Frigid

Fall semester: day thirty-six

It's cold this morning. I don't know what it is supposed to get up to this afternoon, but this morning, it's cold. It's 41 degrees outside. I have not yet turned on the furnace (nor do I plan to), but I have broken out my old, trusty bathrobe and a pair of fleece pants. Oh, and my slippers. This time of year is difficult to dress for; you can freeze in the morning and then be sweating through your clothing by the afternoon. I haven't switched out my wardrobes yet, either -- mainly because it was 90 last week, and who knows if that'll happen again. I don't tend to mess with my clothing until I'm sure it's going to stay one set of temperatures versus another. In the spring, of course, warmer weather came late (if you'll recall, it was snowing in May right before finals week) so I tend to be a little wary of switching out wardrobes until I absolutely need to.

The Chuck Palahniuk Q&A runs from 12:30 to 2. I am teaching (or, well, supposed to teach, but class never runs the full time) until 12:15, after which I'll get to go to this little Q&A session and then come home. Even if it runs the full time or runs long, I should still be home by around 3 or so. I told Daisy that I have minimal work to do for my students -- possibly one or two more late rewrites to grade -- so, depending on how tired I am upon returning home, I may go to sleep.

I don't have anything to do for my students tomorrow; since I had to cancel class on Thursday, all of my lesson planning is already finished and ready to go, since they're the same plans I would've taught then. I've not had to modify the schedule any, despite fall break looming around the corner -- luckily, we only have four workshop copies to go through this time on Thursday, and then should have plenty of time left over to do peer-review with everyone not in the workshop group. I've volunteered to stick around after class (since I'll be there anyway) to look over anyone's papers with my extra time in order to make up for canceling class last week.

My eye, remarkably, seems a little better this morning. Yes, it's still blurry, but it seems like it's a little clearer compared to earlier this weekend. I don't know. I think a lot of it depends on how tired or fatigued I am at any given time, and how much sleep I've gotten. Daisy's sister had a jar of molten baby food explode into her eyes about a year ago, and her vision returned to normal several weeks later. The Pineapple Incident wasn't anywhere near as brutal as that, so I have hope that perhaps it's starting to heal up a bit more.

Really, all I can focus on (no pun intended) right now is getting through this week. I have a lot to do, including grading journals all afternoon tomorrow, collecting another set on Wednesday and grading them, and teaching my night class for the first time on Thursday (I think; I haven't heard back from the Director on what he thinks I should do). And again, I'm still dealing with grief and an injured, though apparently healing, eye.

I haven't heard back from my oldest sister; I'm not sure I will anytime soon.

"Give her time," Daisy said. "She's going through a lot. I thought your letter to her was very sweet and appropriate."

I'm giving her all the time she needs -- I'm not going to bother her, as I mentioned before. I grieve in a much different way than she has been, I would imagine.

On that note, I need to leave the house in about five minutes. I look forward to the end of the week, and am very relieved that this time next Monday morning, I will still be asleep and waking up naturally whenever my body chooses to do so and not to the sound of an alarm clock at 5AM.