Holy Crap

Seriously. What a week this was. It all started off with receiving midterm essays from my students on Monday. Sixteen or so hours later, I had them all graded and commented on. And I was braindead. Poor Q, having to listen to me rant about how predictable and boring such papers can be. To give you all a hint of this mundanity, we've been through two thirds of a rather hefty anthology, read tons of stuff, and yet most of my students wrote on some combination of the same four stories. Seriously, what's up with that? I guess this phenomenon is just the literature class version of the "big game" essay in composition. I could go the rest of my life without ever reading another one of those things. It is, however, compelling evidence against the snowflake theory. I'd love it if there was a way to make students aware of this without crushing their mindgrapes completely. You know, they need a little juice just to get through the day.

What else? Work work work. It occurred to me that I needed to make a couple changes in my first chapter. Again. Then sitting down to do so proved to be this incredibly painful experience. I've looked at this freaking thing so much that out of sheer exhaustion I ready to just let it be what it is, come what may. I finally, after more hours than it really should have taken, managed to hammer something out. Hopefully when I go back to look at it on Saturday, I'll experience much less loathing. This is fascinating stuff, right?

Mina went to the vet today for her "senior visit." In cat years, she's 65, which seems so weird to me. I still call her "baby." Should I switch at some point to "grandma"? Two hundred and fifty dollars later, we walked out with the promise of a phone call in the morning to let me know how her blood screening worked out. I've got my fingers crossed really tightly that they don't turn up something awful. The whole experience prompted me to look at the pet insurance company websites, but ultimately decide against trying to pursue that option. For most of the plans, she's too old, and most don't cover pre-existing conditions, which I assume would her kidney problems and the teeth that the vet wants to extracted. Can you say suckage? Poor kitty.

Enough with the whining already! Q and I have lovely plans to get some delicious Chinese food tomorrow night and then go see Patricia Williams talk. I've offered my students an extra credit incentive to attend and write a response, and it will be interesting to see how many take me up on it. I'm thinking not many are planning on it, but perhaps that will change when I give them back their papers tomorrow?