A Crazy Cat's Life

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To once again quote one of my students (spelling mistakes are his, not mine): "In my opinion I don't see any progress on Ancient Civilization. I don't see any progress because the same thing happen over and over. Someone builds an empire then some else build another empire then they are going into battle. The result of this is gaining another empire for a couple of years until someone else comes and take over." Mind you we spoke of everything from ancient Mesopotamia to Hellenic Greece. Nope. No progress. None whatsoever. We'll just ignore the development of the wheel, writing, philosophy, art, religion.... Well, at least I got a good laugh.

I'm entering the last week of Summer Session I at the college I'm teaching at. This means crunch time. I'm staring at a huge stack o' horrible papers, another stack o' notes to be converted into PowerPoint lessons, and the big black and white mush sitting in the middle of all of it. Now how am I supposed to get any work done. That belly is going "pet me mommy pet me." Argh. Anyhoo...this week is going to be insane. While I'm finishing up the work from this summer session, I have to start prepping next session which starts next Monday. No rest for the weary, eh? I just keep reminding myself: I get three weeks off in August. Oh, and I didn't mean to imply that all librarians are those stereotypical mean nasty ones, though one of the colleges I teach at has a whole slew of them. I know there are some really great ones out there. I'm hoping to break that stereotype. One thing my boss did tell me was that the patrons enjoy coming to the l...

... as Ayla put it . I must be doing something wrong too. LOL

June has been an unusually crappy month for me. You would think that with my birthday and anniversary things would be good. Ugh. Just the opposite. As you probably already know from Ayla's blog , she was diagnosed with Squamous Cell Carcinoma. Say that ten times fast. It's a malignant form of skin cancer that's in her oral/sinus cavity. I know she's 16 years old but she's like my kid to me. OK well maybe not kid but more like best friend. This is the only one who has been through almost every single stage of my life: college, grad school, the music industry, depression, to me getting back on my feet. She has been the constant. The vet didn't give me a timetable but from what I've read, when she starts going downhill it will be quick. On top of that, I did not get the Lecturer position I interviewed for. I had gotten my hopes up on that one too since it would be great to have one job to go to instead of three. Plus I would be teaching which is one of my favor...

Well I survived the spring semester with only a few bangs and bruises. Only three caught plagiarized papers, no obvious cheating, and only a few students whining about their grades. That last one always has me laughing. "Why did I get a D?" Hmmm. I'm a sadistic bitch? No, that's not it. I am just playing with you by submitting a D when you deserved an A? No. Not it either. Oh, could it be that you deserved a D? Oh! What a thought. LOL. I even got one student who asked me yesterday if there was anything he could do to up his grade. Um, the semester ended. Maybe if you talked to me two months ago I could have given you extra credit or something. Sheesh. But I try to not let these few students get to me. Part of me feels like I failed them in some way. Did I not help them enough? Could I have done more? Bear constantly reminds me that I do a lot more for my students than most professors. Even still, I have that doubt. I do try to remind myself that...

/rant on Ugh. Why is it that whenever a paper is due, someone's grandparent dies? Or their computer exploded? Or their car breaks down? Or their house catches on fire? Why can't these kids just say "I'm sorry. I'm overwhelmed and I just couldn't get the paper done on time." At least that's believable. I'll take points off their paper but I'll accept it. Don't these kids know that honesty really is the best policy? Geeze. Oh yes, I have already gotten one student who complained about her F for the semester. The girl got a D and a D+ on her two papers and she tanked her exams. What did she expect? Heck, she even handed in the wrong freaking paper! She said "um well I read the first assignment sheet instead of the second assignment sheet so I did a second first assignment by accident." *cue the stupid little giggle* The girl should be thankful I even accepted that paper and the D was a "sympathy D." Now she...