Wow. What a semester!

I've finally started breathing normally again after the most brutal semester of my entire academic career.

Somehow the stars, or perhaps school schedules, aligned poorly this year, and by about week 7 of the semester, I was on the verge of being behind.  But here's the thing: I've established routines and protocols so that I don't get behind.  For me, for the last several years, even one day behind was unusual.  So, in early November, when I was about 12 days behind in my grading, well, panic began to set in.  The car accident I was in on October 29 didn't help matters any, as I was unable to think--and therefore work--for days.  And as my cognition slowly came back, I was still unable to move quickly enough through assignments.  Oh, did I mention I was teaching 6 writing courses?  Two freshman composition courses, one business communications course, and three graduate-level writing-intensive courses.

I began spending weekends up at my parent's cottage in order to have uninterrupted time to grade.  I never got caught up.  I have a strict policy on returning student work in a timely fashion; I reserve the right to take up to two weeks to grade major assignments.  I usually get assignments back to students in 7-10 days.  By week 10, that stopped happening.  Stress.  Huge stress.

Throughout all this, a proposal that a colleague and I wrote was accepted, and we presented at a conference.  It's a lovely thing to put on my CV, but it's a lot of work to prepare for an academic presentation.

But it was a nice excuse to show off my sleeker self.  I went back to WeightWatchers and lost about 17 pounds and am able to fit into my suits again.  This was essential, as I TEACH IN A SUIT.  I wasn't able to do this last spring or over the summer because the suits didn't fit.  I was not going to enter this busy semester unable to wear a suit.  This cute dress was a side benefit.  :)

Evie is the cutest thing on two legs.  Now that I'm finally able to spend some time with her, she's warming back up to me nicely.

Still, she's 3 1/2, which is a rough age.  Kudos to people who make the conscious decision to have more than one child.  It's, frankly, a concept I cannot grasp.  Truly.  Beautiful, smart, silly as she is, I can't do this again.

Plus, did you know that kids are expensive?  I'd love a vacation.  We haven't taken one since 2010, not even a short one.  But, apparently kids need things like food, clothing, shelter, and preschool.  And books.  So many books.

Now, back to me.  Of course.

I'm suddenly severely underemployed for the spring semester, having just lost a course at my highest paying school.  I didn't realize the course was being run as a 200-level elective; I thought it was a Gen Ed requirement.  Only two students enrolled--and both were former students of mine who I would have loved to have in class again.  So I'm hoping and praying something will come my way, as two courses next semester is not enough to financially sustain me.

Maybe I'll get my darkroom all set up, and I'll start printing amazing, saleable prints from the comfort of my basement.  Yeah.  I think I'll put all my eggs in that basket.  (I can't even post pictures of my b&w stuff because... it's not digital.)

Yeah, it's been a while

Sure, it's been a year and a half since my last post, but who really cares?  No one reads this anyway.  But I'll share/update anyway.

We moved about 5 months ago.  It's a nice house on a golf course (which isn't all it's cracked up to be, by the way).  Our old house was on the market for 10 months, 10 agonizing months.  We had hoped to build in Byron Center in a great community, but those plans fell through when our house didn't sell, and didn't sell, and didn't sell.  When we finally got and accepted an offer, we had to scramble to find something.  I knew this was the house when we walked in.  The floor plan works great for us, and there wasn't much hesitation for me.  I wanted this house.  It had been on the market for 2 days when we first saw it, and we made an offer just a few days later.

Then shit started happening.  It's a  long, frustrating list, which includes (as just a few examples): the water heater at the old place broke before closing, so we had to replace it.  The master bath at the new house had a crack in the bathtub that was actually leaking into the garage (and the owners claimed it was just a cosmetic scratch).  The furnace broke at the new place 2 weeks after we moved in and needed replacing.  The contractors we hired to redo part of the master bath and finish part of the basement ....well, that's another story.  Let's just say it was a really bad experience that lasted 4.5 months (rather than about 3 weeks).

But, the master bath is now gorgeous, and the basement will be getting carpet very soon and will be a lovely room for us to hang out in.  I'm very excited about this.  It will be so nice to feel like everything is complete and finally start REALLY LIVING in this house.

I have a good-sized office, which is a disaster area at the moment.  I'm still trying to figure out the best places for stuff, but this is a process that I almost enjoy.  I'm really going to make this a great, functional space.

We're attempting to build a darkroom in the basement so that I can pursue my photography hobby.  I love being in a darkroom and just making the best print I can from a negative.  For me, it's fairly relaxing (without being boring), and I have a real, actual product at the end.  This is actually an important thing for me.  Though I love to read, there's no product at the end, so I sometimes find it hard to justify (to myself) my reading time.  There are also time-wasting computer and phone games, which, again, definitely don't produce a product at the end.  With darkroom photography though, I get a beautiful (if I'm lucky) print at the end.

There's more, but that will have to suffice for now.  Or for a year.  Who knows?