:(

J.D. Salinger dies at 91

"All morons hate it when you call them a moron."
-The Catcher in the Rye

New semester, part 2

We're now entering into week three of the new semester - practically all I can think about is how many weeks we have left until I no longer have to get up at the buttcrack of dawn to teach (seven!). Seriously, this early class is rough. I've worked plenty of jobs in the past which required me to get up at an ungodly hour and drag my butt into an office; however, once I got to said office, I was able to sit at my desk, inhale some caffeine, and take a little time to actually wake up. There is no such time for that now - I have to be the one who has to be on the moment I walk into the classroom. I'm the one who has to all perky and excited about writing in order to motivate the students. Ugh.

On a positive note, all of my classes seem to be going really well (even the ridiculously early one). Actually, the ridiculously early class is probably my best class because it's a specialized topic (which I love), all of the students are seniors (and I've had them all in various courses over the years), and there are only eight of them (less papers to grade & more time for better/more feedback). I also have three freshman-level comp classes and a sophomore-level comp class. Although the comp classes all involve a crazy amount of grading, there are a lot of great students (and even the not-so-great ones aren't too horrible thus far).

My plan for the next seven weeks is to just go with the flow... I'm too exhausted to do anything else!

10 years

M and I went on our first date ten years ago today. It's hard to believe it has already been ten years since he gave me his scarf and we giggled to each other about the old ladies in the theater. As with any couple, we've had our ups and downs - after ten years, the positives still far outweigh the negatives, which I consider to be a great success. The more I get to know him and the more we share together, the more I love him.

Happy 10 years to us! :)

New semester

The new semester starts tomorrow... not only have I spent today lamenting the end of my vacation while updating syllabi, I also spent the day fighting the urge to jump in my car and drive out to Department Chair's house in order to punch him in his smug little face. I was looking forward to a smooth start and a somewhat easygoing semester (well, in the sense that I've taught all of the classes before & I put together an excellent teaching schedule) - and then I checked my email and saw the final class schedule.

Over the break, DC decided to do a little rearranging and it just so happened that one of my classes was one that got shuffled to a new time slot. Imagine you were scheduled to teach a class from 3-5:00PM and the day before classes start, you find out that your class has been moved to 7-9:00AM. Oh, and your incompetent DC didn't bother to discuss the change with you and/or ask if it works with your schedule... noooo, he just changed the time and sent out a group email containing the final schedule (thank goodness I actually checked my email today; otherwise, I wouldn't have shown up until 10:00!). Considering this change was just made, I highly doubt many of the students will be in class tomorrow; hell, I doubt most of them will even want to take the class anymore (although it's a popular class, early classes do not go over well at Large College). Let's also not forget that I am NOT a morning person at all. I don't teach early morning classes for very good reasons.

This is not a good way to start the new year. Sigh. How many days until the next break?

2009 in books

I've been meaning to start posting my year in books ever since I started tracking everything on goodreads... three years later, I'm finally following through with my intention. Better late than never, right? :)

2009 was a slow reading year for me; I usually read over 100 books (not including those I have to read for work). It was also one of my worst years at work - I had high enrollment in all of my classes and read an obscene number of papers (which sucked up a lot of time). I'm hoping 2010 will bring little less agonizing over papers and a lot more time for pleasure reading.

My top picks of the year are in red (the formatting is a little weird because I copied the list from goodreads):
1. Big Fish (Paperback) Wallace, Daniel
2. Now & Then (Paperback) Sheehan, Jacqueline
3. Twenties Girl: A Novel (Hardcover) Kinsella, Sophie
4. High Fidelity: A Novel (Paperback) Hornby, Nick
5. Educating Esme: Diary of a Teacher's First Year (Paperback) Codell, Esmé Raji
6. Knit the Season: A Friday Night Knitting Club Novel (Friday Night Knitting Club Novels) Jacobs, Kate
7. I See You Everywhere (Hardcover) Glass, Julia
8. The Namesake (Paperback) Lahiri, Jhumpa
9. Why Girls Are Weird: A Novel (Paperback) Ribon, Pamela
10. Strange Fits of Passion (Paperback) Shreve, Anita
11. Ya Yas in Bloom (Hardcover) Wells, Rebecca
12. Rachel's Holiday (Paperback) Keyes, Marian
13. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books (Paperback) Nafisi, Azar
14. The Truth Is . . .: My Life in Love and Music (Paperback) Etheridge, Melissa
15. The Beach House (Hardcover) Green, Jane
16. The Almost Moon (Hardcover) Sebold, Alice
17. Comfort Food (Hardcover) Jacobs, Kate
18. Sammy's Hill (Paperback) Gore, Kristin
19. Best Friends Forever: A Novel (Hardcover) Weiner, Jennifer
20. Throw Like A Girl: Stories (Paperback) Thompson, Jean
21. The Brambles (Hardcover) Minot, Eliza
22. sTORI TELLING (Hardcover) Spelling, Tori
23. Chasing Harry Winston: A Novel (Hardcover) Weisberger, Lauren
24. House of Sand and Fog (Paperback) III, Andre Dubus
25. Faking It (Paperback) Crusie, Jennifer
26. A Lesson Before Dying (Paperback) Gaines, Ernest J.
27. All He Ever Wanted: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback) Shreve, Anita
28. The Whale Rider (Paperback) Ihimaera, Witi
29. Girl with a Pearl Earring (Paperback) Chevalier, Tracy
30. Brick Lane: A Novel (Paperback) Ali, Monica
31. The Debutante Divorcee (Paperback) Sykes, Plum
32. The Weight of Water (Paperback) Shreve, Anita
33. The Book Club (Paperback) Monroe, Mary Alice
34. Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman (Paperback) Buchan, Elizabeth
35. Angels: A Novel (Paperback) Keyes, Marian
36. Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream Ehrenreich, Barbara
37. Talk Before Sleep: A Novel (Paperback) Berg, Elizabeth
38. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America Ehrenreich, Barbara
39. A Wedding in December (Paperback) Shreve, Anita
40. The Post-Birthday World (Hardcover) Shriver, Lionel
41. Second Chance (Hardcover) Green, Jane
42. The Double Bind (Hardcover) Bohjalian, Chris
43. From Here to Maternity (Paperback) Moriarty, Sinead
44. A Clean Slate (Paperback) Caldwell, Laura
45. Knit Two (Hardcover) Jacobs, Kate
46. The Friday Night Knitting Club (Hardcover) Jacobs, Kate
47. Passing for Thin: Losing Half My Weight and Finding My Self (Hardcover) Kuffel, Frances
48. The Art of Mending (Mass Market Paperback) Berg, Elizabeth
49. What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day (Paperback) Cleage, Pearl
50. The Wedding (Mass Market Paperback) Sparks, Nicholas
51. Sushi for Beginners: A Novel (Paperback) Keyes, Marian
52. I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman (Hardcover) Ephron, Nora
53. The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc: A Novel (Paperback) Despres, Loraine
54. The Reader (Hardcover) Schlink, Bernhard
55. Here on Earth (Paperback) Hoffman, Alice
56. Second Draft of My Life : A Novel (Paperback) Lewis, Sara
57. Paint It Black (Hardcover) Fitch, Janet
58. Love the One You're With (Hardcover)
59. Trading Up (Paperback) Bushnell, Candace