Midterm Blues?

So I had this long post about how I was in a grumpy mood and how I don't like my freshman very much this quarter and how I had assumed that none of them would do the work for today, but it turns out I was wrong! Now I feel like a total dick, but it has put me in a better mood, so that's good.

I'm trying to maintain my sense of humor here. I think I'm PMSing like a champ because I am obnoxiously grumpy about EVERYTHING. I had some really good days on break, but today I am fired up, and not in a good way. I'm annoyed. I don't want to work. I've got a shit ton of grading to do this week, and I've still got four weeks after this one plus finals week (which we don't actually have finals week, but I'm only showing a movie in the lit classes and forcing the kids to writing in the comp class), so I don't count that as a real week, except that I'll be grading all week. But at least I don't have to teach as well.

Then I get a whopping week and a half off before I have to turn around and do the whole damn thing over again for six weeks. Look, if the contracts are approved, I'm grateful for the summer teaching. Truly, because it will give me an additional paycheck over the summer. It will barely be enough to cover basic living expenses (rent and utilities), but that's one less month's worth of utilities and rent to worry about I suppose. That week and a half I have off though--half of it will be spent at a conference, which is in a place I love and I get to see family and do some cool stuff, but it also means that I miss the first day of summer school because since my boss didn't bother to let me know that summer teaching was going to be an option (ze only sent around the form in January without any feedback since then), well, I had to make my flight plans without knowing my summer schedule so it would cost us less than $1000 to take our trip in May. So whatever. If ze is pissed about my missing the first day, then ze can kiss my ass. And it's likely that my boss will give me grief for doing so. I'm getting angry thinking about it, so I'm going to stop thinking about it. But what it means is we get back from our trip on a Wednesday night. We turn around and drive 10 hours on Thursday (which is when classes start), get back here, and then start classes on Friday. Nice. See, we're flying from Home City because we planned on spending a couple of weeks there, and it's a helluva lot cheaper to fly from there than anywhere around here (even if we drove five hours to the major airports). Because my boss has not been forthcoming with schedules because ze is "so overwhelmed," we planned around the husband's drill schedule rather than my summer teaching. I mean, if you're going to sit on that for two months and not tell anyone, or even stop by and let me know that I might perhaps have teaching (the feeling is that we're discouraged to bother the boss because ze is overwhelmed right now--whether or not that's true, it's definitely the impression I get when I talk to people or whenever I walk in the office, which is why I didn't ask until my eval meeting). And I know it's "pending approval," but still, a head's up would have been nice. So you know, whatever.

I'm so ready for summer to get there. But my summer doesn't start until July 5th--which, this is jacked up. We get the fourth of July off. But the last day of classes is the 5th. That's right. We get a day off and then come back for one freaking day. Seriously?????? Why not just have the last day on the 3rd? So whatever, again. Look, there were a lot of pros to taking this job to staying in the old one, but the way they do the scheduling is not one of them. They way the breaks are set up is not one of them.

I apologize y'all for being so angry lately and for airing it all out on the blog. It actually makes me feel better to do so. I don't know if I'm tired--if this year has just been too long (academic year), and it doesn't feel like the end is in sight because I have to teach summer school. I don't know. Maybe it's because it's midterm? Maybe it's midterm blues?