Monday, January 08, 2007

After Sloth Comes Productivity

Ok, so after all of my bitching and moaning, today ended up to be a good day and a good start (I think) to the spring semester. Not only did my class go fine (though how couldn't it, given the fact that it was just the hand-out-the-syllabus-and-introduce-myself-and-the-class day) but also I got a TON accomplished, including:

  • I completed a less brief CFP for the MLA panel that I'm organizing for next MLA
  • I updated my website (though of course, this is a work in progress, and I'm not entirely done with the page for my upper-level course).
  • I got my blackboard discussion board ready to go with prompts.
  • I got nearly all of my assignments for the entire semester ready to go and gave them to the administrative assistants to be copied. (Aside: when I first began this job, I was appalled that one might not do her own copying. I think this is a result of all of the temping that I did throughout my 20s. Also, I couldn't imagine having stuff done ahead of time so that others might copy it. Now? Hell yes I'm going to have my copying done for me if at all possible. Why not? Why be a martyr to the copier when others are not?)
  • I revised an opening-day lecture for my upper-level class. (No need to do such plotting and planning for my Intro to Lit course, as the first day is all about me making them tell me what they think "literature" is and then having a discussion about why we've got to interrogate those ideas. Note: literature is not "anything anybody thinks is literature," nor does it only include "old-fashioned" texts, like those written by Shakespeare. I always open Intro to Lit in the same way, so I no longer even have notes for what I do in there. I am so happy finally to be at that point in some of my classes.)
  • I sent an email that I'd needed to send for about a week.
  • I had nice, collegial chats with a couple of colleagues.
  • I met with a student.
  • I sent out an email about Notoriously Difficult Book Reading Group to the interested students. Still no replies. Heh.
  • I took a nap.
You will notice, I did NOT go to the gym. Or, rather, I went to the parking lot of the gym, realized I didn't know where my membership card had gotten to (it wasn't in the usual pocket of my gym bag) and so I took this as a sign that I should go home, have a cup of tea, and take a nap. I found the card buried in my bag upon arriving home. Will try to get to the gym tomorrow.

In other news, there is no other news. I've got to figure out what I'm going to wear tomorrow, and then I think I'm going to watch some TV. After that, I will read, and then I will go to sleep. Ah yes, everything is better when I've got a routine to guide me.

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