The Beginning

Countdown to fall semester: four days
Orientation day




In case you didn't know, the above is the full version of the song used as the opening theme for Community. It also sums up my thoughts pretty well right now.


My alarm, set for 5AM, went off no less than three times this morning. I finally trudged upstairs at exactly 5:36.


I did not sleep well. Those of you who know me well know that I have trouble sleeping when I have to force myself to go to bed at a certain time, or wake up at a certain time. Usually, the first few weeks of any given semester is really rough on my body, mind, and sleep cycles because of this. As today was the first day where I've actually had to get up in the morning since, well, May, it was not easy.

I am writing this at 7:12 PM. I have been awake almost fourteen hours, and in those fourteen hours a lot has transpired. Let's go through it all.

I left the house around 7:20 or so this morning. By then, I was at least somewhat mobile and functional, and my motor skills (pun intended) were alert enough to drive to campus. Because half of the campus parking lot is closed off due to renovations and construction around the football stadium -- don't ask me why, as Flat State University hasn't had a football team since 1987 -- I knew I had to get there early to secure a parking spot even if the number of people on campus were few. The Monte Carlo sallied forth like a champ; she loves the cool mornings, and especially loves morning driving, and I got to school around 7:45 or so, even with morning traffic.

Even though our orientation meeting was scheduled for 9, not many people showed up in or around the department until around 8:45. The meeting itself didn't even start until 9:30, but got underway quickly once it did. As per the usual, we did the "around the room, let's introduce ourselves" bit, too. There are a lot of new recruits this year -- adding to the thirty or so of us GTAs who are returning in our second and third years, the department has become pretty crowded and packed to the brim with prospective talent. Most of our new recruits seem pretty affable, at least those I met, anyhow. I've only met five or six of the new ones thus far, and barely at that. All -- or nearly all, anyway -- of the women in the new group smoke, as well, which should help me to get to know them better, at least, as in my free time I'm always outside with a cigarette hanging from my lips. Most other smokers in the department either quit or graduated, and the new ladies will be a welcome addition to our small group of nicotine addicts.

We have a new officemate as well; he seems pretty cool thus far. I added him on Facebook tonight. This also means that all three of us in the office once more have beards, so we can reclaim the mantle of "The Beard Patrol," which we were once labeled when my officemate and I were first-years.

There have been some small but important updates to department policies in the between-semesters' time, the most drastic one being that we are no longer allowed to print out our work in the department, but must do it somewhere else. We're still allowed to print stuff for our students, but not our own work or anything extraneous. I couldn't tell you why, mainly because I had to go pee during that part of the lecture (sorry folks; I would've pissed my pants had I been forced to hold it in any longer). Still, that doesn't change the facts of it, and it means that this weekend or next, I will have to do some printer-shopping, even if I end up getting a $40 printer from Walmart that will last for a few months and then die on me. I print way too many papers and the like every semester to have to deal with going to the library or somewhere else and end up paying 7 cents per page. One of the best things about being a faculty member in the department is that we had free printing, and now we won't even have that.

The meeting split up for an intermission around 11:15 or so, and we met at noon with our respective "syllabus groups," which is a shorter way of saying "our respective bosses who run whatever classes we're teaching." Since I teach 102, even if it is the Science/Engineering 102, I meet with the 102 group. I'm sort of the odd man out there -- I'm the only one of them who teaches a class so drastically different than the normal 102. I'm not really required to meet with them, to be honest (at least not anymore; I checked), but sometimes I can give them a different bit of insight on a particular problem, as well as get some good tips from them on any issues that may come up in my own class. Therefore, I will sort of attend those meetings and practicum sessions off and on at my own discretion if I choose to, or if I'm around when they're being held, but I'm not exactly required to do so. Like I said, it's weird for me since I'm the only one teaching the Science/Engineering 102.

After the hour-long syllabus groups meeting, we returned to the Writing Center for a brief discussion on the Writing Center itself and what it does/what we do in there -- a session meant more for the new recruits than anyone else, really. Those of us who are returning, obviously, know the drill at this point -- we work in the Writing Center one hour per week, it counts as one of our office hours, and it's required. My hour this semester is Wednesday from 1-2, which was (I believe) the same hour I worked last semester. It's just the easiest time for me to do it, really. I've got my office hours all on Wednesday in one big block of time from 8AM to 1PM. I didn't necessarily want to do that, but Wednesday is my longest day of the week anyway, and if I didn't do it then, I would be forced to come in early on Monday or stay after I'm done teaching on Tuesday or Thursday, neither of which I want to do, honestly. I set up the rest of my schedule this semester specifically so that I could go home when I was done teaching at 12:15 on Tuesday and Thursday, spending as little time on campus as possible.

Anyway, I'm getting off-track.

After the Writing Center briefing, we were dismissed and wished well for the weekend ahead of us. A fair amount of us teach on Monday/Wednesday schedules, and the rest of us tend to have classes on those days, so most -- if not all -- of us will be back on Monday whether we like it or not. I'm not immune to that, either; I have my first class on Monday afternoon, and I have to get my students' syllabi and first unit timeframes printed and copied before I teach my first class on Tuesday morning. I doubt I'll be on campus bright and early, but I'll be there before or around noon, most likely.

Shortly afterwards, I went home; I'd accomplished everything I'd gone to campus to do today, and orientation had officially ended. The group disbanded and we went about our lives. Upon returning home, I made some dinner, folded laundry and changed the bedsheets/blankets (as I tend to do every week or two) and dozed off on the couch once or twice for a few short periods while watching football before getting up and returning to the computer -- where, as you can see, I now remain.

There's a lot I have to do this weekend, to be honest with you folks. It may be my last weekend of freedom, but that also means that everything I need to take care of must be taken care of now while I actually have time to do it. I have to make out the rosters for my classes, for example, and email them with some information about the course and its required texts (for some reason, the sections I teach never list the 102 workbook as a required text on the bookstore's website, which is strange). I will also be putting together the couch when it arrives tomorrow, and will be rearranging the living room to accommodate said couch. When I wake up in the morning, I also plan to make a run to the discount grocery store to stock up on Powerbars and other groceries for the next several weeks, getting things that I can only get there, amongst other little things I must take care of, such as getting phone minutes and checking in with Lady, who is visiting her aunt in Virginia Beach right now before she makes her trip back out here for school next week.

I am cautiously optimistic for the semester to officially begin; as I told Daisy, I don't know how well I'll get along with all of the newbies, but if they're half as interesting as all of us are, it should create an interesting group dynamic. I'm looking forward to that, at least, as much as social interaction beguiles me most of the time. Truth be told, I'll be on campus less this semester (well, except for Wednesdays) than I've ever spent there during any semester as a graduate student, and in the spring I'll be there but two days a week, just for teaching and then going home, as I ready myself for comps and make final, absolute edits of my thesis.

As an aside, I did learn that for those of us graduating in the spring, there is supposed to be an "early draft" date that we're supposed to have it done and copies given to our thesis advisors sometime this month, but this isn't as much a rule as it is an, and I quote, "eh, who cares" sort of situation. Nobody else graduating in my class has finished their theses, and some/most haven't even started them yet. From what I gathered, as long as they're done around February or March at some point, and given to the readers/advisors then, it doesn't really matter. This is definitely somewhat comforting, but as mine's done (or at least a draft of it is), I'll probably print out a copy somewhere, whether that be at home or elsewhere, over the next few weeks to see if I can get as much of the "grunt work" done for it as soon as possible. I know between now and spring that it will go through more massive edits and additions here and there anyhow, so at the moment it's not worth fussing over.

Coming up soon, once it arrives: a photo-filled post of the couch and its assembly process, hopefully. But for now, folks? Bed. Like, seriously. Bed.