I went to my meeting with the visiting writer this afternoon (more on that in a bit) and came home to this message:
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN WICHITA HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WATCH... WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM WEDNESDAY EVENING THROUGH THURSDAY MORNING.
* TIMING... THE WINTRY PRECIPITATION IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP LATE WEDNESDAY AND CONTINUE INTO THURSDAY MORNING.
* SNOW ACCUMULATIONS... OF 4 TO 9 INCHES WILL BE POSSIBLE IN CENTRAL KANSAS... WITH A TRACE UP TO AN INCH OR TWO IN THE SOUTH.
That's just an excerpt, of course, but you get the idea. It appears that Kansas is not out of the woods yet when it comes to winter.
I will also remind you, yet again, that it was 70 degrees outside yesterday. Yes. 70. Seventy. As in, warm and wonderful and my favorite weather ever.
I've heard varying reports about the weather -- what you see above is the official NWS bulletin. Some have said that they don't know if the storm is actually going to fully form this way; others have said that it could start as early as Wednesday morning. It's all up in the air, literally. What I do know is that Newton, the small town in which I live, will more than likely get more than Wichita proper will, as it's a little southeast of being dead-center of the state. And, obviously, that's a bad thing when on Thursdays I make a 50-mile round trip to teach my classes.
I've already decided that if it gets bad, I'm not risking the drive down there -- my car may be a massive landboat of a vehicle with big tires and a low center of gravity, but there's no way I'd drive to campus in a snowstorm/possible ice storm for a 50-mile round trip with the way Kansas people drive on the interstate when the weather is awful. This means that by Wednesday night, I've gotta make a decision to hold or cancel my Thursday classes.
I don't cancel classes needlessly. In fact, aside from days where I've specifically scheduled days off of my classes, I've canceled a class due to illness or other issues maybe three times over the entire course of my teaching career -- once last spring when the serpentine belt and belt tensioner blew on the Monte Carlo, once in the first fall I was a GTA when I was really sick, and once about two years ago when I was flying to a conference to present a paper in San Antonio. But really, that's it. While my teaching schedule is flexible, I try my best to avoid canceling classes because it usually throws my lesson plans into upheaval for a week or so afterwards. For example, if I have to cancel on Thursday, it means that my students will have to wait until Tuesday to give me their workshop copies for their first paper, and it will end up straddling the workshop over two separate weeks -- Thursday and the Tuesday after, with the paper being due a day and a half after the last workshop ends. That is far from ideal, but I do my best to keep the schedule as flexible as possible for issues like this. In the spring, anything weather-related can happen, from snow and ice storms to tornadoes that destroy towns. This is Kansas. This state is cray-cray (to borrow a term Daisy uses frequently). These sorts of issues don't generally pop up in the fall semester, where the first half of the semester is 80-95 degrees and the second half usually has maybe one or two dustings of snowy, cold days, if any. In Spring? Anything goes. It's open season. I've been forced to take shelter in the basement of my building twice because of tornado sirens during class hours, for example. Again, cray-cray.
What makes matters worse is that looking ahead, I may have to rearrange the workshop days for my students' second paper as well, as said days fall right around the time I'm scheduled to take my comps (in fact, April 4 is supposed to be their second workshop day, and I could be in comps all day that day depending on how they schedule me). It's a toss-up either way. Hopefully, however, I can redistribute the days nicely enough to make their second unit go smoothly, especially if I end up having to cancel class on Thursday. That'll push everything on the docket ahead by a day.
To a certain extent, it's exciting -- as collegiate instructors, "snow days" are few and far between. We've had two official ones, where the university canceled classes, since I've been a grad student -- both at the beginning of spring 2011...which was the last time we got a really significant snowfall that didn't melt off within 24 hours. We got about a little more than a foot or so then. Last winter, the temperature barely went below 30 degrees most of the time. While I'm fairly certain the university won't cancel classes for a few inches of snow, I still can. That freedom actually makes me feel like I have some sort of crazy superpower, even if it's a superpower I never use.
Anyway, so there's that. I'll be making a decision on Wednesday night before I go to bed, and will be emailing my students beforehand. I'll also tell them tomorrow to be watching for whether I cancel or not. It could, after all, all blow by us and not amount to anything, or as Parker says, "fizzle out."
Still, if it does roll in, I'm looking forward to an extra day of weekend and sleeping in until noon on Thursday if at all possible. It's a safety issue, really; no reason to risk my life and/or my students' lives by making them come to my class when it's awful outside.
So, in other news...
This morning I got up, showered, and dressed myself. It was (and still is) really windy, so I put on my thick leather biker jacket and fleece-lined pants, wearing my new glasses to campus so I could leave a spare pair there in my desk (my old pair broke, sadly, and I had to order replacements), and drove to campus. I got out of my car and started to make my walk to my office across the parking lot when I realized ow, my feet hurt. Why do my feet hurt so much?
I looked down and saw that, despite everything else, I'd worn my slippers to campus. In front of God and everybody. Dammit.
Luckily, they weren't my pink fuzzy slippers (yes, I do own a pair of pink fuzzy slippers), but a pair of new ones I'd gotten over the weekend when Daisy and I went out shopping. Respectable, new slippers, not old ratty ones. The fact remains, however, that I was absentminded enough to wear my slippers to school. There's something wrong with me, I'm sure of it.
My first meeting with the visiting writer went well; she had us introduce ourselves and talk a bit about who we've been reading, who we admire and "want to write like," and other general sorts of stuff like that. I set up my meeting time with her to be 1PM on Tuesdays, right after I finish teaching, so that I can blend said meetings with my office hours before I leave campus in the afternoon. That means I meet with her tomorrow. I've been instructed to bring 1-3 poems for her to examine as well as a poem that I'd like to learn how to memorize. Yes, memorize. Apparently that's a big thing for her and something that she'd like to teach us how to do. Okay. Fair enough. I can find something along those lines, I suppose. It'll be short, because I have enough on my mind and proverbial plate right now, but I can do that.
I did, by the way, come to campus this afternoon to a flurry of assorted folk (those of us who were there, anyhow) congratulating me on my engagement to Daisy, as well as several of them being very surprised that I was able to keep my proposal plans so secret for so long. I even had a congratulatory card in my mailbox from a dear friend, complete with glitter and everything. Most of my close(r) friends in the department have met Daisy at least once and really like her -- and even those who haven't met her not only want to, but totally support us and have offered their heartfelt congratulatory wishes, which means a lot to both of us. I tried to call my grandmother yesterday to tell her, but her line was busy. My mother said she'll call her to tell her later this week. I also got a lovely email from my aunt and uncle today to congratulate me, and both of us still have congratulations trickling in over Facebook for those who came to the party late, so to speak.
I told Daisy that I really just want to turn to a group of my gathered friends and scream "HOLY SHIT, I'M GETTING MARRIED! ME! BRANDON! SERIOUSLY!" or something to that effect. That's how happy I am, how excited I am. No, there's not a date, no, there aren't any plans yet, but still. I'm not sure the entire "life-changing situation" thing has totally sunk in yet. It's working its ways, though. I'm thrilled to be able to call Daisy mine for the rest of my life. This is just the first step of many.
Today one of my friends finally asked me the "So, when's she due?" question, by the way. I assured said friend that Daisy is not pregnant, but thanked her for being the first one to ask, since I'd been expecting that from someone, anyone, since the announcement of our engagement.
On that note, I'm going to get something to eat and go to bed early to catch up on some sleep -- since I had to get up early-ish this morning to go to campus, I didn't get to sleep in until after noon as I usually do on Mondays. That means that getting up at 5AM tomorrow is going to be a huge pain in the ass, but -- if this snowstorm hits as hard as is predicted -- it'll be the last day I have to get up early for a week. After sleeping strange hours with Daisy here this weekend, and all of the exciting things that happened involving Valentine's Day, our engagement, and the visit from Rae and Jay in the interim, an extended slumber in my bed sounds very, very nice right about now. Daisy is visiting one of her sisters today and tomorrow, so communication between us while she's out of town is sporadic at best (plus, while she's there, she won't be waiting on me or worrying about me if I'm not around tonight and tomorrow due to sleep and teaching).
I will, of course, update you on the weather situation (y'know, since this is a "part I" and all), especially because I'm really hoping Daisy gets back home to Omaha from her sister's place before it all sweeps in.
No comments:
Post a Comment