A Crazy Cat's Life

As promised, I'm back. It was a crazy semester with some good and some bad. Of course, it did not end quietly as I had been hoping. There are always students who whine, bitch and moan about their final grades. Some more than others (one actually told the head of my department that I am "prejudiced" against her ethnic group which is why she got an F...LOL...got to love that one). On the bright side, I got A's in all of my grad classes, survived yet another semester with seven classes, and still have some semblance of sanity left. Now I get four weeks off before the next semester of two grad classes and seven teaching classes. Yes, I'm nuts. Haven't you noticed that yet? Anywho, as I was cleaning out my e-mail, I found this lovely tidbit from an old friend. While it may be old, it was still so fitting. Maybe I should do this myself with all this time off.

As some of you may have noticed, I have not been posting a lot. I have a very crazy schedule this semester and am taking some time off from writing. I'll be back in time for Christmas. Just hang on until then. Cat

Both grad school and the community college are done for the summer. I finished up my forensic psych class with an A-. Yes, part of me is still upset that I didn't get the A but I'm a nerd. I'm all set with my schedule for the fall: Administration of Criminal Justice and Criminal Mind and Behavior. I'm really looking forward to that last class. The summer session ended up with two students in my office crying about their grades. They both got D's and needed a C to actually graduate. Me the softie allowed them to hand in work really late to get the C. I'm too damn nice. I get to enjoy the rest of August at a much more relaxed paced. I'll still be working at the library a few days here and there but I'll have a full two weeks off at the end of August, one of which will be spent lying on the beaches of Cape Cod. Now maybe I can work on cleaning the house... :P

In two days the summer semester will over and I can finally rest. These next two days are going to be easy. I give the finals tomorrow and on Thursday I just give out final grades if the students want them. I have to be here anyways and I've learned never to give a final on the very last day of the semester. We don't have a finals week here. You just give it on the last class, or as most of us do now, on the second to last class. I'm also settled in my new office. It took a while to get things organized. I showed up in my old office yesterday to find everything gone. Maintenance finally got around to moving my stuff. Unfortunately, they put all my stuff in the wrong spot. Also, as I was very impatient last night, I did not wait for IT to hook up my computer and did it myself. I'm trying my best to personalize my new cinderblock fluorescent hell with pictures and stuff. The Devils 2009 calendar is up and so is my favorite quote: Antiquis temporibus, nati tibi ...

Remember how earlier in the week I was complaining about losing my computer. Looks like I get to keep it. When the IT people came over to upgrade my "new" computer, I was told that I am supposed to move my computer with me. The IT guy even promised to yell at my dean for me. Yay! My computer is a PoS but I have it all specialized to the way I like it. It's also familiar to me which is the most important thing. Bear and I also finalized our vacation for next month. We're going to Cape Cod for a week, specifically south Dennis. Because we waited so long to make a decision, we could not get a house near the beach in our price range. This works out OK though because South Dennis is pretty centralized and in decent driving distance of pretty much everything. I just hope the weather is nice so I can get some serious time in at the beach. My depression is still giving me issues. My doctor is switching me off Lexapro and putting me back on to Zoloft, mainly because...

This month has been rather...well...sucky. Too much has been going on and not all of it good. To start off with, my job has turned into a really sucky mess (that'll be the "word of the day" today). I'm forced to move into a new office so they could make room for all the new tenure faculty coming in. The way it was explained to me was that I am not worth anything and that my desk in the office with the nice window has to go to "real" faculty. While those were not the exact words used, the tone was. My new office? In the bottom of the science building (got to love those natural gas fumes :P), no window, and cinderblock walls. What's better? I get to share it with seven other people. How they fit eight desks, eight filing cabinets, and a small conference table in this room is beyond me. On top of that, it's off the noisiest hallway in the entire fucking campus. Joy. I'll be investing in a good set of noise-canceling headphones in the next...

I finally got word on what's happening to me in the fall. I'll be coming back as a lecturer, which means full time pay and health insurance. However, it was made very clear to me that it will only be for one semester (to cover a colleague who is on sabbatical). Financially it is good news but at the same time it is frustrating. I'll be teaching six classes and working at the library. I have to keep my library job as well since I'll have to rely on that in the new year. All of this plus grad school. I'll be a fried kitty before December rolls along. All of this is making me seriously considering going away for a vacation. We'll have the money (at least in the short term) to do that. I really want to go to Cape Cod but I'll have to convince the husband to agree to it. He wants to do a "staycation" but I need to get away in order to relax. Heck, I even found a nice cottage right near the beach for a decent price in August. Now I just have t...

Things have just been too hectic. My teaching job has taken an interesting turn. The department finally did find a Latin American specialist which means my job is gone. There's a slight chance they could retain me for one semester while a colleague is on sabbatical but that's it. It looks like I'll be going back to adjuncting sooner rather than later. The one problem with a one semester gig is that I have to keep my second job as well. Plus, to justify keeping me on for a semester, my boss wants to give me six classes instead of five. All that and grad classes. Well, if this happens I'll just be taking one grad class. I'm already fried. I don't need to get crispy. Speaking of grad classes, so far so good in my forensic psychology class. I'm getting A's so far though I only got a 5.5 out of 6 on the last paper. Of course I'm not happy I got a 6. I'm a perfectionist in certain regards. I'm starting to think I took one of the hardest...

I asked my students to read an excerpt from Herodotus' The Histories about the Persian invasion of Greece. When asked what were the special attributes that the Greeks had to help them to resist and eventually defeat the Persians, one student wrote this: "One attribute of the Greeks is that they comb their hair whenever that are about to risk their lives" Um OK. It seems that good hair helped them defeat the Persians. Good to know. ROFLMAO

The result of the tenure line job search at my college? The person that they wanted to hire took a job at a four-year school. Why am I not surprised?

I am now a student of University of Massachusetts Lowell. I had about 24 hours to decide on summer classes and I thought "what the heck, let's do it." So yesterday I changed my matriculation to start with the summer and registered for my class. While I wanted to get some of the required courses out of the way, the only ones open were the major stats courses. I do not want to take stats in the summer. So instead I registered for Forensic Psychology. That should be a fun one. :) It really is amazing how much cheaper UMass is over BU. My course at UMass is going to cost a little under $1,500. The same class at BU will cost $3,000! This is not including the ridiculous price of textbooks either. The one for this psych class is $153. For. One. Book. Is that a rip-off or what? I thought it was bad my students would have to pay $80 for their textbooks, which is why I don't make them buy them. On a sillier note, I think Loki has actually grown again. The poor gu...

I found out today that I was accepted to the Master's program at UMass Lowell. I'll probably go there over Boston University mainly because it costs about 30% less. In this economy cost is everything, especially since I'll have to take out loans to cover everything. Also, it has a lot more classes in forensic psychology which I'm interested in. The only problem is that their summer session starts on Tuesday. I have to decide very quickly if I want to enroll during the summer or wait until the fall.

My colleague who shares an office with me also had her name removed from the door. On Monday, she put up a little sign with both our names on the door. Guess what? It was gone when I came in this morning. WTF? And people wonder why I'm stressing out.

There's this great song by the Boomtown Rats called "I Don't Like Mondays." It's on days like today that this song goes through my head. I left my wallet at home by accident this morning. I realized this as I went to pay for my coffee at Dunkin' Donuts. When I got to work, I noticed that my name has already been removed from the door as well as the other lecturer I share the office with. As my husband put it, can they give me a bigger hint? There's an e-mail from the VP of student services demanding that I give an incomplete to a student who disappeared about a month ago. I know what happened: he got arrested for violating parole. I'm not giving an incomplete to a kid who ended up in jail. That's not a qualifying excuse in my book. Then I find out that the grandchild of the head of our union is in my class. When the union head asked about me the chair said I was a good teacher. He responded "well she better be!" This is the man w...

I will have to admit that changing over to wheat-free diet is a bit of a challenge. We went out to dinner last night and all my favorite foods contained some sort of bread product. I was stuck with tuna salad, which is OK but not the greatest. At the library, I picked up a couple of gluten-free cookbooks to help me make the switchover and I found a store near the college that sells gluten-free products. I still have to be careful with the foods I eat on a gluten-free diet because gluten is only the protein found in wheat. There are other parts of wheat that I still have to avoid. I also went in for more food allergy tests. I'm fine with most of the major food allergens. However, I am in the process of doing a patch test for oat and rice on my back. Something is causing my back to itch but that may just be the adhesive from the tape holding the test strips in place. I'm allergic to something back there. LOL. I can live with an oat allergy but if I'm allergic to ric...

I just found out I have an allergy to both wheat and rye. The latter isn't that big a deal but you'd be amazed how many goods have wheat in them. Hell, even some ice creams have some wheat in them. This is going to require a massive change in my diet. I'm half Italian. I've got to cut out most pasta now. Ugh. Not good.

We're driving along and I see something rather bizarre. It's a crow flying past with something in its mouth. As we get closer, I realize that it has an entire plain doughnut in its beak. A crow flying along with a doughnut in its beak. That's not something you see every day.

Some of you may remember the world's most famous grump, Ayla. Ya, I miss the old girl too. Well, I don't know what is going on but Phoebe has been channeling her an awful lot lately. She has been very grumpy ever since Kukai passed away. But it's more than that: First I noticed that she started hanging out in "jail" (the footrest under my desk), which was Ayla's favorite spot. Then she seriously started turning into a skutch (e.g., attempting to steal burger from me). Today, I saw her back into a defensive position near Loki and I swear I heard the thwap upside his head as she was thinking it. Is this Phoebe channeling Ayla or am I just getting a new grump in the house? Things will be interesting either way. I just can't wait to see Loki's reaction when she does act out on the thwap instead of just thinking about it. P.S. Why can't students ever thank me for As? All they ever do is bitch and moan when you give them Fs. I'm glad the seme...

To all my friends and family, I'm doing better. I was really upset the other day more because of the lack of stability in my own job than not getting the tenure-line job. Honestly, I knew I wasn't going to get it since my qualifications were not "impressive" enough for the committee. It was what happened afterwards that really threw me for a loop. When I asked the chair of my department if I'll be coming back as a lecturer, he was unsure. Now, for some strange reason, the president of my college is getting rid of all lecturers. We are the full-time non-tenure track faculty. Basically we're "temps," but we can stay up to four years. 99% of the time, the lecturer stays for the full four. We are a cheaper alternative than hiring a whole bunch of tenure-lines (permanent positions). In a lot of cases, after the four years, a lecturer gets hired into a tenure-line. It's a lengthy round about way of doing things but it works. Our college pres...

It was bad enough that I left my handicap placard in my husband's car. It was bad enough that I forgot my jacket and umbrella on a rainy day. What made it worse was finding out I won't get a second interview for the tenure-line job I applied for.

As most of you know, I've been having a terrible time with my depression over the past few months. Of course, with all the stress that I've been under, it wouldn't be surprising. My doctor did put me on a new medication (Abilify) to go along with my other med (Lexapro) to see if it would help with my depression. OMFG. This stuff is Good Shit! I've got my old energy levels back. I didn't realize how bad my depression was until I got back to close to the way I used to be. The only sucky part is that I'm feeling a little restless on it but I was warned of that side-effect. Honestly, if that's the only one, I can live with it. My concentration levels are better, I'm getting more done. Hell, my grading is almost caught up for the entire semester! When the heck does that ever happen?!!! It's nice to have the energy back. This weekend, with the lovely 80+ degrees expected, will be spent in my little patch of dirt in the back yard where I plan on ...

My life is very frustrating right now. Too much shit and not enough time. This is on top of the overall craziness of the end of the semester. I had an endoscopy a couple of weeks ago to find out why I was having problems swallowing. After a few biopsies I found out (or at least the doctor suspects) that I have esophageal encephalitis. Say that one three times fast. It's an inflammation of the lining of my esophagus, which can cause pain while swallowing. The problem is that the research is still out on this problem. My doctor isn't sure how to treat it. One thing that does aggravate it is a food allergy. So next week I'm going to see an allergist. Fun. The other thing I can do is a topic steroid but the doc is holding off on that to see if I'm still having problems. *rolls eyes* Then today I found out I have a courtesy interview for the tenure-line that is opening up. It's basically the "you're not qualified but the chair of the committee likes...

While driving on I-287 yesterday morning I saw the most bizarre thing in my rearview mirror. A Smart car zooming up behind me. Now, I would say I was going around 70ish but this thing must have been doing at least 75. First off, I never realized those things could go that fast. Secondly, I began asking myself should they go that fast, especially in New Jersey (land of large cars and SUVs)? This was after watching a report on the local news that showed in a head on collision with a mid-size car those things are death traps . Here's the video: While the car may be "smart" one thing was for sure: the driver doing 75 wasn't.

Sometimes I wonder about whether or not all the work that I do for my classes is worth it, especially after the incident that led to the last post. I just had a student come in to see me. She had me three years ago in a current events class. While I couldn't remember her name, I remembered the face (names are not my thing). We started talking and she told me that she watches the news more now and has a better understanding of world events. She also told me that my class was one of her favorites here at this college. "Go Professor Cat!" Is it all worth it? Hell ya.

As the last month of the semester is just around the corner, I'm looking at the evil quagmire of grading on my desk. This is the usual stuff. I give a lot of writing assignments to help my students learn not just history but how to write as it is something that (for some reason) they don't know how to do. Then I look at my grade book. This semester I lost 30 students in total by the drop deadline. That was about 15% of what I had at the beginning of the semester. I think "what did I do wrong?" After last semester, I got tougher. I was sick and tired of people handing in work late so I put in a firm "no late papers" policy. I figured that would make things easier on my part but instead I get students not handing in assignments at all. It's not like they even tried or argued "it's only 15 minutes late." None of that. Heck, not even partial assignments. Technically it does make less work for me but I'm really worried about the ...

The reason why I haven't posted lately is that things have been a bit rough around here. I still don't know what my status is for the fall still. While I "unofficially" got five classes, the official schedule has it with only three. Out of 300 lecturers, I know that 25 of them got fired. My department head is a great guy and said he's fighting for me but I don't know if that will do any good. I hope it does. Last Friday I had an endoscopy to investigate the stomach pains I've been having. I've had a problem swallowing for a while now but the stomach pains are new. Nothing obvious was found but the doctor took a few biopsies just in case. He thinks it's all stress that is aggravating acid reflux. It seems that stress is the cause for everything that is wrong with me. My depression acting up? Stress. My stomach hurts? Stress. Next thing they'll tell me is the reason why my bad foot is hurting more is stress. LOL I'm trying to be ...

Tonight Martin Brodeur, the beloved goalie of the New Jersey Devils, broke the all time wins record for a goalie with 552. He just surpassed his childhood hero, Patrick Roy. I always knew Marty was a special player. Going back to the days when he was a rookie, I remember some of the incredible saves he made. And I was there for one of his own goals (yes, he scored a goal) during the '97 playoffs against Montreal. Off the ice, I had the privilege of meeting him quite a number of times. He was always a sweet kid who was open to the fans. I have so many things autographed by him I lost count. It was only after some crazed fans started going after his kids that he became less approachable. Too bad too because a lot of people probably missed an opportunity to know the man behind the mask. Good job Marty! Now let's go break Terry Sawchuck's career shutout record.

What a week (and it's only Wednesday). I found out today that my best friend is getting fired from her job. Many of us saw this coming. We all work at the same college together and the president has this wondrous idea of firing all of the lecturers (temporary full-time, non-tenure track folks like me). Originally we were told that we would be "grandfathered" in, allowed to run our course of the four years our contracts allow. However, this is not the case. It looks like we will all be gone at the end of the semester. The president's idea? Replace all of us with tenure-lines. For every three lecturers, there are to be two tenure lines. However, this does not guarantee us lecturers will get the jobs. In my case, the one tenure line opening up is for a Latin American specialist (don't get me started on that one). My friend was fired as of the end of the semester and another colleague was told if you don't get the tenure line, you're gone. My boss w...

No. Don't worry. I'm not writing a post about that topic. It's just the way I feel at the moment, a more PG-13 version of it. As you may (or may not) have surmised, I haven't been posting a lot. Most of it is due to my depression rearing its ugly head again. For about two years I've been mostly functional thanks to that miracle of modern pharmacology, Lexapro. Now that miracle is fading and my brain is being stubborn. I've always developed tolerances to medications, some faster than others. This time I was hoping the Lexapro would be different since it lasted a heck of a lot longer, but alas that is not the case. I went to my regular doctor first. I knew it was my depression causing the fatigue, the aches, and the pains, but I wanted to make sure that it wasn't something physical. He did a plethora of tests (sorry, I love that word) to discover I am completely normal. Well, at least physically. Hell, even my cholesterol was at normal levels, some...

Something on the Chronicle of Higher Education boards I came across. The topic was "Students Believe the Darndest Things." Professor 1: I once had a student who was absolutely amazed to learn that everything was made of atoms .....even snot (she asked). Professor 2 replied: You should have told her no, everything except snot. In fact, many astrophysicists suspect that Dark Matter may indeed be composed mostly of human snot. It's the viscosity of the stuff that causes it to lag behind a bit in galaxy clusters. I literally blew the water I was drinking out of my nose with that one from laughing so hard. Yes, academia is weird.

While I truly hate holidays that were made up just to make money for the greeting card companies, happy Valentine's day. Bear and I are not doing anything fancy for today. We did our usual Saturday stuff: errands and the book store. He knows better than to give me flowers. We have lots o' cats and real flowers are a Bad Thing. That was a lesson learned early on in our dating days. The cats would eat the flowers, knock over the vase and break it, and then proceed to puke up said flowers. Cards? At $5 a pop forget it. As long as I know he loves me and he knows I love him we don't need Hallmark to share that. If anything, I'll make a handmade card and that means more since Bear knows how much time and effort I put into those. Chocolate? Well, I love chocolate but I don't want him standing on line at Godiva to spend a boatload of money on chocolates, especially when I can go down to BJ's and buy the superhuge bag of Hershey's. And jewelry is just sil...

A student sent me an article from The Onion dated just after George W. Bush's first inaugurationn back in January 2001. It really is scary how accurate it was.

As most of my friends know, I have a thing with zombies. Comes from the old love of those classic 80's B-movies of zombies running around craving brains. So when a friend forwarded me this, I had to share.

I'm not the only one who feels this way...

Heh. Global warming my ass. Al Gore can come up here to NJ and freeze his ass off in the 2F temperatures up here. Bah. I spoke with my parents yesterday. They live in south Florida and were complaining that it got down to 50F. I loved telling them that it was a whopping 8F here. My mom didn't want me to talk about it because it was making her cold. Honestly, the cold doesn't bother me. The only thing that did was my windshield washer fluid stayed frozen all day. Not good considering all the salt and the other crap that is now all over the windshield. Makes driving interesting. At least this is good for the ski resort next door. It is rather creepy watching the snow makers going under the sodium lights. With the orange glow it looks like the mountain is on fire and the blowing snow looks like smoke. Personally, I love hearing the snow makers going. It's a great white noise in the background and it helps me sleep. I get a little sad at the end of the season beca...

...of poor little Adolf. You probably heard the story about a family naming their kid Adolf Hitler, right? Not to put it bluntly but those dumb fucks really need to have their parent license permanently revoked. Who the fuck names their kid after Hitler? I'm a big believer in free speech and all but what kind of life are you giving this child? Now it seems that mommy and daddy Hitler must have done something really bad. Why? New Jersey Department of Youth and Family Services came and took little Adolf and his siblings away . Supposedly, DYFS didn't do it because of the name issue but for a more serious matter. DYFS has a reputation of screwing up constantly. Namely, they don't take kids out of bad situations. There are too many stories in the news about kids being killed in abusive households that DYFS knew about but did nothing. I don't know if the publicity brought this case up to the top of their list but if they actually removed the kids there must have b...

One day I stumbled across Overheard in New York , a silly collection of things actually heard in New York City. This one just seemed very fitting: Math professor to sleeping student: Hey, are you okay? Student: Nuh? Math professor to class: Well, I've rarely killed someone during a lecture, but I must be breaking new ground today. --Hunter College

Last week Bear and I went into New York City to go see Spamalot. Since we got into the city a bit early, we headed over to see the tree at Rockefeller Plaza. Considering it was after the holidays and the freezing cold temps, there was still a huge crowd there. I just hated getting lost in the underground concourse. :) We also stopped by Times Square. It really is amazing how bright it is. Then we finally went over to the Schubert Theater to see the show. OMFG! It was fantastic ! I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. If you've ever seen Monty Python's "Holy Grail" and you enjoyed it, you will love this. Too bad it's closing this weekend or else I would see it again. Michael Siberry did a wonderful job as King Arthur, Rick Holmes was hysterical as Sir Lancelot and the taunting French knight (oh were there some classic scenes with that one), and hell...even Clay Aiken did a good job as Sir Robin. If you can see this on their North American tour, I...

Reading the news today, I found out that Congress will be meeting tomorrow to count electoral votes . Once again, I feel the need to scream "why the fuck are we still doing things this way?" The electoral college was set up because the drafters of our lovely constitution felt that the "joe six-packs" of the world couldn't figure out their heads from their assholes when it came to politics...well, not much has changed in that respect actually but that's not the point. In this day and age, with technology and the fact that most people in this country do have at least a high school education, we should change over to a truly popular elected president. While electors tend to vote with the popular vote, there have been a number of cases where they haven't. These " faithless electors " don't have much of an impact on the overall vote these days but it would piss me off to no end if my state's elector didn't vote the way the state voted...

First off, Happy New Year to everybody! I spent the entire day in my pj's playing World of Warcraft. I was very, very happy. Someone was asking me about my New Year's Resolutions. I try to keep mine as general as possible. Like last year was "live happier and healthier." Hmm. I think I failed on both those counts. This year I only have one: more time dedicated to crafting. One of the reasons why we bought a house was so I could have my own office/craft room. Ever since we moved, however, I haven't had time for any crafting and I miss it. The last scrapbook I completed was for 2005 and i don't remember the last time I sent anyone a hand-made card for their birthday. So my resolution is to give myself some more time for it. It should be easy since I didn't give myself any time last year so any time this year would be a boon.