Let it snow, let it snow, come on baby, light my fire.

It's snowing. Which means the sky has been gray since before the sun came up (or did it?), and I woke up with a distinct lack of zip this morning. This is what happens, people. This is what happens to Ms. Bizarro when winter sets in, the sun doesn't shine, and the outside walls of the apartment are approximately the temperature of a penguin's tittie.

I look around me as I sit at my desk - my Wild Republic monkey watching sightlessly with his endless winter ennui, my palm tree magnets mocking me on the white board, the very last month of 2009 on the calendar reminding me that Hawaii is made of lava, the Barrel Man gazing out the window as appalled as I am, and of course, my Rod Serling Foundation card proclaiming my membership-in-good standing - and I am reminded that I have a lot of writing to do (as well as grading, of course, it being end of the semester). I know that I really shouldn't watch those last 3 episodes of TikiBar TV. I know that I need to take charge of my winter blues and also do some laundry because I am down to the little white socks I only wear in the summer with sneakers.

And so, on December 5, the birthday of my grand-niece Erin Dorothy, and my close, personal friend Racheeee Schmiff, winter has finally begun. I feel the cold, clammy weight of it, and I say, it's time to light a fire in the fireplace (as opposed to the futon) and drink a hot toddy out of a Tiki Mug.

Because sometimes one is better than too many

Sitting here in my office at work, enjoying the easy listening sounds of Walter Wanderley, Wes Montgomery and their ilk over Pandora. Today students are handing in their final screenplay projects. Tomorrow I get a stack of essays from the remedial writing students. I plan to plow through all of these in as timely a fashion as possible, so that I can focus on planning for next semester and get everything ready before the holiday and my writing retreat.

Hm, well except that there's the final exam I have to give on the 14th and then GROUP GRADE that same night from 6 p.m. until god knows when. Group grading, in case you're wondering, is a Communist form of evaluating student work and I despise it. Here's what we were told to do in an email this week:

After the exam, we will meet to group grade the paragraphs. We’ll meet in ### at 6:00pm. Let me know if this will create a problem for you. We divide into grading teams of three. Two other instructors grade your exams Pass or Fail before you make the final decision. In the borderline situations, there will be enough people around to give a few extra reads. Also, this is where your grammar exam can help us make a clear decision. Students who do poorly on grammar on both the paragraph and the grammar test show that they didn’t just fail to edit enough before handing in the paragraph. They do not have a solid grasp of basic grammar and will not be best served by moving on to English 100. On the other hand, students who do extremely well on the grammar test can be given the benefit of the doubt.

I am exhausted just thinking about this. Know what's even worse? I have to be in the classroom at 7:30 the next morning for a "final exam" that I don't even have. We have to meet during final exam times, even if we don't give final exams!

There was no balls-kicking in or after my observation this morning. I nailed it, and felt really good about the class, my students, and myself. Yay, me!

Now back to the inhuman stack of grading I need to get through for tomorrow.

Home Stretch

The sun is shining, and I am up to my armpits in grading today. What a lovely way to spend the last day of Thanksgiving vacation (truly! I'm not being sarcastic). I can't complain; I've taken more than my fair share of R&R these last few days, so now it's time to hit the bricks for the last 3 weeks of skool.

Tomorrow my teaching is being observed at the community college. As you know (if you read this here blog), I don't have the best of luck with observations. Although all my observations at the Other School on the Hill have been just fine, I've had rough reports from idiot supervisors at other institutions, and I loathe the idea of being raked over someone's coals of perversity. I think some supers think the whole point of the observation is to find things not to critique with helpful feedback, but to grind their ten pages of notes about how I pair students up into a paste along with my blood and sweat and than hand it back to me and tell me it's good for me. In those instances, observations generally feel like this:


Kung Fu Men Have Tough Balls - The most amazing bloopers are here

If I had them, my balls would not be tough like that.

Final Frontier

This week is the big grading push push push. I got one class done and handed those back this morning, now working on the rest of the other class for Thursday night. I had to fail two students this semester for not turning their scripts in at the deadline (and not bothering to say anything about it until 5-6 days later and then expecting me to read it, grade it and give notes - WTF?). That made my day today. What really sucks is I have to do the student evals Thursday night and one of those students knows he's failed. That's life.

I almost forgot that I have to TEACH tomorrow morning at the community college, AND be observed! Can you imagine if I'd totally blown it off when the freaking Dean was there to observe me? That's like one of those nightmares where you go to class and realize you are naked and you haven't shaved all winter.

Looking forward to seeing the new Star Trek movie this Friday. I will write a review when the time comes, so stay tuned for that (esp. SMJ and PMP who I know LOVE Star Trek).

Grading stresses me out

I am wading deeper into the pile of screenplays to read and grade. I am fairly tedious about my reading and notes, so it takes a good long time to get through each one. I am having a hard time focusing these days, so my job is harder than it normally is/has been. I did this to myself, giving myself less than a week to finish them. I didn't want it hanging over my head, and I know that come Thursday I will be well-pleased. At this point, I am sniffly and tired and I just want to sleep. The slate sky doesn't help recharge my batteries, either. This would go faster if I could sit on my patio in the sunshine (patio still torn up from the painters that arrived on Friday and I have no idea if they've finished or what the deal is).

Vernal Equinox

Spring is imminent. In one hour and 15 minutes it will be nigh. Say helloo to the Faeries.

Finished all grading before the deadline. I strangled the grading I did.

Listening to Tori Amos. Yeah, I'm in one of those moods.

Nose, fingertips, toes intact

I had to take Flexeril today. Neck/upper back spasm like I used to have. Felt it coming on yesterday. Ugh. So an entire day wasted. I feel like poo.

I have mondo grading tomorrow.

Now that it's nice enough to open the patio door, Mr. Butts next door's cigarette smoke is sifting into my living room. Seems I'm either freezing cold in here or I'm living in my neighbor's ashtray.

Nice.

Mom continues to do much better taking Tylenol, and now that she's feeling a bit better, she's starting to go to some of the events at the nursing home. I spoke with the recreation coordinator and hopefully they'll make sure Mom knows when things are happening so she can participate if she wants to. Meanwhile, the hospice support is wonderful. The aide will make sure Mom gets to ambulate every day, and she is now walking to the bathroom (with an aide, since she's still not completely stable on her feet). Hopefully we have resolved the issue of them sending her out to dialysis with not enough O2 in the tank. She's back to 4 liters instead of the 6-7 they had her own for awhile. Her O2 sats still seem to fluctuate, seemingly at random, but most of the time they are in the mid-90s, which is very good.

Ah, but she mentioned something about her blood pressure being low, so I want to check into that as well. There's always something for me to investigate because the communication is rotten. Such as, for instance, the fact that they postponed her dialysis until tomorrow because of today's snowstorm. No one had told either of us that fact; I found out this morning by accident when I happened to be on the phone with the unit clerk.

We've rearranged her area to be roomier and more conducive to her safety. I want to pick up a cheap reading lamp at Big Lots for her, since the lighting in there is dreadfully dim. I've also arranged with the unit clerk for her to be seen by an eye doctor and a podiatrist, and they will make an appointment with an audiologist so that hopefully she can get a new hearing aid.

We are planning on her being here for Christmas day, and I'm hoping to get her to church at the 10:30 Mass, which will make both of us very happy. I've got a menu planned for her dietary needs. Yay!

I'm finally feeling like I can maybe relax ever so slightly, and maybe even enjoy a little holiday spirit. I'm afraid to become too gleeful or hopeful, though. My emotions are still very guarded in all of this. Mainly because I'm afraid if she has a downturn, it will send me plummeting into the depths of depression, which I have only barely staved off as it is this last month. Still, with the blessing of the Universe, the worst is behind her.

I am going to look into a power chair for her, which would enable her to return to Longview, I hope. We'll see...

I am more than half way through grading. The huge snowstorm that has set upon it will keep me home with my students' portfolios so that I can be done by end of today.

Tonight I plan to watch a surfing documentary that Bizarro found at the liberry. And then, it will be vacation time bruthuh!

Woot!

I just woke up, read my email and there from Tim was a message pointing to a place called Woot with his insistence, "you want one; it'll never be cheaper! GO GO GO!" Not buy a Woot, buy a Flip for $60! I went to Woot, saw, and couldn't resist. So it's Christmas for the Bizarros Part II (part I was new cell phones back in October when my old one died). The Flip is on its way. You have to check out these guys at Woot - cool stuff for cheap, and they're a bit silly, which is always refreshing: Woot!.

What's a Flip? It's a video recorder, small, portable, and perfect for vacation, spying, or on-the-run pick up shots. Wish I'd had that in Korea for the shoot a couple summers ago. The Flip.

And now on to grading...

White Stuff

It be snowin' like a mutha. My plans with PMP for tonight have been put on hold thanks to this frakkin' snow, and she says she may be leaving town tomorrow instead of Saturday. Sucky! She'll be gone for a month or so, and that's a long time with no PMP.

I am ensconced on my futon with all my grading. Listening to the Lite Rock station - the only station that seems to play Christmas music. I have to sit through all the shitty lite rock garbage to hear the xmas tunes. And I'm still waiting for my favorite rock xmas tune: Paul McCartney's "Simply having... a wonderful Christmas time." They didn't even play the REAL John Lennon "War is Over" cut - they played some lousy remake.

Kay. Back to grading.

Snow

I drove in it. Big time. This morning to Out of Town University. Coming home was treacherous. Thank Gawd I only have one more day of this drive!

Now must grade... hot cocoa and popcorn... a little Jack in m cocoa...