things that happened in the last 36 hours

*of the cold: i am making progress. i know that because i walked outside and thought, "oh this isn't so bad...it's actually kind of nice out." then saw that it was 26 degrees out.

1. 4 hours of sleep. upon waking, edited grad school/law school apps for friends, agreed to edit a few more. wrote letters of recommendation for students.

2. scrapped ALL THREE of my potential workshop essays (which i labored over for many moons, or at least a few weeks) at last minute because none of them were all that great. wrote entire new essay complete with semaphore images. not as intellectually interesting, but it looks fun and that's really all that matters in the long run, right?

3. wrote 15 page research paper for new digital media class. decided i hated said 15 page research paper. stopped myself from deleting 15 pages but wrote new, 19 page research paper, complete with 6 original T9 (text on nine keys) procedural poems. liked the paper very much, despite the many, many spelling errors and one floating half sentence that i forgot to delete from a vagrant copy/paste fiasco. and the two sorces i forgot to put on my works cited list.

4. helped orrganize, execute, and participate in ridiculously awesome hack the class happening. was utterly delighted when full grown adults donned thier corndog, fish, and lobster (yes, these are my friends in iowa, bless their hearts!) costumes and hopskotched down the middle of my classroom. played pit, made PB&J sandwiches, and drank avocado smoothies. was blown away by steve's project because he somehow made the bluetooth tech in his wii controler able to turn the overhead projector screen into a touch screen where he could move, click, enlarge, etc. images on screen without touching the mouse.

5. derailed my class from serious discussion by asking them if they knew what "bob's my uncle" and nose touching meant to them (thanks sarah--i was so close to using "NOT!" still have friday...) they laughed a lot, which was good because afterwards we had a really, really marvelous discussion about why reading and writing and telling stories is important, why human connections and striving to establish human connections is even better, and why they should all be patrons of the arts when they get rich off of their fancy economics degrees. we also talked about why love is so great, and why people need each other, and how at the bottom of everything people just want to be kind, loyal, trustworthy, and overall decent.

6. had students write one-line biographies about themselves. cried all the way to my car reading them because they are kind, loyal, trustwrothy, and overall decent people.

7. on that same walk to my car came to the realization that 4 hours of sleep, four botched and tossed papers, and the permanent cramp in my neck are all entirely worth it.

8. bought all the supplies for branch christmas party in a fit of delerious productivity.

9. came home, collapsed on my bed, and vowed not to move until morning.

10. SHOUTED FOR JOY BECAUSE I AM ESSENTIALLY DONE FOR THE SEMESTER!!!! (minus one last teaching session, grading final papers, giving final exam, etc.)


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!