Last day before Thanksgiving Break (for me, anyhow)
I have a few little updates here and there about some things going on in my life that I mentioned before, some of them really important.
The first is that it was confirmed to me yesterday morning that I'll have at least three classes next semester again -- the administrator lady who plots out all of our courses and the rooms for them told me as much when I was in the office to check my mailbox yesterday.
"Your classes on main campus are downstairs in 109," she said. Classes; plural. "28 students so far."
"Awesome," I said, ecstatic. "I haven't taught here in [department building] since...my first semester teaching? Four years ago. Yeah. The very first class I ever taught was here, and then I never had another one here after that. Did I get the 102 class over on West campus too?"
"The morning one, Tuesday-Thursday?" she asked. "Yep."
"Even more awesome," I said. "I'll have to tell my 101s I teach over there now. I knew [West campus administrator] had requested that 102 on the same days/times my 101 class is being held over there now, and my 101s wanted to sign up for it if I was to be teaching it as well. Now I can confirm that to them."
So that's settled. Well, mostly. Nothing is ever set in stone until I have access to my rosters, of course, but I'm no longer nervous about knowing what I'll teach and (roughly) when I'll be doing it. Because I have 28 students so far on main campus for the spring, I know that it's two classes at least -- composition classes are capped at 25. What classes they'll be, I don't know -- could be two more 011 classes, two more 101 or 102 classes, or even two more 210 classes. Or a mix of any of those. They could be two-mornings-a-week classes, or they could be one-night-a-week classes. One or the other or both could be 8-week classes. It's really sort of up in the air until I know what they are, but it's unimportant overall -- I've taught all of them before and have lesson plans for all of them ready to go, with only (mostly) minor modifications necessary for dates and reading assignments.
I'll get more details, of course, as everything gets finalized and penciled in over the next few weeks. At this rate, I may know everything I need to know about next semester by Christmas or so, which would be great. It would give me more time to plot out everything I need, and more time to reconstruct my syllabi and lesson plans so that I'm not rushing through those in the middle of January.
Today is my last really long day of the semester until the last week of classes -- as you may recall, I've canceled my Monday and Tuesday classes next week so that a) I can go to Omaha for Thanksgiving, b) so that I can have time to grade the mountain of assignments I have to grade, and c) so that all of my students can have that week to finish up their final assignments unimpeded by the time constraints of the class schedule. My 011s have a final paper to do, one that I assigned on Monday. My 101s are in the middle of their final research papers, and we're workshopping them this morning. My 210s turn in their last big paper assignment tonight (some of them already have it done and turned in), but they're working over next week to turn that assignment into a 5-10 minute "pitch" for oral presentations. Meanwhile, I have a stack of each class's previous papers to finish grading, as well as rewrites, journals from my 011s and 101s (about 35 or so in all) and anything/everything else that needs to be wrapped up between now and December 2 -- the day classes resume after break.
My time spent in Omaha will be relatively short -- three or four days at most -- because of all of that grading and travel involved, plus Daisy's work schedule. The day before Thanksgiving, Daisy's mother has surgery on her other knee (she did the first one earlier this year), so Mama will more than likely not really be joining in on the holiday dinner festivities. Daisy's sisters won't be there either -- one of them is coming in the weekend after I leave (I think) and the other isn't coming in until Christmas. Both of them live several hours from Omaha. The oldest one is in Colorado.
"So it's just going to be three of us for Thanksgiving dinner?" I asked. "You, me, and Dad?"
"Pretty much," Daisy replied.
Daisy and I have our own plans for a lot of the time I'll be up there anyway -- we're having two different "official" engagement photography sessions done, one outside and one inside. It is from these, I think, that we're making out the official wedding invitations. She also wanted to go back to Dave & Buster's one night while we're there, as we have a lot of tickets saved on her game card from last time. And, well, it's fun. It is possible that there may be some Black Friday shopping involved as well, but that depends on how much time or energy we have -- Daisy has to return to work Saturday night regardless of what we do, and I have to be home by then (obviously) because I'll teach Monday morning as always. So it's going to be hectic and we're going to be running around a lot while I'm up there, with the downside of not really having a lot of money to spare (if any) for shopping and the like. I get paid tomorrow, but 90% of that paycheck goes to the rent, which I have to mail out before I leave town...along with any other bills that come in between now and then.
I may have mentioned before (I can't remember) that because my 210 students' projects are due tonight and because we're not having class next week, tonight we could do a "potluck Thanksgiving dinner" thing in class if they wanted to, to celebrate what is really -- aside from the oral presentations -- our last real night of class. They originally seemed lukewarm to the idea, which sort of disappointed me, until I realized that most of them don't have time to eat dinner before my class -- they come to it straight from other classes both on West and/or main campus, or directly from work. When I mentioned this, they seemed a bit more gung ho about it (go figure). So, as we were finalizing plans for it on Tuesday night, many of them offered to do some outlandish things. By the end of class, I found that I had this on my tally of stuff people were planning to bring:
- Home-baked chicken crescent roll-ups(!)
- Homemade cookies
- Homemade brownies
- Several pizzas from Little Caesar's(!!)
- Sodas/water/juice/etc
I was highly impressed, really. I told the students who planned to bring the pizzas and the chicken roll-ups that it wasn't necessary to do that much work or spend that much money or anything like that -- this was just something for fun that wasn't required at all for the class, but they insisted. Those two are also two of the best students in the class as well, and two of my older, non-traditional students. Go figure, right?
So yesterday, on my way home from teaching my 011 class on main campus, I stopped at Walmart. I had to stop there anyway; the cats needed litter and a new bag of food and I needed cigarettes, but I wanted to get supplies and/or foods for the "dinner" as well. I ended up getting enough plates, cups, and a roll of towels (for napkins) for the entire class so that nobody else would have to worry about that, and I got four big, 24-bar boxes of the good granola bars in different flavors (chocolate chip, oats & honey, banana, and blueberry) for everyone. I figured that I'd eat the leftovers of them myself and/or give some of them to Daisy, if they're vegan, so she could eat them at work. I sent out an email to the class telling them this so that they wouldn't go out and buy unnecessary plates, cups, and napkins, but also noted that I'd forgotten to get plastic silverware, which might be necessary for some of the stuff. It should be a good, relaxed class, and it'll also mean that I won't be ravenously hungry when I arrive home tonight.
However.
From the Weather Channel:
WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IS NOW IN EFFECT FROM 9 AM THIS MORNING TO 6 PM CST FRIDAY.
* TIMING... LIGHT RAIN IS EXPECTED TO CHANGE TO FREEZING DRIZZLE OR SLEET BY THIS AFTERNOON. THE PRECIPITATION MAY CHANGE TO LIGHT SNOW BEFORE ENDING FRIDAY.
* SLEET ACCUMULATIONS... ARE EXPECTED TO BE LESS THAN AN INCH.
* ICE ACCUMULATIONS... OF A TRACE ARE EXPECTED.
* IMPACTS... THE LIGHT WINTRY MIX WILL RESULT IN SLICK AND POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS TRAVEL CONDITIONS.
This, obviously, throws a wrench into tonight's plans for my evening class. That class doesn't start until 7:20. I've already had my morning students email me to ask if I'm going to cancel class, which made me laugh. We can't anyhow; it's workshop day. I can't cancel the night class because they're turning in their final projects and we're doing the food thing -- so, really, I'm sort of stuck here. There's not a whole lot I can do, and I sort of have to take my chances with the weather and hope my luck holds out. I doubt I'll be home before 9:30 or so, which is (apparently) going to be right as it starts getting really nasty.
The Monte Carlo is fine in snow, unless there's a foot of it on the ground. Ice and sleet is a different story altogether. I'm guessing my drive home tonight will be very slow and very careful, especially as for a lot of it I'm driving on back roads to get back to the interstate. Unlit back roads at that. I am not looking forward to it. It figures that for the last real "classes" I'm holding this semester, I'd have to deal with this. Basically when I get back from the break, I'm wrapping everything up in all of my classes, and will be tying everything together into a proverbial pretty little bow as those classes end and finals week begins.
In other news, I know nothing else about the loan stuff or the forbearance paperwork for it; my account balance, even though I'm now out of grace, still says "payment due: $0.00." I haven't gotten a bill for it in the mail yet; what I got last month was a statement. I haven't even gotten any emails that say "you have now exited grace" or anything like that. Nothing. That means I really can't do anything else yet. If I don't find something out one way or another before I leave for Omaha I have to make a choice -- send the forbearance paperwork again, via mail (since after today I no longer have access to a free fax machine), with updated dates and information, or see if there is any other way I can get my information dealt with and taken care of.
"You really should call them," Daisy told me earlier.
"I know that, and if I have no other option, I will -- but they really need to update my account balance and they really need to send me a bill so that if I do owe them something in December, I can have it on record and prove to them that hey, I qualify for forbearance."
I really don't have time to deal with it right now; for the moment, even if it's just for a few more days, I really have to wait and see what happens. I have too many other proverbial balls in the air that I'm juggling right now, balls that have to come down one by one so I can take care of them one by one. They can't expect me to make a payment if my account balance due says $0.00 and they haven't sent me my first bill. I mean, I'm not exactly super-intelligent with financial stuff, but I do know that, at least. If I have a bit of free time this afternoon in my office on West campus, I will look at the stuff again and see what I can find out, if anything. Today would be my last chance to be able to fax in another forbearance form from campus, if I need to. There are fax machines on West campus; I've seen them.
On that note, I have to get ready to leave the house. I must get gas in the car and head southward; hopefully my day will be a relatively painless one. Fare thee well, folks.
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