Thursday, September 18, 2008

Interstitial posting

As in, I'm posting in the interstices of a crammed-full day. Tuesdays and Thursdays are a bit insane this semester. For example, today's schedule:

7:10 am: Leave house with children in tow, cup of coffee in hand, and breakfast in tupperware for in-car consumption.
7:33 am: Drop Older Daughter off in circle outside school.
7:55 am: Drop Younger Daughter off at playground at her school.
8:15 am: Arrive on campus.
8:15-8:55 am: Madly prepare for class. Finally convince our new software program to give up the updated and (we hope) accurate class rolls.
9-10:15 am: Attempt to educate students as to the nifty and rule-governed nature of the tense/mood/aspect system of English verbs.
10:15-10:30 am: Pee. Try to buy a sandwich for lunch and realize the line is too long. Check email veryvery quickly.
10:30-11:45 am: See 9-10:15. Am still not sure about the success of this venture.
11:45-11:58 am: Wait in Library Plaza for appointment with man who never shows up.
12:00 pm: Get to office to find students waiting; also waiting is a message from the man who never showed up asking where I am. WTF?
12:00-1:00 pm: Continue to attempt to convince students in office hours that the TMA system of English is in fact not at all arbitrary (see "rule-governed" above), and that exploring the nature of verbs is one of life's really good things. Also try to neatly eat sandwich while explaining the aforementioned contention.
1:00-2:15 pm: Discuss gendered linguistic behavior. Turns out, women don't talk more than men. But they are more polite.
2:30-3:00 pm: Have wonderful meeting with independent study student who is enthusiastic and intelligent. Remember why I enjoy independent studies.
3:00 pm: Reschedule meeting with The Man Who Never Showed Up.
3:10 pm: Inhale cookie. Wonder if the day will ever end.

Note: I will be leaving campus in 20 minutes (5 now), picking up one daughter at school and conveying her to her piano lesson, after which I will do my best to make the 35 minute round-trip drive to the other daughter's school in 30 minutes so that she can have her piano lesson, too. And I'm supposed to get grading done when in all of this?

Meanwhile, I did get some spinning finished last night (I know, I should have been grading). In fact, the singles of the Jacob are now all done, and I might just ply them tonight. I might just ply them in spite of the very intelligent and thoughtful suggestion that a great way to match this yarn to whatever I'm going to make with the black Merino would be to spin the Merino, compare the singles of the two yarns, and then decide whether a 3 or 2-ply would make these two match better. (Thanks, Willow!)(I'm not sure whether I'm conveying that correctly, but trust me, I understand what she said in her comment, and it's a very logical way to go about making two yarns match.)

However, doing it that way assumes that when I say "I'll see whether this yarn matches what I spin with the Merino" it means that I'm going to actually think ahead and analyze my fibrous data. What I tend to do instead is to madly spin things, wildly hoping the whole time that something worth anything will come off of my wheel, planning all kinds of sympathetic magic to make it happen, and then dance around the house, cackling maniacally when things turn out the way I'd hoped (or frankly, even when they don't; maniacal cackling is useful in all kinds of situations).

In case you were going to suggest that I check my medication, or even get some medication to check, I'd like to point out that my doctor is unlikely to prescribe anything for maniacal cackling. This is, after all, the woman who, when I went to her one semester tired out of my mind and demanded that she do something to help me, like prescribe some cocaine (I've heard it's great for fatigue), suggested that I get some more sleep. Huh. More sleep. Imagine.

So, that's my life. We're heading out of town this weekend to go home for my brother's wedding. He and his partner are flying out here to California to get married, and the girls are ring-bearers. Must go home and pack. I'll try to have more fiber-related content next time, I promise, and maybe even a picture or two.

18 comments:

Bea said...

Wow. Your day is crammed full.

Mary Lou said...

My husband is a brusque no nonsense speaker who works in a female dominated field (Montessori primary) and has many frustrating experiences. I'd be interested in a reference for the 'more polite'!

Anne said...

You get time to pee? What am I doing wrong?

Willow said...

Maniacal giggling from here! I love reading what you write! I just read it out loud to Kiti!

My short three hours in 1st grade don't include time for coffee, water or pee breaks. You have my sumpathy; I can empathize.

Anonymous said...

oh my,,, poor you! I wonder, when did you manage to write this post with the schedule,,,,

Sleep some more,,,, hahahhaa,,,,

I am sorry, I didn't mean to be rude.

Good Luck!

Oh and next time you prepare the breakfast box, add in there something for lunch, this will save the sandwich hunting time!

Marianne said...

My head is spinning, thank you :^)

'the guy who never shows up' is his name Mr.Asshat?

Nana Sadie said...

There's much to be said for maniacal cackling - I do it all the time - and when did you manage to buy the sandwich you consumed delicately, neatly, if the line was too long when you went to get it?
Why is it that no one today wants to follow grammar's perfectly logical rules? *wink*
lolol
Have a GREAT WEEKEND!!!
(((hugs)))

Anonymous said...

I've had weeks like that . . . Only with me it that metric conversions are meaningful and useful instead of verbs. Still, I've had weeks like that.

Hang in, spin, and ignore the grading ;-) I am waiting for the elves to come do mine this weekend . . .

Hope your brother's wedding is wonderful!
Sarah

Anonymous said...

Your doctor prescribed more sleep? It's as if that medical degree was completely wasted.

Maniacal cackling is always fun, if not always appropriate. :)

Your day sounds insane! I'm glad that's not my schedule. Have fun at the wedding this weekend!

Alwen said...

Now I remember why I transferred out of English and into horticulture.

And even more, why I like janitorial work. :)

the boogeyman's wife said...

what a whirlwind. enjoy your brother's wedding!

Anonymous said...

"Maniacal cackling is useful in all kinds of situations" - my new motto.

Anonymous said...

How wonderful that your brother and his partner have your state to land in and be wed. How awful that he can't do that everywhere in our country. But you knew that already. I hope it is wonderful.

As for the yarn analysis - perhaps you have enough analysis going on in other parts of your life that you may want to just spin madly in this part? It is good to be balanced in the analytical vs intuitive sides, and you sure are getting a does of analytical at school.

Anonymous said...

Rush Rush Rush!

Fall is not a quiet time, is it?

I like your doctor. She's right. Much better to look at the root cause, then throw prescriptions at you. (unless you have TB, in which case I'm throwing prescriptions at you and watching you take the pills)

Have a wonderful wedding! (your brother's)

EGunn said...

Oh, the signs of fall...leaves turn colors, professors become a little more harried. It's only right that the grading pile should look like the leaf pile...spin away!

Rachael said...

Congrats to your brother! I hope you had a good weekend and are functional today, after hour driving/wedding weekend I am tired but not screwing things up too badly, I think.

Hooray for maintaining sanity!

Stell said...

wow - some times I thank those feminists before me who swore that women could do/be anything, often all at the same time ... they knew not what they asked, other times I knit, and spin and parent and cook and clean (no not clean) - and wonder if I would be truly happy if that was the content of my day.

Methinks that costing workshops or pattern-making for production are my equivalent of grammar ... confusing yet essential, and difficult to comunicate without the class loosing enthusiasm.

I hope not all the days are like that - and that is why we spin and knit ... truly it is.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm....been there, done that, right down the hallway in fact! You have my complete sympathy. Also loved the post about the first dance. Yes, I'm just catching up on my reading!