Reason Breeds Insanity

I thought last week was bad, and this week may be worse! I literally have a project due every day again this week. My huge papers are due in three weeks as well. Tonight, I am sitting here at Bracken, and I will probably be here until 3AM when it closes trying to figure out what I am going to teach next semester. I have to turn in a syllabus tomorrow, but they still aren’t sure what classes we’ll be teaching. Augh! With my luck I will work out a syllabus for 103 and then end up teaching 104. Wouldn’t that be special.

Becky and started running again tonight, and it went really well. We ran more tonight than we have previously, and it seemed like the part we walked was faster, too, because the weather is so much nicer for running. I am glad that I finally over whatever it was that I had for the past two weeks, because I didn’t want to do anything except lay around on the couch and put on a few pounds in the mean time. Bec is right, though, running at night works better for us because one of us isn’t really a morning person. I bet you can’t guess who!

Today was a good day. Class went well, and our meeting with Jackie about our faculty presentation went well. She really helped us pare down our ideas and find two or three main points we’d like for the faculty to leave the workshop with. Jim and I have busted our butts on this presentation and it seems like there is always more to do. We have a good start, but we just have to make it more professional. As Jackie said, there will be seasoned teachers in this workshop not just beginning teachers/graduate students. It is good, though, because several of our other professors have offered stories/help for us. They are really great about helping us out, and they are really excited to come to our presentation as well!

Jim and I finished our presentation tonight. We have worked really hard on this thing, so I hope all goes well tomorrow. I am especially concerned about the reactions from our classmates, but hey, they need to know this stuff. We are going to the Heorot to celebrate and we have invited our class to go along. I wonder if they will show up!?!

This weekend is going to be really busy, but I think that after this week I will be able to relax a little. I think all of my major projects, except my papers, will be done by the end of next week. It will be nice to be able to have everything out of the way before Thanksgiving, and to have Christmas break free because I am not working.

I am actually looking forward to Christmas. This year my family has decided not to buy present for each other. We are going to go to Chicago this summer instead. I also just a minor panic attack because I have to take a class first summer session, but it is over by June 13, a couple of weeks before we go to Chicago. I am glad that I don’t have to try to find gifts for everyone; everyone is getting the same thing. Their gifts are made from trash, so it should be cool. I am making journals out of recycled paper from BSU and beer six packs. I am making mom and Adam’s out of soda cartons so they can take their to school with them. The only money I will have to spend will be for thread and glue for the binding! They should be cool, and if not, I guess that’s the breaks.

For now, I should go to sleep, so that I can be somewhat coherent for the presentation tomorrow. Truthfully, though, I am not tired. I’m wide awake!

I have a love/hate relationship with Relevant magazine, but they frequently bring out an 800 words that I love. This is one. Click here if you want to read it. The story was also covered in more depth in the Christian Century, and you can access the author’s website here and read an excerpt here. I think it is a good idea to try to take the Bible literally, but one comical vignette of him doing so involves him bringing pebbles with him so he can stone people in the Subway tunnel. He decides that there is therapy in stoning them, but that doing it with pebbles is strange. It is an interesting read.