Week 2.3 - Siiiiiick

This week has been problematic at times.  I ended up getting sick Monday afternoon and having to go home early.  Tuesday morning, I was still feeling bad, but I got up, intending to go, teach my classes, cancel my office hours and come home.

Naturally, that was when I locked myself out of the house.

I had to wait half an hour for Dear Husband to make it back across town to let me in, all while standing out in the cold and the wet.  By the time he got there, there was no way I was going to make it to class on time.  So I called the office and cancelled my classes on Tuesday.

By Wednesday, I felt pretty good, but Thursday afternoon, the ick came back, and I've been dealing with it ever since.  It's not been pleasant.  You can always tell when someone is feeling bad at my house too, because Ding, who normally doesn't give anyone the time of day, decides she needs to mother you.  The left is Sunday night-I was sick then too--and right is yesterday.

Being sick has made me a bit of a grump.  I've been cranky and forgetful and downright pitiful.

Despite having to cancel classes this week, things have gone pretty well at school.  My British Lit class is amazing--we were having a discussion about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight on Wednesday morning, and one of my students asked a question.  I opened my mouth to answer, when one of my other students began bouncing up and down.  "Oh, I know this!  I read about it yesterday."  Not only is my British Lit class actually enjoying their reading--they're doing their own research to learn more about it!  I'm just astonished.  I know I certainly didn't do that as an undergraduate.  And they got excited about Beowulf!  (I can hear my mother wondering what's wrong with them.)  No one gets excited about Beowulf except medievalists, and even then, I think it can be hit or miss.

We're doing Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales this week.  I told them to read what was in the book, but to also try to find a modern-day English version to go along with it.  Middle English is hard for me to read too, and I know that's probably going to get me kicked out of the English club or something, but most of my students aren't English majors, for one thing, so I don't see a whole lot of reason to make them slog through Middle English.  Those that are English majors are almost assuredly going to have another chance to take a whack at Chaucer, and as I've been working with them on understanding the changes between Old English, Middle English, and Modern English, I think that I'm hitting the high points they really need to know.  I'll be more comfortable with my teaching when we get up to Milton and beyond, as the long 18th century is one of my specialties.

Meanwhile, my 1302 students did their peer review over their food narratives.  I have enjoyed that so much.  They read quite a few examples of food narratives--basically, essays that told the story of a food that was important in the life of the author--and they're trying out writing these kinds of essays themselves.  Peer review went fantastically.  It's so amazing how even just talking about food can get people to come together.  My 1302 classes are really meshing together, and what I've seen of the food narratives have been really wonderful.  Some of them have been downright hysterical.

My 1301 classes, on the other hand, are definitely going to be the challenges this semester.  A few classroom management problems have cropped up that I'm trying to nip in the bud, and I've not been thrilled with the quality of work I've seen thus far.  Time to go back to my lesson plans and figure out what I can do to make them a little more accessible.

I've also been doing a fair amount of stressing this week over my computer.  My laptop has already been having problems--DH had to replace the power something or other in it several weeks ago, which was a horrible ordeal.  Now the mouse touchpad has stopped working.  Meanwhile, DH discovered that the plastic holding one of the lid hinges together is cracked, so I'm having to be very careful opening and shutting it.

At the same time, my desktop is six years old and still running Windows XP, which Microsoft no longer even supports.  So in looking at everything, it's probably time for me to get a new computer.

Naturally, I'm hesitant.  I'm always hesitant when it comes to the possibility of spending a lot of money on something, but even more so at the moment, as we know we have some unavoidable expenses coming up before much longer.  My laptop will hold out for a bit longer--though I'm not sure how long.  We've been looking at some replacement options, and have started trying to figure out if I just need a stopgap for the time being, or if we should go ahead and make the investment and get something that will replace both my laptop and desktop at the same time.  It's a conundrum.

Also adding to my frustration this week has been the fact that I've been trying to find a primary care physician for the last two weeks.  I don't know what it is about doctor's offices in Corpus Christi, but they really don't seem to care to 1) answer the phone or 2) call you back.  Heaven forbid you had an emergency.  I don't know how you'd get in.  I gave the two offices I called until Friday, and when I didn't get a call from them, I'm now just going to start going through the list of primary care physicians provided by my insurance and hoping one of them will answer the phone.

I should also point out that I have the greatest BFF ever.  I'd ordered a couple of things with my Amazon gift certificate for Christmas, blithely using my account, and not Shane's, which we usually use because he has the Amazon Prime account, and waited for it to arrive.

Only it didn't.  And after several days, I finally got online to discover...I'd had it all shipped to our old house in Murfreesboro.  *facepalm*  Fortunately, Snarky Writer went over there, the new people who live there still had the package, and they gave it to her and she sent it on here.  It had some new crochet afghan books--well, new might be stretching it.  They're some crochet afghan books that I'd had before but lost during the 2010 flood, and one in particular, I'd really wanted to replace.

I think that's all the news this week.  DH is upstairs still asleep.  He was having insomnia problems last night, so he's sleeping late this morning, but I think I hear him beginning to stir.  The fact that he's slept through a morning of Bergie announcing his conquering of the catnip mouse is kind of astonishing in and of itself.  Hopefully, we can get out a bit today.  It's in the low 70s in South Texas today, and while that means it's probably a little too cool out at the beach, it's too pretty to waste a day like today inside.