for it ... I will NOT have a job adjuncting at my current big-box public university this Spring! I'd stopped by to ask pseudo-boss, the one who e-mailed me on the first day of the fall semester to offer me a section and then expected me to teach less than 48 hours later, two weeks ago to ask about possible adjunct positions for the Spring semester. He said that he'd be placing current TA's and (apparently) recently-graduated MA students in available classes, and THEN he would start fitting adjuncts into remaining classes. Sooo, the requisite two weeks go by, and he does not bother to e-mail me with either a job or a "sorry, I have nothing to offer" message. I finally hunt him down this AM (left my elephant shit gun at home, alas) and even though he sees me waiting in the office to talk with him, goes off to talk to another faculty member. Then, when he finally does come back, he looks at me as if he doesn't know my name and couldn't care less, and says, "Oh, that. We had to cut back by 35% and there are always fewer adjunct positions in the spring." No "I'm sorry I didn't respond to your e-mail" or "Thank you so much for filling in at the last minute, I'm going to reward your good service."
Ooooh, okay. It all makes sense now! I thought I was working in a meritocracy! Hahahahahahahaha.
I'm off to give my students the very best I can, given the fact that half of them don't have the book we were supposed to be halfway through by now. A nice, quiet reading of "Mirrorings," the essay which become _Autobiography of a Face_ should suffice. Hell, my cat seems to like it when I read to her -- it should be good enough for my students. We shall not speak of low morale, since it's not my students' fault that my pseudo-boss is a supershit of a human being.
Later today (right after my class),I am going to reward myself with a showing of Goblet of Fire and the biggest goddamned bag of popcorn The Bridge (Cinema Delux) has to offer. Maybe some therapeutic yarn shopping, too.
Ta!
And the best news of all is .. . wait for it ... I will NOT have a job adjuncting at my current big-box public university this Spring! I'd stopped by to ask pseudo-boss, the one who e-mailed me on the first day of the fall semester to offer me a section and then expected me to teach less than 48 hours later, two weeks ago to ask about possible adjunct positions for the Spring semester. He said that he'd be placing current TA's and (apparently) recently-graduated MA students in available classes, and THEN he would start fitting adjuncts into remaining classes. Sooo, the requisite two weeks go by, and he does not bother to e-mail me with either a job or a "sorry, I have nothing to offer" message. I finally hunt him down this AM (left my elephant shit gun at home, alas) and even though he sees me waiting in the office to talk with him, goes off to talk to another faculty member. Then, when he finally does come back, he looks at me as if he doesn't know my name and couldn't care less, and says, "Oh, that. We had to cut back by 35% and there are always fewer adjunct positions in the spring." No "I'm sorry I didn't respond to your e-mail" or "Thank you so much for filling in at the last minute, I'm going to reward your good service."
Ooooh, okay. It all makes sense now! I thought I was working in a meritocracy! Hahahahahahahaha.
I'm off to give my students the very best I can, given the fact that half of them don't have the book we were supposed to be halfway through by now. A nice, quiet reading of "Mirrorings," the essay which become _Autobiography of a Face_ should suffice. Hell, my cat seems to like it when I read to her -- it should be good enough for my students. We shall not speak of low morale, since it's not my students' fault that my pseudo-boss is a supershit of a human being.
Later today (right after my class),I am going to reward myself with a showing of Goblet of Fire and the biggest goddamned bag of popcorn The Bridge (Cinema Delux) has to offer. Maybe some therapeutic yarn shopping, too.
Ta!