I am seriously burnt-out.
I wrote my last post last night and in the morning before I went to teach, where I spent over twelve hours on two different campuses, teaching two good lectures and drinking almost an entire pot of espresso (yes, espresso) because I was so tired that I just needed to be able to make it through the day. I really don't know how I did it without falling asleep.
It is now after 1AM. It doesn't matter, of course, as it's not like I have to get up tomorrow before the afternoon if I don't want to (and I probably won't), but still.
There's no news yet from back home about my paycheck; it's getting down to the wire, of course, and I hope it arrives soon -- I have two bills which are due a week from today, and they have to be mailed with enough time to, y'know, get to their recipients. On the plus side, the weather back home is supposed to get warmer (like it has been here) so the snow my parents have been continually pelted with for the past month or so should be melting off, making travel easier.
I didn't get to talk to Daisy any once I got home from teaching; she went to bed literally ten minutes before I walked in the door. My night 011 class ran a bit longer than I expected it to, since I had to collect papers and explain their next ones, which are due shortly before Spring Break -- as well as cover a lesson on run-on sentences/comma splices. Only about 2/3 of my 011 students were actually there anyway -- a large chunk of them just didn't show up to class this week (probably because the paper was due). I didn't get home until well after 9.
Daisy did tell me, though -- almost as if she knew I was writing about it in my last post here even before I posted it -- that she'd found a wedding band that she liked (one that, I will say, is not the hideous one I hated) and that she purchased it yesterday. Here it is:
I like it, actually. Simple, elegant, and pretty. For the record, below is a photo of my own wedding band:
So they sort of match, in a simplistic way. I think her choice goes well with the new engagement ring, actually. No, it's not exactly a "matched set" or anything like that, but it goes well enough with it.
Really, I'm just glad she didn't get the first (hideous) ring she'd originally wanted.
Still, she's not posted any photos of her new engagement ring yet. She said it's because she's been busy (mainly because she went back to work immediately upon getting home, worked until yesterday morning, and then basically went to sleep to recuperate). She plans on posting some photos today. She also, with Mama, went to pick up a ton of wedding decorations for the venue, including tablepieces and a "mailbox" for people who give us cards at the wedding, and told me all of her plans for snacks and candies for everyone there. She clearly has this wedding planning thing under control, knows what she wants, and is executing said plans.
Most other plans and decorating stuff is being put on hold for a few days, though, as she and her best friend (aside from me, of course) are going to Kansas City for an overnight excursion/shopping trip, and are leaving this afternoon. They'll return tomorrow afternoon sometime, probably a few hours after I get home from teaching tomorrow morning. I told her to be super-careful, as she's not only mostly unfamiliar with the KC area, but there's some weird weather supposed to be hitting over the course of the next 18 hours or so -- the Weather Channel here says we could get rain and thunderstorms tonight into tomorrow, and I-70 and north of there (which, ironically, runs through KC) could get 2 inches of snow.
I'll remind you that the high temperature here yesterday was nearly 70. Welcome to the midwest, folks.
So. Daisy will be gone to KC and I probably won't hear from her other than the occasional message back and forth until she returns home to Omaha, judging by the timeframe of her trip and when I have to teach my classes tonight and tomorrow morning. Most of the day today I'll just be relaxing; after starting this post at 1AM, I went to bed and slept until 11 or so, so I'm well-rested enough to be able to be awake all day, drive to West campus this evening to teach, and then come home to sleep fast and teach again in the morning.
I got an email this morning from the office of financial affairs that said my signed notice of appointment had not been received by them -- that's my contract as an "Academic Lecturer" that I told you about last week, which took them forever to send over to the department in the first place. I signed it and sent it to them the day I received it, February 11. As that's been over a week ago now and apparently they never got it, who knows where it went. I replied and told them that I'd sent it then, and if it hadn't arrived that I'd gladly fill out another copy or come personally sign the documents in their offices when I returned to campus next week. I don't know what the issue is there -- chalk it up to more "what can go wrong, will go wrong" Brandon luck, since these sorts of administrative fuck-ups/problems seem to follow me around and have plagued me the entire semester thus far, and -- as always -- they're always out of my hands to where I can't do anything about them. I'm not too concerned about it, as after all, I worked all of last semester just fine without a contract or official appointment, and my payroll has already been fixed and set by the payroll department from now through the rest of the semester anyhow, but it's just another pain in the ass that I shouldn't have to deal with or worry about.
Today I paid the two small(ish) bills that I could afford to pay before my parents receive and deposit my paycheck for me, leaving me with about $40 to my name in my bank account. I absolutely, desperately need that check to just get there and be deposited ASAFP, because I now officially cannot pay any of my other bills, or my rent, until it's in my account. Color me a bit nervous, obviously. I have two other bills (both of them credit card bills) due during the first week or so of March, and should also be receiving my new electric bill sometime within this next week as well. The rent's the big thing, however -- most of that check will go directly to my rent, especially since this is the shortest month of the year and that date is coming up fast. Not to mention, of course, that my first real paycheck of the semester doesn't come in until the 28th, which is the last day of the month (and it won't be big enough to cover even 2/3 of my rent, since it's the whole "make up from the advance check" thing).
Since I started writing this post this afternoon, I received an email from my mother, who said that the weather back home was still really nasty (ice storm there last night) and they got in to work late this morning, so they didn't have the chance to check the mail today (they have a PO box in town, not a mailbox at the house). She said they'd check it tomorrow and keep me updated on everything. I would imagine that even with the one-day delay from President's Day, it should be there tomorrow, if not there already. I mailed it last Friday, so that's almost a full week.
This afternoon I do have some chores to do around the house, but mainly stuff I've just been putting off as of late due to exhaustion. I need to load and run the dishwasher again, and I need to put away my laundry and clean the cat room/box. I also have to shower before going to class again tonight, as I look like somewhat of a hobo. Because the weather's been changing so much as of late, my allergies have also been going crazy, which makes me even more fatigued. In addition to that, with the rain/storms moving in this afternoon and evening, last night and today I've had a continuous, low-level weather headache, which I do occasionally get when that sort of weather rolls in quickly. Part of that is probably stress as well, though who knows.
My class tonight should be somewhat interesting; I'm giving my 210 students their graded papers back, and will be collecting their new ones before going over their next assignment -- a public service announcement. Yes, seriously, that's one of their assignments. They write me a script for a PSA. I show them a video as well, and direct them to a chapter in the book that we'll touch on a little tonight and a little more next week, and that's about it. Tomorrow morning for my 102 students I don't have a hell of a lot on the docket except for showing them an example research paper out of their grammar/MLA book, and discussing how workshops will work (as group 1 brings in their copies on Tuesday).
Oh, and I'm collecting a quiz from them.
Last Thursday, I'd planned to cover an article out of their textbook, and had told them to read it in advance. Only one of them did. Out of twelve. So, I said, fuck it, we'd cover it on Tuesday. I did cover it yesterday, in detail, and told them they'd have a quiz on it -- so that it was best that they'd read it beforehand. Most of them still hadn't appeared to have read it even though I'd told them they'd be quizzed on it, so (in a particularly evil move on my part) I took one of the discussion questions from the end of the article and told them to go home and type up a full page, answering said question for a 20-point quiz grade, and to turn it in tomorrow.
I bet they'll do their readings next time, won't they?
If they don't do it or turn it in tomorrow morning, they don't get to "make it up" and turn it in later. There are no make-up quizzes. And for the two or three of them who were absent yesterday...oh well. Maybe they should've come to class, seeing as I told them on Blackboard and via email that there would be a quiz. That's on them.
I'm not a dick, nor am I an uncaring professor, but I do expect my students to do the work I assign to them and to do the readings I assign to them. I expect them to put as much effort into the class as I put into teaching it. Sorry, but that's how college works. Most professors aren't anywhere near as forgiving or lenient as I tend to be, either, so some of them are in for a huge rude awakening once they start taking upper-level courses in their degree fields. As I've said before, I can only give them the tools for academic success; it's up to them how they use those tools.
Mind you, most of the students in that class are good students anyhow. Well, from what I can tell, anyway.
This weekend, I'll be grading those quizzes, the 210 papers I collect tonight, and the 011 papers I collected last night. I'll also be playing my new Pokemon game whenever it and the 2DS arrive sometime tomorrow, thanks to Daisy. It's a nice busy weekend I have ahead of me, it seems. On the plus side, I don't have to do any shopping (not that I want to rack up more charges on my credit card anyway) because of Daisy's cooking and the groceries/supplies we got last weekend. It'll be a nice weekend spent indoors doing work and chores, and I can totally get behind that. At the very least, I'll be a bit more relieved about everything once my paycheck gets into the bank, which -- even if it takes until Friday or Saturday to get that done -- I'll still be able to pay my bills again, which will put me considerably more at ease than I am now.
On that note, I'm off to do the aforementioned household chores and get a shower.
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