Last Minute Schedule Shake-Ups

Friday I received news that yet another of my spring semester classes wasn't going to run because of low enrollment. So for the second time this month I had to change my planned office hours and email the bookstore about textbook orders and do some kind of triage with the little bit of class prep I had managed to do before this point. I suppose the one good thing about being drastically behind in terms of class prep is that you haven't wasted *too* much time when those classes are canceled. 

It's generally brighter and less cave-like during the day.

In some ways my new teaching schedule is far more simple -- I'm teaching two sections of Intro to Lit, which is usually one of my favorite classes. However, I've always been wary of teaching two sections of anything -- everything feels a little more stale by the second time around. Also, I have to teach three classes back to back on Tuesdays and Thursdays now, which is exhausting and laborious and generally soul-sucking, but maybe it won't be so bad in the spring. It was bad in the fall, but this semester my third class is one that I co-teach, and so it *should* be less energy-draining. Plus, it's called "Developing Creative Imagination in the Arts," and it was amazing and inspiring and fun last year -- so perhaps it will be again. 

It's not exactly a resolution, but I'm trying to be a little less complain-y in the ol' blog. For that reason, I'm going to briefly say that the writing isn't going anywhere this month, because I've been using mornings to work on organizing and class prep stuff. But I HAVE managed to finally clear my writing desk of 80% of its clutter, and it's once again usable. 

And I realize that laying out my plans for anything in this blog is like taunting the universe and just begging for a piano to be dropped on my head (because if I'm gonna be wiped out dramatically, it's probably going to be cartoon-style) . . . but the plan for the week ahead is to finish clearing out the junk in my office (like, gutting old files, etc.), finishing course outlines and class prep, and managing to swing week one of single-parenting without completely losing my shit. Or a child, for that matter.

Once those aims are accomplished, I hope to begin morning-writing in earnest, along with, I don't know, engaging in some kind of exercise routine again? And maybe, just maybe, feeling a little more in control of my life.