I'm alive, barely

You might have noticed that I used to keep a blog here. I remember those times fondly, those were good times. Time to sit down, think about what's going on, share it with a few friends.... those times are apparently long gone.

Sorry about the lack of posts guys; things have become barely-under-control busy for me. I am my own personal medical experiment in sleep deprivation.

I think my class is going well, but I'm giving my first exam on Wednesday so that will be the first real gauge of what my students are and are not understanding. I'm struggling to write the exam, too; I wish I had a better handle on what's an appropriate question, both difficulty-wise and length-wise. I already told them that the test would be challenging, but my fear is that it will be way too long and/or way too hard. Plus, I have half the department watching me from afar (some from more closeby than others); I can't go to colloquium in the afternoons with fewer than 4 different faculty members asking me how my class is going!! I appreciate their concern on some level, but I cannot help thinking that some are watching simply to see if I crash and burn. I don't need that kind of pressure. Believe me, I'm already putting enough on myself, thank you very much.

In good news, though, my friend Jackie is coming to visit this weekend! Yay!! :) This will be my first out-of-town guest that is not blood-related to me since I moved out here. So I am really looking forward to some shopping, some knitting, some eating of good food, drinking of good wine, and some general sitting around with some girl movies and toenail polish. I'm even taking a day off from work to spend with her! (Well, not the whole day; I do have to teach for an hour that morning. But I'm getting the heck out of dodge right after class--I have some serious socializing to do!)

And just for everyone's entertainment this Monday, I thought that I would tell you how my week began this morning. I had to get to work today a little bit early to do some photocopying before my class, so of course I was running late getting out of the house. I raced to work, hopped out of the car, threw my laptop backpack over my shoulder as I headed up the hill toward the bus stop and "Zippp!" The zipper on my skirt broke. Actually the zipping part of the zipper didn't break, it stayed in place; the rest of the zipper came unzipped below it. (And I should add for my own mental well-being that this skirt is not tight on me, it's not like I am busting out of my clothes). Thank you Target for cutting corners and buying cheap zippers for your cute skirts. Anyway, I get to my office and proceed to try to fix it only to find that the zipper will not move. At all. It's not moving to the point that I may actually have to cut myself out of the skirt this evening. Now, I am a pretty resourceful girl. I first tried a cautious application of some hand lotion to try to grease up the zipper. No go. I looked around my desk for needle and thread, but no. That's safely at home. No safety pins either. The safety pins I tried to fashion out of paperclips turned out to be a less than stellar approximation to an actual safety pin. (That locking mechanism for the pin turns out to be key!) T-70 minutes before class, and I am standing in my office, door shut, stapler in hand, stapling the zipper of my skirt closed.

I kid you not. I am literally stapled into my clothes today.

I spent my entire lecture this morning wondering how well those staples would hold and if, with one wrong move, my entire skirt was going to come flying open. It wouldn't fall off, thank the heavens, because the damn zipping mechanism is still stuck at the top of the zipper. But it would fly open. At the very least, I was certainly less worried than I normally am about having my lecture be absolutely perfect. I was just happy to remain fully clothed.