intertext

I've agreed to write a review of a proposal and sample chapters of a new writing text (for money). The deadline is the 19th, which I can easily meet, and, in fact, I'd been planning to work on it this weekend. Today, there's an email from the publisher offering me $100 bonus if I get it in by Monday at 8:00 am.

[Poll #1313668]

As if I needed it, I have been reminded several times this week that I'm not as young as I once was. This has been a very busy week socially, and now of course I'm too tired to sleep, so it's 5 AM and I'm awake writing in my journal.

So this was my week:

Monday: Easter dinner with kp that had been postponed from Sunday. I made roast lamb and a rather good not-exactly-ratatouille (sp?) with artichokes and zucchini and mushrooms and tomatoes and lots of basil and cheese and breadcrumbs on the top, and roast potatoes with rosemary from the garden. We had a lovely Australian chardonnay with it - a red wine would probably have been better for the foodies, but I can't drink it so white it is. To follow we had fruit and creme fraiche and coffee. It was good.

Tuesday: dinner at Spinnaker's with ad, a colleague and getting-to-be friend from work. This was very pleasant, too. We had an amazing conversation about a lot of things I didn't know about her - she is another quiet introvert at work, but I've always enjoyed her intelligence (anyone writing a PhD dissertation on Harry Potter can't be bad!) and humour. There's a fierceness about her that strikes a chord with me - I trust her integrity.

Wednesday I stayed home, much to the delight of my dogs, and watched an episode of Angel (I've reached the bit where he turns back to Angelus in Season 4, just - they do that long "fake out" episode with everything turning out wonderfully in the battle with the Beast, then at the end it all turns out to be a trance-dream or something and we hear "Angelus" going bwahahaha. quite chilling; can't wait to see more.)

Tursday: pub night at Irish Times with superfoo and her coterie of Simon and Baz, plus other ex-and current students of mine - Mandeep, Tom, Eli and a girl whose name I'm ashamed to admit I couldn't remember though I know I taught her something once, and Dave whom I'd met before, and of course kelly and some students of hers from her class that is just ending, and last but not least I got to meet marri, whom I'd heard so much about and whose journal I've read from time to time. I would have recognized her from her likeness to her userpic, which is quite striking. It was very nice to meet her finally (hi, Marri, and welcome, if you should happen to pop in). This was a Good Time - a charming and intelligent group that managed to make me feel welcome in their company without making me feel for an instant old or out of place. I almost danced. Perhaps I will again someday. There was a very good band - they played a well executed cover of Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic" which is on my personal soundtrack and made me feel sorrowful for lost youth and love but never mind. We stayed out well past my bedtime, so I was not in the best of shape for

Friday: department potluck and retirement party for jb, a long standing colleague (though he started AFTER me, which makes me feel old again - though to be honest he'd been teaching for decades at other places before he came to our institution). This was pleasant; the food was good as always and there was some fairly good conversation. Not such a late night, and was home by "bedtime" but now, as I mentioned, I'm overtired and can't sleep.

Term is now officially Over, bar the marking. So from now for the next few weeks it will be marking, marking, marking, and, oh did I mention, marking. I have four classes, all of whom are handing in long analytical essays, journals and an exam - you do the math. (oh well, once it's done and I've delivered my workshop on blogging and wikis and things for the college on May 4th, I'm off to Paris. Yay.)

It was a busy week; I had two DE workshops, and as a result this was the most active I've been in my job for quite a while. The workshops went well, I think, despite the ongoing frustration that the IT people at my college are not keeping up with the needs or wishes of their clients. It's difficult to spend nearly 2 hours selling the benefits of Moodle as a Learning Management System and then not to be sure that the participants of the workshop will be able to get accounts on the version of Moodle that I know to exist on the college server...

I also spent quite a while working on updates for the English page on the Arts and Science section of the college website, and starting my pet project which is to create for college English some equivalent to the Web English Teacher (which is aimed at k-12).

My hip is hurting quite a bit, but I'll try and rest somewhat over the weekend. I see my orthopedic surgeon on Monday, and, as mentioned in a previous post, surgery is now not too far off. Can't wait.

I really want to do the "15 things about me and books" meme, or to comment on someone else's but I really need to mark more papers, so I'm going to mark at least three more papers before supper, and then maybe three more, and then set my 280 exam, THEN maybe I'll do the meme...