Fall semester: day forty
"Fall Break" is finally upon us, and with that comes a deceptively short list of work to do over my long(er) weekend. While I only have about six or seven things on that list that need to be done, two of them are full novels I have to read, and one of them is a full paper I have to write. I've mentioned these things before, so it's not like you or I should be surprised at this point. On the plus side, I don't have any planning to do for the classes I teach next week, and I don't have any grading to do. Aside from the occasional quiz here and there, I won't have any grading to do until after November 1st, when I collect my students' next papers -- though, admittedly, next weekend I will have a large number of workshop essays to read through. My organizational skills for the classes I teach could be a little better, to be honest. I'll have to tweak things a bit for the spring semester.
By the way, and I may have mentioned it here before (I can't remember), I'll still be teaching the same sections of Science/Engineering 102 next semester in the spring, on the same days, with the same times (Tuesday/Thursday mornings, 9:30 and 11). I am one of the few instructors who already has class listings on the schedule for the spring, more than likely because this is a specialized course I teach and I'm currently the only one who teaches the 102 version of it. The only problem is that I'll be teaching on the complete opposite side of campus from my office, which will necessitate a ten-minute-or-more walk to the building in the bitter, bitter cold of the first two months of the spring semester.
At least I'll have my leather jacket. Good thing I'm growing out my beard again, too.
The last few days, more than anything else, have been a total and complete blur. Sleep deprivation does that to a person. The cool temperatures in the morning (mid-40s) when I go to class, and the downright cold temperatures at night (supposed to drop into the mid-30s for the first time next week during the night and flirt with the freezing mark -- frost, baby) don't help much either, as most of the time when I'm coming/going it's either dark, cold, or both. When sleep-deprived, I get cold a lot faster and stay cold longer. It's like some sort of bodily reflex -- when I'm tired and it's even remotely chilly, I'll get chills and my teeth will chatter. I'm not looking forward to the cold, as you might have imagined -- I've had two months of nice, low electric bills, and really don't want to have to turn on the furnace any earlier than I have to, and see them spike again (since this house is all-electric, including the furnace).
On the plus side, as mentioned before, I have no more monetary obligations until the end of the month when the rent and cable bills come due again. With today's and my next paycheck on the 28th, I'll be able to roughly break even when it comes to the month's expenses, which can only be a good thing. It doesn't leave me much, but it leaves me enough to survive and sustain myself and the cats on. Part of being a single, poor graduate student, I suppose. I also don't have to go out and do any more shopping this weekend, for anything, though I will need to put gas in the car before I return to campus next week.
The car is doing remarkably well, as far as I can tell. The thermostat is still a little wonky at times, but it's kept the vast majority of its coolant in its tank this past ten days or so without dumping a lot or burning it off. I am almost completely sure now that's the reason I've been having those problems with the coolant. Last night on the drive home, it wasn't even running as roughly or loudly as I've been used to, which is also a plus. I mean, it runs loudly anyhow because, technically speaking, the Monte Carlo Z34 is a "sports car," and it has that classic Chevrolet rumble in its engine that gives muscle car aficionados erections, but it's been driving well and I can't complain about it, really. Not everyone can have a new or otherwise great car to drive. Mine's simply average/good, and I'm okay with that. It crossed the 218,000 mile mark on its odometer yesterday, so obviously it's got something good going for it.
I'm not sure if I mentioned it here before, but in other news, I took my book offline sometime last week so that I can make the edits/changes needed in it to ready the print version. Once the print version is completed, I may re-release a completely reformatted version of the book back onto Amazon's Kindle store, but that's going to take some time -- more time than I have right now, to be honest. Doing a massive overhaul of over 500 pages is a daunting task, so I don't expect the print version or any revised eBook version to be available before Christmas at the earliest -- and that's if I somehow fall ass-backwards into an unforeseen cache of free time. For those of you who bought the original version of the eBook (all, like, twelve of you), congratulations -- you got the "special edition" version of it.
As for the poetry book, it's still on schedule, and should be ready for its release on November 5. I've still got a lot of work to do on it, of course, some of which I'll be trying to accomplish this weekend between bouts of reading and other writing that needs to be taken care of. I will also not release it until I'm sure it's pure, perfect, and ready to be purchased and read. That also means, more than likely, that I'll have to get a "preview copy" of the print version for myself before I can announce its official release, in order to make sure everything in it gets a smooth, properly-formatted transfer to the printed page.
There are other "time sinks" I'm dealing with as well that aren't related to school or my writing; there are always things to clean and/or otherwise take care of around the house. I mentioned before that I have neglected the vacuuming for far too long, which is true. If I'm feeling particularly energetic at some point over the fall break, I may get around to doing that, as well as taking care of the laundry and doing some of the other stuff that I've put off doing around the house, such as putting the weatherstripping around the doors and windows, and cleaning off the back deck. There's always something else to do, that's for sure. At least I have a little bit of free time to write here today, and some time to sleep at night now. I can't tell you folks how nice it felt to sleep for nearly 11 hours last night and get up around noon today. I can't do that enough, and it's really destroying my energy and motivation to get anything of true value or importance accomplished.
Still, I must press onward, making myself better in some little way or another every day. Whatever works, I suppose -- onward and upward.
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