Moments days
Jan. 18th, 2007 02:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coffeesnob318Well, I say first week. Between MLK Day Monday and the snow day (!!!) we got yesterday, my first "week" of teaching was Tuesday.
This semester, I've decided to be a masochist. I'm teaching four classes (it was five, but my MW 4:00 didn't make). That's twice what I taught last semester. And neither school that I'm teaching at is local. I'm teaching two classes at my Dallas school on Mondays and Wednesdays. I'm teaching the other two at Bowie, which is about an hour's drive with no traffic from where I live. Even worse, one class is from 12:30-3:30, and the other one isn't until 6:00-9:00. So I'm basically on campus for 8.5 hours on Tuesday. Add the drive time, and we're looking at a 10.5 hour block on Tuesday that I will be spending driving, teaching, or finding something to pass the office time rather than sleeping, which is what I probably should be doing during that time. It doesn't take a math whiz to figure out that using 10.5 of the 16 hours I have between desk shifts at the dorm doesn't leave much time for such a silly thing as sleep. I just keep telling myself that it's only one day a week.
Anyway, this Tuesday was better than my most optimistic predictions. It was a moments day - nothing extraordinary, just lots of nice moments. Of course, they were all experienced against a backdrop of general euphoria that is achieved by working eight hours at a desk, grabbing a two-hour nap, and then spending a substantial amount of time meeting new students and cruising the thriving metropolis (read with all the sarcasm you can possibly imagine) of Bowie, Texas. Now I just need this euphoria to last four the next four months.
Some of the moments that made Tuesday memorable -
- Free coffee at a kitschy antique shop in downtown Bowie, enjoyed while Gene Autry played in the background.
- Rediscovering why I don't eat at Dairy Queen.
- Super sweet cupcakes from the vending machine.
- Students who predominantly like country music and vote Republican. I was amazed at what a difference an hour's drive can make. I felt like I was in the town I grew up in, which was a little surreal. I kept expecting all of them to know my parents.
- Very friendly, very organized staff. Happy.
- Very RELAXED atmosphere. Even people who were stressed out were mellow about it. I think I'm going to like it here.
- Cute little library. I think I personally own more books than they have. Well, maybe not quite. But close.
- My very own office space where, if necessary, I could turn off the lights and use the 2.5 hour break to get a little nap. We'll see how things go. Otherwise, I may have to seek out a local greasy spoon with extraordinarily bad coffee to lounge around in, because 2.5 hours is a long time to sit with nothing to do.
Yesterday was a nice day, too. We had a snow day, so I didn't have to start my classes in Dallas yet. I got to sleep a lot, and Mel made me dinner. We had stew, cornbread...and champagne. Odd combination, but it worked. I made mine a mimosa - it's not just for breakfast anymore. We watched Beauty and the Geek, which I'm not really liking that much this season. Then we watched Deal or No Deal, which I am disturbingly addicted to. Then Mel went to bed and I slept some more on her couch before going downstairs to the desk.
And now here I sit. My big goal for the week is to find a place in my schedule to go to the gym, because I will never make it if I don't make definite plan, I'll never go.
This semester, I've decided to be a masochist. I'm teaching four classes (it was five, but my MW 4:00 didn't make). That's twice what I taught last semester. And neither school that I'm teaching at is local. I'm teaching two classes at my Dallas school on Mondays and Wednesdays. I'm teaching the other two at Bowie, which is about an hour's drive with no traffic from where I live. Even worse, one class is from 12:30-3:30, and the other one isn't until 6:00-9:00. So I'm basically on campus for 8.5 hours on Tuesday. Add the drive time, and we're looking at a 10.5 hour block on Tuesday that I will be spending driving, teaching, or finding something to pass the office time rather than sleeping, which is what I probably should be doing during that time. It doesn't take a math whiz to figure out that using 10.5 of the 16 hours I have between desk shifts at the dorm doesn't leave much time for such a silly thing as sleep. I just keep telling myself that it's only one day a week.
Anyway, this Tuesday was better than my most optimistic predictions. It was a moments day - nothing extraordinary, just lots of nice moments. Of course, they were all experienced against a backdrop of general euphoria that is achieved by working eight hours at a desk, grabbing a two-hour nap, and then spending a substantial amount of time meeting new students and cruising the thriving metropolis (read with all the sarcasm you can possibly imagine) of Bowie, Texas. Now I just need this euphoria to last four the next four months.
Some of the moments that made Tuesday memorable -
- Free coffee at a kitschy antique shop in downtown Bowie, enjoyed while Gene Autry played in the background.
- Rediscovering why I don't eat at Dairy Queen.
- Super sweet cupcakes from the vending machine.
- Students who predominantly like country music and vote Republican. I was amazed at what a difference an hour's drive can make. I felt like I was in the town I grew up in, which was a little surreal. I kept expecting all of them to know my parents.
- Very friendly, very organized staff. Happy.
- Very RELAXED atmosphere. Even people who were stressed out were mellow about it. I think I'm going to like it here.
- Cute little library. I think I personally own more books than they have. Well, maybe not quite. But close.
- My very own office space where, if necessary, I could turn off the lights and use the 2.5 hour break to get a little nap. We'll see how things go. Otherwise, I may have to seek out a local greasy spoon with extraordinarily bad coffee to lounge around in, because 2.5 hours is a long time to sit with nothing to do.
Yesterday was a nice day, too. We had a snow day, so I didn't have to start my classes in Dallas yet. I got to sleep a lot, and Mel made me dinner. We had stew, cornbread...and champagne. Odd combination, but it worked. I made mine a mimosa - it's not just for breakfast anymore. We watched Beauty and the Geek, which I'm not really liking that much this season. Then we watched Deal or No Deal, which I am disturbingly addicted to. Then Mel went to bed and I slept some more on her couch before going downstairs to the desk.
And now here I sit. My big goal for the week is to find a place in my schedule to go to the gym, because I will never make it if I don't make definite plan, I'll never go.
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no subject
Date: 2007-01-18 10:35 am (UTC)BTW, my personal book collection clocks in at over 5000 now. I no longer have any table room whatsoever.
With that 2.5 hours you have lying about, you could try writing your own book. Orrrr, you could take that nap you say you need. :)
no subject
Date: 2007-01-19 12:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-19 07:45 am (UTC)(p.s. now I'm craving cornbread)
no subject
Date: 2007-01-21 02:15 pm (UTC)i adore their blizzards yet they thank me by giving me the runs. how rude!