Spring semester: day seventy-two
As the semester winds down and comes to a close, my work levels tend to ebb and flow heavily based on any given day. Sometimes I'm really busy and crazily overwhelmed with stuff to do, other times I'm not. Today is Wednesday -- my day off -- and I have two late workshop copies to look through and a few student emails to reply to as well as a reminder announcement to post for my students, but my schedule is otherwise relatively free. I need to spend most of the day, in fact, cleaning up the house and taking care of various chores that I've let fall to the wayside over the course of the past two or three weeks. It's supposed to be cooler today with a lot of rain and possible thunderstorms, and then tomorrow (and, apparently, Friday now) we're supposed to get "Winter Storm Achilles" which is so named because they've gone through the 26 letters of the alphabet already and they had to start over again. There's not supposed to be any measurable snow for this area, mainly because it's been 85 degrees and hot for the past two days (driving home yesterday afternoon was sort of brutal in a black car with black leather interior) and the ground's not frozen, but it's possible the area could see some snow/sleet/ice over the course of the next 48 hours or so.
Parker, who is supremely excited about this, started another "donut bet" with me, taking the high end again of 0.5 to 1 inch of snow accumulation at the Wichita airport. This is totally not going to happen, and we both know it; I'm pretty sure he just wants to buy donuts and bring them in again before the semester is over, and wants a valid excuse to do so. If, however, by some freak of nature's wrath that Wichita does get that snow, I'll be more than happy to appease the donut gods myself -- especially as it will be a record. Wichita, in all its existence, has no snow totals for May because it's never fucking happened before. If it snows a measurable amount, however, I'll be happy to buy the donuts, especially if said snowfall is a harbinger of a much cooler, more mild summer instead of the 110-112 degree days we've seen for the past two years over the summer months here.
Daisy is not so lucky, by the way -- in Omaha, the Weather Channel has predicted a possible 3-5 inches of snow, depending on how the storm tracks. No, that's not a joke. I just watched the weather forecast this morning. Daisy also goes back to work tomorrow night for her normal overnight shifts. On the plus side, she has relatively new tires on her car (she got them shortly after we got together) and just had an oil change done on Monday.
I got gas in my car yesterday morning, and all day yesterday, back and forth she ran really, really well and happily. The Low Coolant light will occasionally kick on and off, but I'm almost certain that has to be a sensor going out -- until I got the car worked on and had the system flushed in September, the light was almost always on, no matter how much coolant the car had in it. It also no longer leaks coolant, as they replaced the seal that was leaky before -- so anything that it's losing, it's slowly burning off and/or evaporating. That'll happen; the car is old, and as mechanically sound as its engine is most of the time, it's old and beaten down. I don't think it really needs it, as I just put some into it like three weeks ago, but I plan to put more coolant into it over the weekend anyway just to be safe, as she's running a little hotter (but still fine and within expected parameters) than usual because of the spike in temperatures over the course of the past few days. Shouldn't have to worry about her heating up tomorrow morning when it's only going to be in the 40s.
I don't yet know what's going on for the City-wide Garage Sale on Saturday -- it's supposed to be chilly and windy, which may scare away some of my friends who originally thought they'd be gung-ho and would come up for it. Rae and Jay may still come up for it, as may Parker, but I'm pretty sure if it's cold and nasty, nobody else will want to. I'll drive around and do a bit of "shopping" myself regardless, but it is quite possible that I may end up doing that alone, and won't be covering as large of a chunk of the town as I normally would. I sorted out my change today, and I have about eight bucks in quarters, dimes, and nickels, and have about the same in actual dollar bills in my wallet. That alone can get you a lot of stuff, depending on where you go and when, with a little luck. I may stop at Walmart on the way home tomorrow or go there in the overnight hours tomorrow or Friday to buy a few things and get some cash back in ones, but that also depends heavily on the weather and on whether or not a bunch of us are actually going to make the excursion up here. I created an event for it on Facebook and invited 25 people, roughly, most of them from the department, though I don't know how many will actually want to attend (I'm guessing less than half that, really). As this weekend is really the last weekend I have where I won't be swamped with stuff to do or will otherwise be busy until Memorial Day, it's about the last time I'll be able to do anything really fun before the end of the semester, or until the summer gets into full swing.
This weekend: Garage Sales, nothing else (not really, anyway)
Next weekend: Grading final papers before the final exam on Monday the 13th
The weekend after that: Graduation, graduation party, going up to Omaha
The weekend after that: Coming home mid-week, Memorial Day weekend, last paycheck of the semester (from what I've been told, at least).
May is going to be a busy, tumultuous month for me, it seems. Lots of life-changing things going on. Lots of rushing around, finishing things up, and travel taking place.
My close friend Suri, who I barely see anymore (but have mentioned here on the blog extensively in the past) and I set it up yesterday so that we'll be grading partners for the final exam. Suri graduated last year; she was an MA student, and is now an adjunct teaching four classes. Three of those classes are 102 classes, like I teach. Despite the fact that my 102 class is an Engineering English 102 course, the final exams are the same -- primarily because I teach the only sections of that course, and there's no reason to create a completely different exam unless there are at least two instructors teaching it. Suri and I wanted to do our grading together because we're already good friends, but also because she and I both have the mentality of let's get this shit done and get the hell out of here, which isn't always the case if I'm partnered with someone random (as I have been, occasionally, in the past). The downside to this is that Suri has about 75 students in her 102 courses, while I have less than 50. My actual count is something like 46. This doesn't bother me, really; the exams grade very quickly, and if it means I'm guaranteed to be done that afternoon or evening instead of having it all up in the air, I'll be happy. The sooner I can be done with my entire grading process, the better. Believe me. That's all I've got left and will be the capstone/icing on the cake of a finished graduate teaching assistant career.
None of us have gone over to get our caps/gowns yet for the graduation ceremony; all of us who are graduating this semester got an email yesterday about the final date for RSVPing our attendance to the ceremony and a little more information on the caps/gowns themselves (they'll basically be available until five minutes before the ceremony starts, pretty much). Depending on when/whether they're there, and depending on the weather, I may see if Rae and Jay want to go over to the bookstore with me tomorrow afternoon before I come home just to get the stuff and get it out of the way.
"We could share a gown, you know," Jay said to me yesterday. "Sit next to each other at the graduation and then, when we're called up there, take off your gown, I'll put it on and wear it up there, and vice versa."
For a moment, as he was explaining this, I thought he meant that we'd be shuffling around, both of us under the same gown. Which is a hilarious thought, to be sure.
"You know that since we have different builds, the gown will look really strange on one of us, right?"
Because of this, not to mention that we don't exactly know how the ceremony is going to take place; we don't know if we're going to be assembled or seated alphabetically, we don't know what the floor plan is going to look like, etc.
"You're actually going to walk?" Suri asked me yesterday. "Yuck, why? I haven't attended or taken part in a graduation ceremony since eighth grade."
"I don't really want to," I said, "but it's the last time I'll get to take part in something like this. I didn't walk at my undergrad graduation."
This is true; when I graduated from WVU in 2005, I went to my departmental graduation breakfast that morning, had some pictures taken, and then came back home and went back to bed.
"Do you have family coming, or anything like that?" Suri asked.
"Just [Daisy]," I replied. "My parents can't make it, and neither can hers -- but I'll see her parentss the day after graduation anyhow when we go back up to Omaha, and apparently they want to do some sort of dinner or something for me then."
"It's not a huge deal; I went to [mutual friend's] graduation last year and it's just boring; two hours of sitting there to walk across a stage and get a scroll that isn't even your real diploma -- they mail that to you later."
It really is a sort of pointless ceremony, all pomp-and-circumstance that doesn't really mean anything. I have already technically graduated; passing the comps and turning in/getting my thesis approved and bound means that it's done. That's all that's really important to me. Yet, there's a part of me that wants to get in the gown, do the walking, get those photos taken -- it's almost as if in doing so, I'll prove that I existed at that school, that I was there, that I was present. On some level, it's also a tactic for closure, to close the book on a chapter of my life.
Anyway.
I'm pretty sure I've done my RSVPing for the ceremony (I think I did it when I filed my application for graduation) but I'll have to double-check it when I get the chance just to make sure. If I haven't? Then that would be my last chance to check the "not attending" box and bypass it. I have thought long and hard about that, actually -- I really want, on some level, to just say "fuck it" and not go. But I won't. I'll go. I'll do it. If Daisy weren't able to come down for it, I more than likely wouldn't do it and would just sleep until noon that day. Or later. And then go see the new Star Trek movie, since it opens the same day.
Priorities, folks.
I planned to mow the grass this morning -- my neighbor mowed his yesterday while I was on campus and teaching, making mine look like an unkempt jungle by comparison. However, it's been raining on and off all day today, and the cold front that's bringing the snow/ice/sleet/etc is beginning to sweep through the area this afternoon; the temperature has gone from 73 to 56 in a matter of two hours or so. Screw it; if it's warm on Sunday or Monday, I'll do it then. I want it to stop snowing for good before I mow the grass, because I might end up killing all of it if I don't wait and it snows again. I also can't believe I'm saying that in the month of May, and that again tomorrow I will more than likely be wearing layers to school.
Correction: 73 to 49. Over the span of three hours. I do not like this.
My neighbors across the street have visitors of some sort -- there is a massive, beat-up 1980s-ish RV parked on the street in front of their house, and it just appeared there this morning. I'm not exactly a fan of these people; they're the ones who already have two or three kids who run around the neighborhood screaming at all hours of the day and into the night, which -- as you know -- is incredibly fucking irritating to me, and the woman of the couple is heavily pregnant, yet she still sits on the front porch and chain smokes for hours every day, even when it's cold. Maybe I'm becoming a crotchety old man, and far be it from me to criticize anyone about smoking, but there's a difference when you're heavily pregnant and when you can't (or don't care to) control the kids you already have. Also, I'm pretty sure that about 80% of the people who live on that side of the street are on drugs or are selling drugs.
Mind you, I live in a nice neighborhood -- anyone who's been to my house could tell you that. No, it's not the most gorgeous neighborhood in town, but it's a relatively nice one, a quiet one. Or at least it used to be quiet until the white trash took over. Again, far be it from me to call anyone white trash based on the car I drive, the beer(s) I like, and a lot of the music I listen to...but at least I'm a college professor.
Yeah, I can say that now, since, technically, I am one.
On that note, I'm going to go make some dinner and shower before I head to bed fairly early tonight.
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