So Ready for the End of the Quarter

I have to confess: I'm ready for the quarter to end. Like it can't freaking end soon enough. And not because it's going poorly--I'm freaking BORED! Yes, bored. It's bad, too, because I cannot make myself care about  grading even for the sake of busting through it and getting sh*t done. Seriously. I am at the point to where if I were a less professor, I'd not even give the finals. That is how little I care. Is that not the most awfullest thing ever?

A large part of it is that I'd rather be home with the Magpie, obviously.

Another really large part is that I'm waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay way way more super interested in the stuff I'll be teaching Spring Quarter. Furthermore, my grad class is actually in my current field of research, so I'll be able to double dip here and the theory readings that I will be assigning are works that I need to read as well for my research. I have a better schedule I think next quarter--three day weekend every weekend. Word! So fingers crossed everyone stays healthy and I can get my article written. I was worried that a couple of people would be too busy for our "scholar's meeting" that we haven't had in a year, especially during the spring, but it turns out that everyone was jumping at the bit as it were to meet, so this will finally give me a chance to present something (I didn't have a chance last year), and everyone who presented their work last year got those articles accepted for publication. So it's my turn now to get feedback. Plus it will force me to meet a deadline and get at least half of the article written before summer. I'm very much looking forward to this.

And so now I need to finish up some grading and just get through the rest of this stuff the best that I can without driving myself nuts or shafting my students here in any way. We're all tired and ready for the quarter to be over, but that doesn't mean I need to lower my standards.  Grading I go!

Moving right along

Believe it or not, we're past midterm already here for the quarter which means that I need to start thinking about my two new preps for next quarter. I am on Day 10 of the Whole30 , and a couple of things have happened that I hoped would. I'm better able to stay on top of my work (pushing that limit with the reading though, but the grading I have a handle on). Sleeping better. Working out more. Staying healthier. It's all good.

While I do need to be working on some prep, I've been sacrificing reading time for writing time, even if it is only blog writing or journaling for now because I need it. It is helping me focus right now and work out some "life" issues--my career, where I want it to go, what I need to do to get there, and that's been beneficial for me.

I'm happy to report that my abstract for ALA has been accepted, and this is good not because I need another conference paper, but because it's the article I want to write, so I will write and article rather than a conference paper I plan to turn into an article; I'm going to do it the other way around, and this is the deadline I need to make sure I get to writing something. I can't have two years go by with only two conference papers and nothing else. I have a goal at least here. That's good. And I can at least bend the grad class to coincide with the research I need to be doing.

That's all I got right now. I'm exhausted and ready for break and for the quarter to end because I'm anxious to get to the stuff I'm teaching next quarter. I've also decided that in order to get closer to a real home, a house here, that I'm going to try to pick up two classes this summer so I can get some stuff paid off and get my credit score up so we can buy a house. And we've got to get rid of the other one. I'm not looking forward to teaching over the summer, but it needs to happen so I can get to where I want to be.