I think after my whirlwind of work yesterday, I am unfit to really accomplish anything today besides teaching, even though I'm woefully behind in the Lit class's grading. And I really hate that I basically keep telling them that the reason it's taking me so long is because the survey class took a long time and that it's also basically because I'm sick and pregnant, therefore slow. And the truth of the matter is that they're not done because I didn't want to grade over Christmas Break. I absolutely positively did not want to, so I did not. But I also did not want to be mean and try to avoid that problem by making it due right after break, which means they would have had to work on it over break. Alas, it's one of the plagues of the broken up winter quarter.

So, that being said, I think I'm done for the day with anything related to grading, prepping, and what not. What I'd like to do is just spend this dreary rainy spring like afternoon reading various and sundry things. I'd like to go ahead and finish the novel for the Lit class that we're finishing next week and finish the mystery book that I'm reading right now, too. I know I need to grade, but I think I'm going to work on those papers in the morning after breakfast, even though it goes against my I-try-not-to-grade-at-home rule which is really a "avoiding grading at home unless totally necessary" guideline more or less. Sometimes it's a necessity. And I need to get that off my plate, but just not today. As it is, I'm passing my remaining office hours writing this blog post.

In other brighter teaching related news, I got the MWF schedule I asked for for the Spring Quarter! Oh happy day! It means long days on MW (because we hold a ridiculous amount of office hours a week--10! I've never been anywhere that requires that many office hours, but whatever), so it means in order to only come in on MWF, I've got to make MWs kind of long. It looks like I'll be on campus from about 7:50-4:30 on those two days. I know, I'm exhausted now with my six hour days on campus. However, I'm willing to do this, and I think it will be better to have two 8.5 hour days and one six hour day with two full and complete don't go to campus days off than two 6-7 hour days, two 4 hour days, and a 3 hour day. I can handle the long days if I don't have to get up the next day. I think this will help with my exhaustion. At least if I'm really really tired or don't get enough sleep one night, I have TR to sleep in and work in my pjs all day. I think this means I'll get some work done. I think this means I'll get more cooking done. And even if I weren't pregnant, I think this is a better schedule just for writing and researching, especially since I'll have so many office hours to prep and grade on campus. And to be fair, I do most of my grading and a decent amount of prep work when I'm not grading during my office hours. I do actually make fairly good use of those 10 hours I have to be here.

Here's what the new schedule for Spring looks like: 8:00 am Survey Class; 9:30 am Poetry Class; 12:30 pm Survey Class. Since most mornings, even when I want to sleep in I get up at 4:30 or 5 with the hubs, I may as well get up at 4:30 and go to CrossFit with him at 5 and then get right to class rather than go to the 6 am class, and then not have to teach until 10 or 11. I thought I would like that, but I do not. I have found that while it may sometimes be a pain to get up for an 8 am class, I'd rather be almost done with my teaching day by 11, than to have it start at 11. I thought, since I'm usually more productive in the mornings that I'd be able to use the time between 8-11 to get my own work done. Not so much. It's a terrible schedule for me. Even if I don't work out, I can't switch gears like that. So, I'll have office hours between 10:45-12:30 and then from 1:45-4:30 on MW and then just 10:45-12:30 on F. And TR are MINE!! ALL MINE!! The J will be at work and I can come home from my workout and put my pjs back on and read, read, read, and write, write, write. Ah. I'm so freaking excited. This also means that if I can keep this schedule if I like it, the J can take care of the kid on Mondays, and then s/he will only have one really long day at daycare or whatever. And until we're ready to put the kid in day care for more than two days a week, I'll figure out how to read/write in between naps and attending to the little person, but I'll worry about that later. I can't think about that right now. But for now, I'm just so super stoked at having an extra two days off a week that I can barely contain myself!! To just not have to be on campus every.single.day is just, ah well, just going to be so so very nice.

And the department owes me a course release, but I've decided to delay it until next spring because it won't benefit me in the spring because I'd end up with two preps, one totally and completely new in an area I'm so not comfortable with (poetry), so what good will time to write do me if I'm figuring out something brand new? And even if I am not able to take all of fall off, the kid will be so young still that I don't think it would benefit me then either dealing with a little infant and teaching. I know I won't be able to make use of it. But if we at least plan for next spring, then she can plan not to put anything that only I can teach on the schedule and I can have the two classes/one prep, by then the kid will be 8 months or so, and even if s/he is not in daycare every day, at least prep time will be nil for the survey classes and I think by that time I'll be able to come up with some sort of schedule by then for what can/needs to happen. Of course, I'm talking out of my ass because I don't know what it's going to be like to balance this with a kid, so oh well. At least that's my hope/plan. We'll see. But I've made it clear at least to my boss that a course release will only benefit me during a quarter where I have just the one prep.

So that's about it. I'm tired. No more work will be done today--except finishing the novel the Lit class is finishing next week because as a class we're really really into it, and I'm loving it! And I'm so close to finishing it it's not even funny. And it'd be so nice to finally, for once, be ahead in that class so that I can keep my head above water.

Oh, on a totally unrelated note: my brain has turned into such mush that I had to put an alarm reminder in my phone calendar to remind me to take my vitamins after dinner because I cannot remember to do something that has been a habit.