One of THOSE Days

Today should have been Friday the 13th. That many things seemed to go wrong. First off, I didn't sleep very well last night. I woke up wide awake at 4 a.m. I did some reading in the "Ensign" and went back to sleep an hour later. When my alarm went off, I woke up feeling like a desert had taken residence in my eyes. I had to be on campus in order to play the organ for devotional or I would have gone back to sleep.

At devotional, we usually only sing the first verse of the opening hymn. I guess this week's chorister wasn't aware of that. After the first verse, I quit playing like normal. When I looked back up at her, she was looking at me all shocked with her hand in the air. Now, I've been doing this every other week for the past 5 months so I knew that I was okay in only playing one verse, but it still surprised and embarrassed me. I felt so bad afterwards.

After devotional I went to get some lunch. I realized I had left my wallet at home. Thank goodness I had a bit of money in my pocket left over from shopping last night. I went to my office to eat and grade papers. After about 2 of them I decided I needed a nap. I was cranky and tired and not effective.

One good thing about today was that I got to take a nap. After I woke up, my little friend Preston (from Idaho) called me to tell me that he missed me. I haven't seen him since August, so I was surprised that he would even remember me. (He's only 5.) I got to talk to his mom, Marianne, for a few minutes, too. It really made my day. Thanks for calling me, Preston!

After hanging up with Preston I went outside to run an errand. As soon as I shut my door, I realized that I didn't have my keys with me. I haven't locked myself out of my apartment in years. Thank goodness my friends Jessica and Jaime have an extra key for my place. Unfortunately, they were both working and their apartment is across town. I thought about walking there, but then I would have to walk back. Not good in a land of ice and snow with me only in a sweatshirt. I began making calls to the other 2 people I know who live in Rexburg, but they either didn't asnwer or were out of town. My neighbor, whom I had never met, actually came out of her apartment and offered me a ride to their house. Yippee! I am now safe and warm in my apartment. Now I only have to grade 90 papers before Tuesday. Not asking much, eh?

The Life of Chaos

My life has become chaos. Not the controlled kind, either. The teacher I TA for has been out of the country for over a week, leaving me in charge of a class of over 100 students. Most of these students are freshman. Not only have I had to teach, I got to grade 100 papers in 4 days. This is so they could have the grades before their next paper was due, which was today. So, now I have another 100 papers to grade in 4 days. Oh, yippee.

After handing back the first set of papers a few days ago, I got to give a "soap box" lecture. This one was to remind them that a professor (a.k.a. me) doesn't really care how well a person can argue about their grade. We care more about the effort and time they put into their work. If they didn't put in the time and effort, then don't complain. I don't think the students were too happy, but I didn't have a line outside of my office after class of complainers. Instead, I had only a few students who wanted to learn from this experience (quoting another part of my soap box) and wanted to know if I had suggestions for them. It was great.

My other classes are going okay, so far. My research methods is going to be a lot of work. It won't be hard, just work. I feel like all I do any more is read, read, read. It's either to grade papers or to read articles for class. I also am supposed to present research at two conferences this semester, finish a literature review for a paper to submit to a journal, and begin my own research for my thesis. Needless to say, it's only chaos.