"happy birthdays" | thursday | september 6, 2007 | 11:01 am

APPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FRIENDS ROB S. AND PETER S. I hope they have a great, great, great day.

"more happy birthdays" | tuesday | september 11, 2007 | 11:01 am

APPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FRIENDS SHAWN K. AND NATHAN S. I hope they each have a good birthday. (It's strange how many people I know that share birthdays.)

"once more unto the breach" | saturday | september 15, 2007 | 11:15 am

AM HAVING A VERY RELAXED AND MUCH NEEDED QUIET MORNING. This is in part due to the fact that I finished a long week and in part because I was out drinking last night. Then my foolish body woke me up early this morning because it so kindly remembers that Saturday is a running day. I had to obey and did a very low-impact run and walk around the neighborhood and park. (Highlights: Not too chilly or gloomy of a morning. The Saturday morning tai chi crowd was out practicing near the Seattle Asian Art Museum. And I did see one of the bunnies, a black one, that lives in the field of the nearby elementary school.)

The summer of busy-ness continues and is almost over. And then it will become the autumn of busy-ness. The early fall start class finished up this week. The last day was on Thursday, and I bid my little flock of freshlings goodbye. They will be starting their first full quarter of college very soon. It was a good class, and I had fun teaching it. I still have to collect their final portfolios on Monday and do final grades. That shouldn't be too tough or time-consuming.

I have a week and a half before the fall quarter begins. On the 26th. Crap, I have so much to do. I had really wanted to head down to San Francisco again during this week "off," but I just have too much to take care of and not enough funds to go around. The main order of business is to get my ENGL 200 class planned. I have to write up the course policies and syllabus. I have to pick excerpts out of the texts we'll be reading and build a course packet. I hope to get some of the texts read ahead of time. I have to create the assignments. I have to build the course website and set up all of that jazz. So much for resting and relaxing.

On top of said tasks, I still have to keep pushing ahead on my reading. I've managed to get a few more novels done, but I would like to get a handful more done before the quarter begins. I also have to revise my exam lists one more time so I can get them finally approved by my committee. I have been productive (and that's really good), but I feel like I still have so much to do. I guess I will always feel like that -- there will always be more to do -- so I just need to do what I can within reason and be happy and move on. I still plan to take my exams in January. That gives me three months to get my theory lists done. Fortunately, I have read most of my theory already at least once. I can go through and pick and choose and select what is most useful or pertinent to my exam questions.

I have been feeling pretty good about all of the above. Though I do think there are twinges of stress and anxiety and anticipation starting to sneak in and lurk in the back of my mind. I had an exam-related anxiety dream last week. I woke up not really remembering what happened -- something about one of my committee members asking me a question I didn't know how to answer and then getting into a big argument over it. It's a normal reaction, I know. I just hope it doesn't get too crazy and intense. It might mean that I just have to pre-write my exam answers ahead of time and tailor them once I get my final exam questions. Something like that. It's a good strategy, I think.

More soon.

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