Finals week
I am still freezing.
After dinner last night, during which I finished up the seventh (and final) season of Trailer Park Boys, my sinuses were still bothering me big-time. Not as bad as before, mind you, but they definitely hurt and made my face/jaw/teeth ache again. I took a hot shower, which I needed and hoped would help my sinus issues, but it didn't -- so I said "fuck it," drank some NyQuil, and went to bed -- messaging Daisy beforehand so that she'd know I was okay and asleep.
I woke up at 3:30 AM. I'd slept for about ten hours straight. It is now 5:40 AM, and I will leave the house in about 90 minutes.
It is cold. The temperature in Newton this morning is 12, and feels like -2. I've had the furnace running in my house since I got up, and I'm still freezing. I'm fighting to keep it above 60 degrees in my room upstairs, and that's generally the warmest room in the house. My car has also been sitting outside all weekend in this deep freeze, and I desperately hope that it will start up this morning. I will have to brush and scrape all of the ice and snow off of it in the cold regardless, which means I'll be outside in the nastiness of the Kansas tundra for longer than usual anyhow. The wind chill today isn't supposed to get above zero, and to top it all off, this afternoon/evening it's supposed to start snowing again -- which could mean that my drive home will be really fun. Heavy sarcasm intended.
It could be worse, of course -- right now in Omaha, it's one degree and feels like -17. That's the difference between here and there, a mere few hours away.
I've sent out a final reminder email to my students that yes, their exam is today at 1PM. The vast majority of them will pass the class whether they take the exam or not, but I still want them to be reminded as that's literally the only reason I am venturing out into the cold this morning. I'd much rather go back to bed to sleep with the cats and electric blanket, of course.
It is supposed to warm up later this week -- relatively warmer, anyway. Tomorrow it's supposed to be 38, and by Friday, 41. That'll take us out of the deep freeze, but it's still not warm, you know. The temperature has been below freezing since last Tuesday night, and a prolonged freeze generally isn't a good thing out here. As you know, I don't acclimate to cold or hot weather at all -- it's not by choice, but in my body chemistry. I am incredibly uncomfortable unless the temperature is between 65 and 80 degrees at all times. Colder than that and my toes/fingers can't keep warm or go numb, and warmer than that I sweat from every pore on my body. This is why I like mild summers and warm winters. I've told Daisy that I desperately want us to live somewhere where the temperature never changes, though locales like that are incredibly expensive and we'll more than likely never live someplace like that.
When I leave the house today, of course, I will be wearing layers. Three shirts and my wool peacoat, two pairs of thick thermal boot socks, fleece pajama pants under my slacks, and my warmest pair of shoes. And, of course, gloves. Thick gloves. I'll need those gloves when scraping off the car and driving to work more than anything else, since it will take forever for the Monte Carlo's heater to get warm in this biting cold -- it may not even be warmed up by the time I get to campus.
I don't know when I'll return home tonight, and told Daisy as much -- it depends on how long it takes to get the final exams graded this afternoon, if I have to stay on campus for extra time just so rush hour traffic dies down, and how long it takes me to go through Walmart on my way home so that I won't have to leave the house again for a while. I could get home anywhere between 5 and 9PM, but I doubt it'll be super-late. It's still a long day for me regardless. I would imagine I'll be pretty tired when I get home, but at the very least I should be able to have everything done and wrapped up when I do get back here to the house.
I've been looking forward to this day all semester, as you know. Of course, it would be better if it wasn't so cold outside, but I am feeling my stress levels drop quite a bit now that the semester is drawing to a complete close with a nice little Christmas bow on it. They're still pretty high, though; obviously, I'm still worried about money between now and January and I am still worried about the whole forbearance thing (which, if the people at the loans office can do math, they'll see that I more than qualify for it). The instructor of record issue with my 102 class next semester has been rectified as well, and I have access to it on the Banner system. So, apparently, it was just some sort of goofy typo in the registrar's office (I can only assume, anyway). I haven't been formally assigned any other classes yet, but I didn't expect to be -- the administrators are still working on the spring schedules. I'm guessing I'll get word on spring classes over the course of the next few weeks.
On that note, it's time to go downstairs and scrape off the car...and hope that she fires up and warms up this morning for my trip. Truth be told, I can't wait to get on campus this morning -- it'll be warmer in there than it is here in my heat-challenged-due-to-me-being-poor house. Wish me luck, folks.
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