Halfway

We're almost at the halfway point of the semester and I keep waking up in the morning in a panic, trying to remember which campus I'm supposed to go to today. Because next weekend falls at the start of a month, I spaced out about two gigs--I didn't exactly forget about them permanently, just for long enough to spook me a bit.

In spite of being off for two snow days, I did not do any grading. I couldn't blog because the snow kept me in my computerless home, but I cocooned myself and knitted Regia silk socks. I tidied. I napped. I read Vanity Fair. I had a gig. I baked. I just kept putting any grading off. After sixteen years, I'm burning out.

Today my students asked me what the next paper would be about. They actually sounded kind of curious and excited, so I asked them to guess. Given that the reading for today was titled "Explaining Concepts," I figured the writing approach should be fairly obvious. I got all kinds of guesses--everything but "Explaining a Concept."

I love my students, really I do, but incidents like that aren't really helping my whole burnout problem.