The Final Day

Today is the final day of winter break.

I say this with a bit of regret, of course. There are a lot of things I wanted to get done over this break that I never had the chance to do, forgot about completely, or was otherwise too lazy to become motivated enough to do them. This is a little disheartening to be sure, but in the end I got exactly what I wanted out of break -- a month with as little responsibility as possible. And oh, it was very nice.

The first few weeks of the semester usually aren't that bad, and during that time I can catch up on some of those things I neglected over break. I really need to get back into the swing of my writing -- usually I can produce the best stuff during the winter and spring because the competition levels are still high, but my workload is usually fairly low.

When I say "competition levels," I mean that being around my friends and colleagues once more makes me strive to do my absolute best in my writing, to step up my game. It's not exactly a competition in the sense that I must do better than anyone else, because I know that's not going to happen, and that's not what the program is about anyhow. It's more about keeping me on my toes and forcing me to continually produce good work. This is a challenge, and I see it as such. I enjoy it.

I've (now completely) finalized my schedule, and it is as such:

MON: Off
TUE: Teaching 9:30/11, office hours 12:30-3:30, Poetry Workshop 4:30-6:50
WED: Office hours 9-11, Writing Center 12-1, Editing 4:30-6:50
THUR: Teaching 9:30/11
FRI: Off

In the gaps between teaching, classes, and office hours, I'll have to find an hour per week in April to visit with the visiting poet for the semester, but other than that, there's my schedule for you. As I mentioned before, my Tuesdays and Thursdays this semester have been flipped compared to last semester. In the fall, on Tuesday I used to be able to teach and go home. Now it's like that on Thursday, which makes me able to start my weekend that much sooner. Also note that, as I said before, I have no night classes this semester. I'll be off campus by 7PM every night. This is good on many levels; the most important is that I'll be able to get more sleep.

As you can see, however, I start my semester tomorrow morning, teaching two classes right off the bat. I think I've done this every semester I've been in the program thus far, and don't really mind it that much. So, starting tomorrow morning and every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning until mid-May, I'll be getting up at 5AM, taking a shower, making coffee and drinking it as quickly as possible, and then driving in to campus to spend my day there. The pattern seems oddly familiar to me...perhaps it's because even though I have a different, lighter semester this spring, my actual in-and-out of the day tends to stay about the same.

As for the schedules of my friends and colleagues, I haven't a clue what they are. The vast majority of my friends in the department are in the same two actual classes with me -- the poetry workshop and the editing course -- but outside of that? Jay's been teaching online courses, so he's never around anymore, and a fair amount of the other guys and gals...well, they have lives outside of the department. Getting any friend time with Suri may be difficult as well, as she's in her last semester and technically doesn't have to be on campus except to teach and for office hours -- and she's teaching Monday/Wednesday this semester. I may suddenly find myself with a lot more free time and alone time in the department than I've ever had before.

In other news, I have been unable, despite my tries, to get my sleep schedule back to normal for the spring semester. I woke up yesterday at 5:10 PM. Yes, PM. In a last-ditch effort to right myself and reset my body clock, my goal is to stay up as long as possible today into the evening without sleeping, and then crash sometime after dark. If I can do this, I will sleep all night and awaken in the morning when my alarm goes off -- refreshed and (hopefully) with a reset circadian rhythm. While it's easy to throw off my sleep patterns, when I worked night shift in a grocery store for three years I also trained my body to be able to reset them just as easily most of the time. Especially when I have to, when responsibility is involved.

In the overnight hours, I did productive things. Or, at least, interesting things. To stave off boredom (and because I'd been putting it off for a few days), at 3AM I finally made my big shopping trip to Walmart before the semester starts. My receipt is a full eighteen inches long, and the trip cost me almost as much as my six months' worth of car insurance did last month. However, I came home with a LOT of stuff I needed but had been putting off buying, such as shampoo and body wash, meat, cleaning supplies, new underwear, vegetables and other ingredients for healthy cooking, some long-sleeved thermal shirts for when it gets really cold over the winter, cat food/litter, and assorted other essentials. This means I shouldn't have to return to Walmart for anything but incidentals for the next few weeks, which is good -- the weather's bound to get bad soon enough, and I'm bound to get fairly busy in schoolwork as the weeks progress as well. It's nice to have a somewhat decent stockpile of some food and other necessities around the house in case I get snowed in or something along those lines, too.

No worries about that today, though -- right now it's 55 outside. It's barely supposed to be above freezing tomorrow, though. As I told Andrea this morning, of course it would wait until I have to go back out in it every day before the temperature drops like crazy and stays there. Typical, really.

Yes, I know, first world problems.

I have loaded my messenger bag with most of the things I'll need for this week; the rest will have to be brought in on Wednesday/Thursday. At the Dollar Tree I picked up a new calendar -- no, it's not Van Gogh art, as I had for 2011...I had to go back to my old standby of muscle cars, because it was either that, kittens, horses, or lighthouses. At least muscle cars won't necessarily have people in the department questioning my sexual orientation when they see them hanging on the wall above my desk. It's already questionable enough that I wear lots of tie-dye, live alone and own three cats, and meticulously style/condition my hair. No reason to give them any more rumor fodder.

The one thing that I really, really regret that I didn't do over break is my taxes. I have all the info for them, even -- I just haven't sat down with them to do the actual calculations and dry runs to make sure everything will even out and give me a good refund. That may be a Thursday afternoon thing once I get home from class. I want to get them done ASAP so that I can get my refund processed ASAP, as you probably already gathered.

In an hour or two I shall go to bed. I think I have everything taken care of for tomorrow. What isn't is beyond my control or otherwise out of my scope of thought. I've racked my brain trying to get every little thing finished and ready, but I'm sure there's something I'll forget as I am sleep-deprived right now and/or have been otherwise mentally scattered. So, here's to the new semester -- may it be less painful than the last.