My week is bipolar
Why, might you ask, am I posting in the wee small hours of the morning? Good question. My lovely friend insomnia has taken hold. However, I’ve already done a post about this horrible affliction, so no need to beat a dead horse (by the way I seriously contemplated the spelling of “beat” and “horse” just now; or is that “beet” and “hoarse”?). Suffice it to say, I woke up at 3:30 this morning for no apparent reason other than the fact that my anxiety must hate me and finally gave up trying to go back to sleep at around 4:30. As annoying as it is not being able to fall back asleep, it’s more annoying lying there thinking of all the things I could be doings. So, I got up and graded a few papers.
*pats self on back*
What’s going to be interesting is the rest of the day. Do I caffinate a lot to avoid the inevitable nap I’m going to want to take or do I give in and risk being groggy and mad that I didn’t get more done? After my oral defense was over, I was hoping to alleviate the stress level a little and feel a bit more freedom. Unfortunately, I feel very apathetic about the work I have left to do at the end here. Apathetic and stressed. Interesting combination, I know. I have a 20 page paper due for one of my classes and as much as I don’t want to do the paper, I also don’t want to turn something in that disappoints the professor. Sure, I may never talk to him again, but he’s one of my favorites here and what he thinks still matters to me. The problem is that what I really want to do is spend time with my friends while I’m still in Iowa. If you pop over to Rhonda’s blog, you’d see that I had a great Saturday, and many of my other days are no less fun. Getting to hang out with these people matters to me. It’s pretty much a guarantee that I’ll graduate, but I have to actually finish everything first (you know, giant paper, grading essays, plans for world domination—that type of thing).
So far this week has been fairly uneventful, aside from the 1)very uncool thing that happened to me and 2) the very cool thing that happened to me.
the very uncool thing
Monday was a stressful day. I realized that as fabulous as my hedonistic weekend was, it in no way helped me as far as accomplishing my end of semester chores. I was running around campus trying to get things done and ended up in Ross Hall, using the color printer on the 4th floor (although it charges the cost to my university bill, it’s still cheaper than having Copyworks run it off). I was starting to get a headache and I still had to run across campus to get my final copy of my creative component bound for the English department. I started down the stairs and woosh! My flip-flop slips on the metal edge of the stair and I crumple/slide/bang down about 10 steps to the landing. Thank goodness for landings. My water bottle tumbles down another flight and my arm takes most of the beating on the way down. And I thought I had a headache before. Feeling deflated, I climb back up the stairs (you think I was really going to climb down the rest of the “stairs of death” in those flip-flops with all that adrenaline pumping through my system?). I sit down and recover in the nearest office. Kate later remarked that it was just like Ross to kick us when we’re down.
the very cool thing
Tuesday was a much better day than Monday. I noticed right away: big bruise on my arm (it’s so beautiful). I head to campus early to swing by my office and grab my library books (I have 29 library books checked out. 29. Fortunately, I keep them in several places so as not to feel overwhelmed by all of them. I could probably return a few. Some of them aren’t even from this semester…) for my research paper. I walk into the office and woosh! There are pretty flowers on my desk (okay, so it wasn’t really a woosh, but I’m working on the parallelism thing here, and my breath did catch a little). I think in the brief seconds before I open the card, who would have sent me flowers? Even more intriguing, who would have sent me flowers to my office? The answer?
About a month ago, I received an email from a former student of mine. She was hoping to get in to the Architecture program at ISU and wanted some help with her entrance essay. So for three weeks, every Friday, we would meet for 30 minutes to discuss the paper. I’d offer her suggestions and she’d come back each week with new changes to her essay. I have to admit that this type of one-on-one interaction is what I really love about teaching. It allows me to really get to understand a student and talk to her in a way that seems to reach her a lot more than I ever could in class. Our last meeting was a couple weeks ago and I have to admit I was a little sad. It’s nice feeling useful. However, there they were, those flowers on my desk. And they were from her. I think these may be the best flowers I’ve ever received. They were so wholly unexpected and the gesture was so sweet.
*pats self on back*
What’s going to be interesting is the rest of the day. Do I caffinate a lot to avoid the inevitable nap I’m going to want to take or do I give in and risk being groggy and mad that I didn’t get more done? After my oral defense was over, I was hoping to alleviate the stress level a little and feel a bit more freedom. Unfortunately, I feel very apathetic about the work I have left to do at the end here. Apathetic and stressed. Interesting combination, I know. I have a 20 page paper due for one of my classes and as much as I don’t want to do the paper, I also don’t want to turn something in that disappoints the professor. Sure, I may never talk to him again, but he’s one of my favorites here and what he thinks still matters to me. The problem is that what I really want to do is spend time with my friends while I’m still in Iowa. If you pop over to Rhonda’s blog, you’d see that I had a great Saturday, and many of my other days are no less fun. Getting to hang out with these people matters to me. It’s pretty much a guarantee that I’ll graduate, but I have to actually finish everything first (you know, giant paper, grading essays, plans for world domination—that type of thing).
So far this week has been fairly uneventful, aside from the 1)very uncool thing that happened to me and 2) the very cool thing that happened to me.
the very uncool thing
Monday was a stressful day. I realized that as fabulous as my hedonistic weekend was, it in no way helped me as far as accomplishing my end of semester chores. I was running around campus trying to get things done and ended up in Ross Hall, using the color printer on the 4th floor (although it charges the cost to my university bill, it’s still cheaper than having Copyworks run it off). I was starting to get a headache and I still had to run across campus to get my final copy of my creative component bound for the English department. I started down the stairs and woosh! My flip-flop slips on the metal edge of the stair and I crumple/slide/bang down about 10 steps to the landing. Thank goodness for landings. My water bottle tumbles down another flight and my arm takes most of the beating on the way down. And I thought I had a headache before. Feeling deflated, I climb back up the stairs (you think I was really going to climb down the rest of the “stairs of death” in those flip-flops with all that adrenaline pumping through my system?). I sit down and recover in the nearest office. Kate later remarked that it was just like Ross to kick us when we’re down.
the very cool thing
Tuesday was a much better day than Monday. I noticed right away: big bruise on my arm (it’s so beautiful). I head to campus early to swing by my office and grab my library books (I have 29 library books checked out. 29. Fortunately, I keep them in several places so as not to feel overwhelmed by all of them. I could probably return a few. Some of them aren’t even from this semester…) for my research paper. I walk into the office and woosh! There are pretty flowers on my desk (okay, so it wasn’t really a woosh, but I’m working on the parallelism thing here, and my breath did catch a little). I think in the brief seconds before I open the card, who would have sent me flowers? Even more intriguing, who would have sent me flowers to my office? The answer?
About a month ago, I received an email from a former student of mine. She was hoping to get in to the Architecture program at ISU and wanted some help with her entrance essay. So for three weeks, every Friday, we would meet for 30 minutes to discuss the paper. I’d offer her suggestions and she’d come back each week with new changes to her essay. I have to admit that this type of one-on-one interaction is what I really love about teaching. It allows me to really get to understand a student and talk to her in a way that seems to reach her a lot more than I ever could in class. Our last meeting was a couple weeks ago and I have to admit I was a little sad. It’s nice feeling useful. However, there they were, those flowers on my desk. And they were from her. I think these may be the best flowers I’ve ever received. They were so wholly unexpected and the gesture was so sweet.
